Samsung has announced the new 200MP ISOCELL HP3 sensor for thin and compact smartphones. According to the South Korean giant, the new sensor comes with the industry"s smallest 0.56-micrometer-pixels, effectively reducing the camera module surface area by 20%. This allows smartphone manufacturers to produce slim, premium devices capable of taking high-res images you can even put on giant billboards.
The Samsung ISOCELL HP3, a 1/1.4" format sensor, packs 200 million pixels (200MP), which are 12% smaller than the predecessor. Samsung says the new model offers a more accurate and quicker auto-focusing thanks to the Super QPD technology. It uses a single lens over four-adjacent pixels for phase detection in horizontal and vertical directions. The ISOCELL HP3 also supports 8K at 30 FPS and 4K at 120 FPS video recording.
To provide a better low-light experience, the ISOCELL HP3 uses the Tetra2 technology for combining four or 16 pixels into one larger pixel. This approach allows the sensor to gather more light while taking 50MP or 12.5MP images.
Another noteworthy change in Samsung"s latest creation is an upgraded Smart-ISO Pro feature that merges image information from two images taken with high and low ISO values to create one picture with a high dynamic range. The new version now uses triple ISO mode to widen the sensor"s dynamic range and produce 14-bit images instead of the predecessor"s 12-bit color depth.
Samsung plans to start producing the ISOCELL HP3 sensor later this year, so you can expect phones with improved 200MP cameras to hit the market somewhere in 2023.