Samsung Unveils 108MP ISOCELL Camera Sensor

Samsung has formally unveiled its largest smartphone camera -- a huge 108MP sensor.

South Korean tech giant Samsung, proudly labeling itself as “a world leader in advanced semiconductor technology,” has formally announced a 108MP ISOCELL Bright HMX camera sensor, the same one found on the smartphone Xiaomi announced last week.

In a press release, Samsung announced that the camera is actually the product of a collaboration between the Korean tech company and the Chinese smartphone giant. Samsung said this is the first mobile camera that will be able to capture photos with a “a resolution equivalent to that of a high-end DSLR camera.”

Here are some of the new camera’s features:

The 108MP ISOCELL Bright HMX sensor is expected to produce exceptional photos even when taken in low lighting conditions. It has a large 1/1.33-inch sensor capable of taking in more light in dark settings, and a so-called Tetracell technology that allows the sensor to “imitate big-pixel sensors” resulting in brighter 27MP shots, even in dimly-lit settings.

A Smart-ISO feature adjusts amplifier gains according to the ambient brightness surrounding the camera, resulting in improved pixel saturation and more vivid pictures in bright environments. In darker settings, the Smart-ISO uses high ISO to reduce noise and produce clear photos.

The new 108MP ISOCELL Bright HMX camera also supports video recording. It can capture 6K videos (6016 x 3384 resoultion) at 30 frames per second without losses in field-of-view. This means it might be a good choice for videographers and vloggers, too.

DSLR-like quality

Both Samsung and Xiaomi promise that the new camera will produce top-quality photographs comparable to the ones only professional cameras previously produced.

“For ISOCELL Bright HMX, Xiaomi and Samsung have worked closely together from the early conceptual stage to production that has resulted in a groundbreaking 108Mp image sensor,” Xiaomi co-founder and president Lin Bin said.

“We are very pleased that picture resolutions previously available only in a few top-tier DSLR cameras can now be designed into smartphones,” Bin added.

The newly-announced camera is bigger than the ones expected to come with Huawei’s Mate 30 Pro, and the ones found on the recently launched Galaxy Note 10. Xiaomi hasn’t announced a release date, though. Stay tuned for more details as they come.