Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra to skip the megapixel race
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Remember that telling teaser of Samsung's upcoming Exynos chipset that showed a phone with 6 cameras and its elusive 200MP sensor? Well, that might have been a concept for other phones, not the Galaxy S21 series successor.
Alternatively, it might have simply showcased that Samsung's Exynos chipsets in question can support a main camera with up to a 200MP sensor, too, similar to the Snapdragon 888 processor specs.
Dear shutterbug, what do you expect the most from smartphone camera? pic.twitter.com/HGwmoKYD3V
— Samsung Exynos (@SamsungExynos) March 22, 2021
While Samsung is indeed rumored to work with Xiaomi on an exclusive 200MP phone camera sensor for the Mi 12 series, just like it did with its first-gen 108MP one in the Mi Note 10, leakster Ice Universe pours cold water on the hopes that we will see it in any of the Galaxy S22 models, too.
This, of course, includes the Galaxy S22 Ultra's rumored 200MP camera, and Samsung will apparently be polishing the software algorithms that manage its latest third-gen 108MP sensor instead.
We, for one, are relieved, as Samsung recently announced the world's first phone camera sensor with 0.7 micron pixels. It's a very compact 50MP affair that still takes advantage of Samsung's newfangled Dual Pixel Pro and HDR stacking technologies but those pixels are tiny!
No matter what noise- and cross-talk reducing trickery or software algorithms you apply, this same sensor won't be able to perform as well as Samsung's 50MP GN2 one with large 1.4 micron pixel size, and that's simply physics.
Our fears are that, to stuff 200 million pixels in a sensor for a manageable form factor, Samsung would have to use that same 0.7 micron pixel process which would have a hard time beating the current 108MP one in the S21 Ultra in anything but marketing materials and "highest camera resolution on a phone" bombast.
Granted, this Dual Pixel Pro focusing tech you see above is the bee's knees, but nothing prevents Samsung from introducing it in its larger sensor, hopefully in time for the S22 Ultra, or simply refuse to participate in the megapixel race further, and use the 50MP GN2 unit for the S22 series. Are you disappointed that we may not see a Galaxy S22 Ultra with 200MP camera on the back?
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