Xiaomi hints at smartphone with 48MP camera

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi has hinted at a smartphone with a 48-megapixel camera. A top executive has posted a photo of the text on the housing of a smartphone on Weibo. It would be the highest resolution of a smartphone camera to date.

Picture from Weibo post

The teaser on Weibo clearly shows the ’48MP camera’ label, suggesting that the smartphone, which Xiaomi plans to show next month, will have a primary camera with that resolution.

It would be the smartphone with the highest camera resolution to date. The Nokia 808 PureView and Lumia 1020 from 2012 and 2013 had the camera with the most pixels, namely 41 megapixels. This year’s Huawei P20 Pro and Mate 20 Pro have 40-megapixel cameras.

There are two camera sensors on the market with that resolution. Samsung has the Isocell Bright GM1, Sony the IMX 586. Both sensors have pixels of 0.8 microns and have techniques to merge information from multiple pixels into one pixel in the photo. The IMX586 is a ‘quad bayer’ sensor, with four pixels with the same color filter always together. Those sensors have never been featured in smartphones before. Xiaomi has not disclosed anything about the upcoming phone.