It is speculated to go up against the Samsung ISOCELL HP9 which is used in several flagship smartphones.
Samsung uses a 200-megapixel camera sensor in its flagship Galaxy S25 Ultra (pictured)
Sony is developing a new, bigger camera sensor that may headline upcoming flagship smartphones, according to claims by a tipster. It is expected to compete against the Samsung ISOCELL HP9, which has been integrated into smartphones such as the Vivo X200 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. The purported Sony camera sensor is tipped to function as a main camera sensor and could be used in flagship smartphones which launch later this year.
Tipster Digital Chat Station (translated from Chinese) shared details about the purported Sony camera sensor in a post on the Chinese social media platform Weibo. The Japanese conglomerate is said to have plans of introducing the new sensor with phones powered by upcoming flagship SoCs such as the MediaTek Dimensity 9500 and the Snapdragon 8 Elite 2. Additionally, it may also use it in one of its upcoming smartphones.
It is tipped to have a size bigger than 1/1.3-inch which suggests that it may capture more light than its potential competitor, the Samsung ISOCELL HP9. The latter follows a 1/1.4-inch optical format. At present, the Vivo X200 Pro uses the Samsung sensor as a telephoto lens while the company's own flagship Galaxy S25 Ultra has it as the primary camera sensor.
With the development of this sensor, many original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) could finally provide an upgrade over the 50-megapixel sensor seen in several high-end smartphones recently.
However, the other details about the purported Sony sensor are yet to be revealed. Notably, the Samsung sensor promises in-sensor zoom up to 4x while maintaining the detail in photos. As per Samsung, it has end-to-end AI Remosaic which enables faster processing times, better details and colour reproduction, as well as quick shutter speed. The sensor gets hardware-independent Single Frame HDR to boost the overall HDR quality.
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