IMX866: More details on Sony's alleged next-gen 50MP sensor for flagship smartphone cameras emerge

Digital Chat Station is a leaker who has been hinting at new "IMX800-series" cameras that might grace devices such as the Vivo X80 and Xiaomi 12 flagships of the near future. Now, the tipster has just doubled up on these claims in much more potentially tantalizing detail.

According to this increasingly technical new report, Sony will launch one of these new sensors as the IMX866, This name would make sense, as it would make it a direct successor of the IMX766 so beloved of Vivo, not to mention its sister brands OnePlus, OPPO and Realme.

Then again, this 866 is now described as very different in design and capabilities compared to its alleged forebear. The two might have the same resolution (50 megapixels, or MP); however, the newer model is now slated to have an RGBW pixel-matrix, as opposed to RGGB as in the 766.

Furthemore, the 800-series CMOS is now linked to a new and interesting trick, especially for a mobile sensor. It is projected to have a size of 1/1.49 inches - but only when used for video with an aspect-ratio of 16:11. Switch to a 4:3 crop for photos, however, and the 866 can apparently act as a 1/1.56-inch sensor instead. The 766, by contrast, is 1/1.56 inches under all circumstances.

This new feature, likely to be marketed as something along the lines of 'dual-frame technology' by OEMs such as Vivo, might thus allow the new sensor to optimize the amount of light needed for either mode.

Nevertheless, the IMX866 might even be overshadowed by other new options in Sony mobile sensor technology, such as the IMX800 sibling allegedly destined for an even better ~1-inch footprint.

Finally, Digital Chat Station now intimates that an even more sophisticated IMX900 series is also on the way.