Samsung might give a much-needed upgrade to Galaxy S25 at its own expense
The camera system employed by the Galaxy S24 might be pretty capable, but it's no match for the setup on top camera phones. Samsung wants to change that and the company's desire may have prompted Sony to move certain production operations to South Korea.
The Galaxy S24 and S24 Plus use the Samsung GN3 sensor, which is pretty similar to the Galaxy S22's ISOCELL GN5 sensor. The GN3 is a 1/1.57-inch sensor with 1.0μm-sized pixels and uses Samsung's Tetrapixel tech for clear photos.
Late last year, leaker @Tech_Reve said that the Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus would ditch the GN3 for a Sony sensor. A new report from Korea's ETNEWS seems to confirm that.
The report says that Sony is relocating some stages of the image sensor production process to Samsung's home country South Korea. The outlet notes that Sony is the number one image sensor producer and while it doesn't claim that Sony will produce sensors for the Galaxy S25, it does hint that Samsung will use a mix of Sony and in-house sensors in its future products.
The new sensor might be better than Sony's current offerings, with the report claiming that the Japanese company could add a new coating process to improve sensor quality.
While the Sony cameras will likely help the Galaxy S25 compete better with other phones, the company's entry into Korea could put a strain on Samsung's LSI division, but it looks like that's a risk the company is willing to take, as long as it makes its phones more competitive.
Samsung's next year's S series lineup is also rumored to feature a new look. The variants powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 might perform better than the iPhone 16.
Keep in mind that the new phones are nearly a year away and a lot can change between now and then.
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