Samsung and Xiaomi Launches 108 megapixel photo sensor

Samsung has introduced its Isocell Bright HMX photosensor with a huge definition of 108 megapixel photo sensor. A partnership with Xiaomi is clearly put forward.

Every year, we have seen the definition of smartphone cameras increase significantly. Samsung is actively participating in this evolution and has just formalized its 108 megapixel Isocell Bright HMX sensor. It’s the first of its kind.

Remember that this is not really a surprise. Indeed, Xiaomi had already prepared the ground for this announcement a few days earlier. The Chinese manufacturer had indeed indicated that its future smartphones would be equipped with a 108 megapixel photo sensor provided by Samsung.

So we just waited for the officialization of said sensor and it is now done. The Samsung Isocell Bright HMX boasts a size of 1 / 1.33 inches and promises to capture a large amount of light even in dimly lit environments.

27-megapixel photos

It is always good to specify that we should not expect 108 megapixel photos with this sensor, the files would be much too heavy to process and there would be too much noise on the image. The Isocel Bright HMX benefits from the well-known pixel-binning technology of grouping 4 pixels into one.

The sensor offers photos of 27 megapixels, but the level of detail is, theoretically, more important. Video side, Samsung promises a quality 6K – 6016 x 3384 pixels – in 30 frames per second.

Samsung and Xiaomi

The partnership with Xiaomi is really put forward. “We are very pleased that the image definitions previously available only in a few high-end digital SLR cameras can now be designed for smartphones,” said Lin Bin, co-founder of Xiaomi.

Samsung really muscles its game in the photo industry with this sensor whose mass production starts at the end of the month. Note that the manufacturer had recently released a 64-megapixel Isocel GW1 a few weeks ago.

The world’s first 100 million pixel sensor came, the first manufacturer is Xiaomi

12 million, 24 million, 48 million, 64 million…

Just as I was still thinking about whether the phone needed to be equipped with a 64-megapixel camera, Samsung today released the world’s first “100 million” camera sensor ISOCELL Bright HMX.

That is to say, starting today, mobile phone camera pixels have been promoted from tens of millions to billions.

As the world’s first billion-level CMOS, ISOCELL Bright HMX uses a 1 / 1.33-inch outsole design, which is even larger than the 1/1.7-inch ISOCELL Bright GW1 and Sony IMX 600 jointly launched by Redmi and Samsung. The world’s highest pixel and largest mobile phone CMOS.

In this 1 / 1.33 inch space, the single-pixel area remains at 0.8μm, so in 108MP (108 million pixels) mode, the phone can output a photo of 12032 x 9024 resolution.

If you follow the example of Redmi’s previous GW1 communication meeting, “The 64-megapixel sensor can shoot a 3.26-meter poster,” this 108MP billion-level CMOS will be able to straighten out a 3.26-meter HD poster.

Like the previous 64-megapixel ISOCELL Bright GW1, ISOCELL Bright HMX also supports Samsung Tetracell’s “four-pixel synthesis” technology. Even in low-light environments, the sensor produces a 27-megapixel high-brightness photo.

According to the press release information released by Samsung’s official website, ISOCELL Bright HMX will begin mass production later this month. It is reported that the first billion-pixel mobile phone equipped with a Samsung ISOCELL Bright HMX sensor will be Xiaomi’s flagship product.

From the past update strategy of Xiaomi, the Xiaomi flagship that has not been updated yet has only one MIX series, and it is estimated that this sensor is likely to be used in the Xiaomi MIX 4 released in the second half of the year.

Behind the high pixel is the increasing CMOS volume

In the past, we commented on CMOS and often said that “the bottom level is crushing the dead.” That is because the larger sensor volume means that it can be put into a larger (the amount of light is dominant) or more pixels (the resolution is dominant). ).

The 1 / 1.33-inch ISOCELL Bright HMX is indeed a CMOS that is invincible in terms of parameters, but this year’s updated non-custom CMOS has a strange phenomenon, that is, their individual pixel area is 0.8μm, whether it is This is true for Sony’s 48 megapixels IMX 586 or Samsung’s 64 megapixels ISOCELL Bright GW1.

So as far as the current CMOS development is concerned, the volume of CMOS is equivalent to the volume of a bowl. Each pixel is equal to each grain. Under the same size of rice, a larger bowl can hold more rice. Then it is equivalent to a larger base, and more pixels can be stacked under the same single pixel area.

Therefore, the bottom of CMOS this year is getting bigger and bigger, in fact, it is inseparable from the increasingly high pixels.

High pixels bring a clearer picture quality, but in addition to clearer detail, high pixels actually add “lossless cropping” and pixel synthesis.

For example, Sony released the A7R4 earlier, CMOS reached 61 million pixels, after the APS-C mode is turned on, the camera can still output 26 million pixels of photos, which can maintain high pixel quality output, but also bring 1.5 times The crop is enlarged.

However, in the 24.2 megapixel A7M3, the APS-C mode will push the picture quality to 10 megapixels. Although the camera can also achieve 1.5 times the crop magnification, the picture pixels are lower than the normal APS-C camera. So the most intuitive advantage of high-pixel CMOS is that it still maintains high-resolution detail resolution after cropping.

Therefore, this also explains why Samsung introduced the ISOCELL Bright HMX in the document to give the camera a stronger dark-light effect because the high-pixel gives the Tetracell four-in-one ample synthetic pixels. Even after four pixels in one, the camera can still output 27 million pixels of photos.

However, despite the arrival of 100 million pixel sensors, the camera quality of mobile phones has reached a higher level, but this technology is still limited by the progress of other hardware, making it unable to achieve the practical value beyond the current mainstream pixels.

Because it takes 3 times more than 12 million pixels to process a 48-megapixel photo, and it takes up more storage space because of higher resolution, so it’s about the phone’s processor, memory, ISP. Configuration. But for the average user, it is clear that the 12-megapixel half-second film is more practical.

This is like the current 48-megapixel mobile phone. The daily shooting is actually 12 million, and the 48 million will only be used in the specific model that is manually turned on.

Although it is undeniable that 100 million pixels have reached the peak of the current development of mobile phone sensors in terms of theoretical parameters, technology, and image quality. But when 12 million is still the mainstream, 48 million is just popular, and 64 million is not yet in the stream, who cares about pixels?

It is estimated that there are only mobile phone manufacturers.

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