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Samsung has a bonkers new 200MP sensor, but it will not come to Galaxy S23 Ultra

By Victor Hristov

Updated: Jun 23, 2022, 8:58 AM

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Image courtesy of Technizo Concept.

Just hours ago, Samsung officially unveiled its revolutionary new 200MP camera sensor that we have been hearing for a whle, and just the resolution on it sounds intimidating, but in an interesting twist of events, a popular analyst now squashes expectations that this new sensor will be used on the upcoming Galaxy S23 Ultra flagship.

And clearly, it won't be used on the two upcoming Samsung foldables, the Z Flip 4 and Z Fold 4, which are just around the corner.

The 200MP sensor called Samsung Isocell HP3 comes with the industry's smallest individual pixels, which usually will not be something to brag about, but cramming 200 million pixels on a smartphone-sized sensor does include some never-before seen engineering, and the end result promises to bring a small revolution.

HP3 will not be adopted by Samsung S23 Ultra. https://t.co/cTqdMMQldA
— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) June 23, 2022

As you can see in the images above, each individual pixel measures merely 0.56μm. That is less than the 0.64μm on the previous generation HP2 sensor, and compared to a traditional 12MP sensor like the one used on the iPhone 13 Pro series, well... that is a 1.9μm, about three times larger than pixels on the new HP3 sensor!

Of course, those of you interested in photography will know that there are all sorts of issues as individual pixels get smaller, or basically microscopic in the case of such a high-res sensor. A super tiny pixel gets less light and this results in poor low-light performance, but worry not as there is an industry solution for this which is to bundle multiple pixels into one.

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So the HP3 sensor can bundle 4 pixels into 1 and give you 50MP images, or even 4 blocks of 4 pixels, or a total of 16 pixels into one kind of "superpixel", and that will produce 12.5MP photos. In the case of the new HP3 sensor, we also have Super QPD technology, which means every single pixel has auto-focus capabilities, plus there is one lens over every block of 4 pixels, which work together to ensure faster auto focusing.

As to why the 200MP HP3 sensor won't come to the S23 Ultra, we can only guess, but one obvious reason is that such a high-res sensor requires a lot of processing for each photo, and if you follow Galaxy cameras, you probably already know that there is quite a bit of delay when snapping photos even with the current 108MP sensor. So yeah, it probably will take some time for Samsung to fine tune and optimize the processing of an even higher resolution sensor. But it will probably happen, and we can't wait to see the results.

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Victor, a seasoned mobile technology expert, has spent over a decade at PhoneArena, exploring the depths of mobile photography and reviewing hundreds of smartphones across Android and iOS ecosystems. His passion for technology, coupled with his extensive knowledge of smartphone cameras and battery life, has positioned him as a leading voice in the mobile tech industry.