Samsung presents camera sensor for smartphones with smallest pixels so far

Samsung has presented the Isocell GH1, the first camera sensor for smartphones with pixels of 0.7×0.7 micrometers. So far, the smallest pixels on smartphone camera sensors are 0.8×0.8 microns in size.

The smaller size makes it possible to put more pixels on a smaller surface. The sensor has 7968 × 5480 pixels, good for a resolution of 43.6 megapixels, Samsung reports. The size of the sensor is unknown, but is probably somewhere around 1/2.5″ or 1/3″, which in 2019 is not particularly large or small for a camera sensor on smartphones: primary cameras are often around 1/2″ or larger, while front camera sensors are often smaller than 1/3″.

It is a camera sensor that should probably serve as a front camera for smartphones. Its small dimensions – an image shows a sensor of a few millimeters by a few millimeters in size – would make it suitable for full-screen smartphones.

The sensor can use the information of four pixels in a pixel for video, making it possible to film at 4k resolution without the software having to crop a lot. The sensor also supports electronic stabilization via a phone’s gyroscope.

Several sensors with high resolutions and small pixels have appeared for smartphones in recent years. For example, Samsung previously presented sensors with 64 and 108 megapixels, both with 0.8 micron pixels. The sensor will go into mass production at the end of this year and so will probably appear in phones sometime next year.