Samsung starts developing the 250 MP ISOCELL mobile image sensor

Samsung recently presented its plans to surpass human eye acuity with an upcoming 600 MP image sensor that will probably not even fit in future smartphones. There is no exact time frame for the 600 MP sensor, although Samsung mentioned that we could be seeing these advanced chips sooner than we think. Hopefully, such big sensors will not be relying on pixel binning too much, otherwise that 600 MP resolution will not exactly surpass the human eye parameters. Meanwhile, reports from China are suggesting that Samsung has finished developing the 150 MP sensor and immediately started working on the 250 MP upgrade.

The reports come from trusted leaker Ice Universe on the Weibo forums, and, even though there are no specific specs leaked for the 250 MP ISOCELL sensor, rumor has it that it could be the first 1/1-inch mobile chip or even larger, so it may not fit inside slimmer smartphone models. Comparatively, the 108 MP sensor currently integrated with the Galaxy S20 series is 1/1.33-inch in size and the upcoming 150 MP sensor will be very close to the 1/1 milestone.

Expect to see the 150 MP sensor in Xiaomi’s flagships later this year, while the first Samsung devices to integrate it may arrive in early 2021 with the Galaxy S21 models. As for the 250 MP sensor, the earliest we could see it integrated in a smartphone might be the second half of 2021 with the launch of the Note 21.