Meet Sony's New IMX686, Apple's Weapon Of Choice In Smartphone Camera Battle

Sony may not have the best smartphone in the mobile market, but the company’s image sensors are arguably the best in the tech industry. In fact, the three leading mobile players in the mobile market -- Apple, Google, and Huawei -- use them in their flagship smartphones.

The Tokyo-based company is one of the biggest suppliers of high-end camera sensors in the global market and its market-leading IMX586 sensor can be found on almost every modern smartphone on this planet. Of course, the company wants to keep this trend going and has now revealed a new promotional teaser about its upcoming IMX686 image sensor.

This week, Sony has posted and shared a video on Chinese website Weibo, showcasing the new capabilities of the company’s upcoming IMX686 sensor. The teaser video shows a phone taking the still images, using the new IMX686 sensor. However, it didn't reveal any technical specifications about the new sensor. But, a caption in the video confirmed that the new image sensor will hit the smartphones next year.

Sony’s latest IMX686 is a 60-megapixel camera sensor with a Quad-Bayer array that will allow a smartphone camera delivers crisper images and impressive epic zoom levels. The new sensor technology can also help mobile devices produce excellent low-light imagery without the need for additional computational photography, according to a report by Android Central.

Tom Guide reported earlier that this new Sony IMX686 camera sensor might end up in the next breed of iPhone smartphone. Apple is expected to reveal its next flagship device, iPhone 12, sometime in 2020. This device will likely get the first taste of this new image sensor technology. The two companies are known for their tight relationship on some key areas like in video and iPhone’s photography.

The Cupertino-based company is, currently, waging a brutal two fronts war: first, against Samsung and second, against an army of fast-growing Chinese smartphone makers. The new Sony camera sensor promises big help for Apple. It could also be Apple’s ultimate weapon of choice in a never-ending struggle with Samsung in the highly competitive smartphone camera battle.

Samsung is now getting busy with its upcoming Galaxy S11, adding new features and filing smartphone-related patents. Its new 108-megapixel Isocell Bright HMX sensor is expected to hit the Galaxy S11 next year.

This latest sensor chip also powers Xiaomi’s latest Penta camera smartphones, the Xiaomi Mi Note 10 and Mi Note 10 Pro. These new Xiaomi smartphones have, reportedly, topped the DxOmark benchmark, beating all the flagships smartphones in the list and tying with the leading Huawei Mate 30 Pro. Apple’s iPhone 11 Pro Max doesn’t make much noise in that latest benchmark test, but it managed to secure the third slot, right next to leaders Xiaomi and Huawei.