Technology
Samsung announces 50-megapixel autofocus camera sensor
Samsung has announced a new camera sensor called ISOCELL GN1 with 50 megapixels. It's Samsung's first sensor to have both dual-pixel autofocus and pixel-binning Tetracell, which the company claims will give a combination of fast performance and decent low-light image quality.
The size of the pixel is 1.2μm, closer to what you will find on a standard phone camera sensor than the high-resolution sensors, which have become increasingly common over the past year. The clear rival is the latest IMX689 sensor from Sony, appearing in phones such as the Oppo Find X2 Pro, which has 48 megapixels at 1.22μm. The Samsung sensor will take 12.5-megapixel images by default with four pixels binned into one.
The introduction of dual-pixel autofocus for phase detection is noteworthy as Samsung has had a recent high-profile failure in that region. The Galaxy S20 Ultra was suffering from weak autofocus efficiency, using a 108-megapixel sensor without dual-pixel tech; Samsung said it would issue a patch, but we have not been able to check for improvements yet.
In any case, the combination of high resolution and fast autofocus speed is obviously the priority for Samsung with the ISOCELL GN1. The company says this month the sensor entered mass production and it shouldn't be too long before it appears in phones.
