New Samsung trademark hints at potential 450 MP camera sensor

Much has been said about Samsung's latest camera sensors. The company earned the honor of being the first to launch a 200 MP camera with the ISOCELL HP1 last year and recently followed it up with the ISOCELL HP3. It appears that isn't where it ends either.

As revealed by the good folks over at GalaxyClub, Samsung has now filed a new trademark that provides a hint as to what its plans for camera sensors in the future could be. The company, last week, filed a trademark in Korea for the term "Hexa²Pixel". It may just be a trademark—and it's not unusual for trademarks to never see any actual use—but it does offer some clues.

Samsung typically brands its pixel-binning processes with specific terms. The ISOCELL HM3 on the Galaxy S22 Ultra, for example, makes use of a "Nonapixel RGB Bayer Pattern" that combines pixels in a 3x3 matrix, with "Nona" obviously referring to "Nine". This 9-in-1 binning ensures the 108 MP HM3 outputs 12 MP images, with combined 2.4μm pixels. Similarly, the 200 MP ISOCELL HP1 and HP3  both use 16-in-1 binning branded as the "Tetra²pixel RGB Bayer Pattern". If the trademarked "Hexa²Pixel" is anything to go by, it would indicate 36-in-1 pixel binning. 

Samsung has released CMOS sensors that output 12 MP or 12.5 MP, and some quick maths shows that the "Hexa²Pixel" sensor could have a resolution of 432 MP or 450 MP. That's just an educated guess, however. The qualities of a 450 MP make sense on paper, as 36-in-1 binning would allow the sensor to have a smaller physical size while delivering a post-binning pixel size that matches or even eclipses that of the 1-inch IMX989 on the new Xiaomi 12S Ultra. 

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