Leakster: Xiaomi will be the first to use Samsung's upcoming 200 MP sensor

One of Samsung’s ISOCELLL sensors was the first (on mobile) to breach the 100 MP barrier and Xiaomi was the first company to use it. Now as Samsung prepares to launch the first 200 MP sensor, Xiaomi prepares to once again be the first to use it.

So says leakster Digital Chat Station, though without any time frame for when that might happen. Another well-known leakster, Ice Universe, says that the 200MP sensor will have 0.64 µm pixels, the smallest yet.

Previously, we heard a report that the sensor will have a 1/1.37” optical format, so smaller than the GN2 (1/1.12”) and about the same size as the latest 108MP sensor, the HM3 (1/1.33”, 0.8µm).

That info was part of the leak that the ZTE Axon 30 flagship will be the first with this sensor, so clearly it’s not 100% accurate. Still, at least some of it seems true. This leak also claimed that the sensor will support 4-in-1 binning with an output resolution of 50MP and effective pixel size of 1.28µm. 16-in-1 binning (12.5MP output) was also mentioned, but that sounds less plausible.

The current crop of 108MP sensors have native 2x or 3x lossless digital zoom capability, depending on their configuration. The 200MP sensor should be able to go higher than that and may spell the end of dedicated mid-range zoom modules. This sensor will technically have enough resolution for 16K video (133MP), though the first chipset able to process it is years away (the top chips right now can’t even do 8K 60fps).

Anyway, high resolution sensors will have to use smaller pixels – otherwise, they will be quite large physically, which also means a very thick camera module (and something like the Mi 11 Ultra already has a chunky camera bump with its 1/1.12” GN2 sensor). More advanced sensor designs, pixel binning and improved processing will offset the downsides of smaller pixels.

Source (in Chinese) | Via