Xiaomi puts a 144 MP camera smartphone into development

Back in December popular Twitter account @UniveriseIce tweeted stills demonstrating that Samsung had a 144 MP camera sensor in development. Now, it seems that Xiaomi is on track to include the sensor in at least one of its smartphones. This would not be new territory for Xiaomi either, as the company was the first to release a smartphone featuring Samsung's 108 MP camera sensor. Incidentally, Xiaomi was also the first company to use the IMX686, which it included in the Redmi K30.

Now, @Sudhanshu1414 states that they are "100% sure" that Xiaomi is working on a smartphone with a 144 MP camera. The account also reckons that it "should be" the Mi 10S Pro or Mi CC10 Pro. Reading between the lines somewhat, the arrival of this 144 MP-equipped device is probably a few months off yet, seeing as Xiaomi only launched the Mi CC9 Pro in November. The Mi Note 10 series, a re-brand of the Mi CC9 Pro, only recently went on sale in Europe and other regions, too.

It is worth noting that this 144 MP sensor will inevitably support pixel binning. Seeing as Samsung and Sony favour a 12 MP output, we would not be surprised if a 144 MP sensor used 12-in-1 pixel binning by default. Alternatively, the sensor could use 4-in-1 binning as the 108 MP sensor in the Mi Note 10 uses. Megapixels are, of course, not an indicator of image quality. Nonetheless, we hope that Xiaomi pairs this 144 MP sensor with a Snapdragon 865. Otherwise, the mysterious device could take a while to process what would be a massive image.