Samsung Galaxy S23 camera details leaked, will feature an Insane 200MP Sensor

Ask any photographer or filmmaker worth his salt about camera gear, and the first thing they will say is that the megapixel count or the sensor’s resolution isn’t the be all and end all. Yes, resolution and megapixel numbers are important, but there are many other factors and elements that are far more important in making your photos look amazing.

Well, despite this age old adage, smartphone makers have been pushing the envelope when it comes to resolution on a smartphone camera sensor. Of all the tech companies, it is perhaps Samsung who have made a name for itself in pushing down an ungodly number of pixels on its camera sensors. Samsung’s upcoming flagship, the S23 is reportedly going to have one of the craziest cameras users have ever seen in a smartphone. The Samsung S20 Ultra had a 108MP sensor, which produced some insanely sharp (and noisy) photos and videos. Its upcoming S23 series is set to double that. The upcoming S23 series will apparently feature a 200MP sensor for its main camera. Samsung had developed its ISOCELL HP1 sensor last year, which was a completely new generation of imaging sensors that was used to create the first 200MP smartphone camera sensor. The official version of the sensor that will be released to the public is the ISOCELL HP3, the third revision of the HP1 sensor. [caption id=“attachment_10654831” align=“alignnone” width=“640”]  Image rendered by Technizo Concept[/caption] The HP3 sensor implements a 4x4 hybrid pixel-binning technology to merge 16 adjacent pixels into a giant pixel, producing a bright and detailed 12.5MP photo. This means that the photos will be incredibly sharp, sharper than anything that we see in a smartphone today. The high megapixel count also means that the digital zoom capabilities would be phenomenal.

One of the biggest drawbacks of having such a high pixel count is the fact that your images are inherently noisy and grainy. This means that Samsung has had to work on a completely new image processing system.  

As for the upcoming Galaxy S23’s video capabilities, capable of shooting 8K videos at 30fps by combining 2x2 pixels into a single pixel, while 4K videos can be recorded at a faster 120 fps rate. Interestingly, Samsung will not be the first smartphone maker to offer users a 200MP camera. If leaks and rumours are anything to go by, the upcoming Motorola Frontier is using the 200MP version of the ISOCELL HP1, which will launch later this year, but before Samsung’s S23.