Samsung has a new 16-megapixel ISOCELL Plug and Play image sensor solution intended to speed up the process for partner companies taking their device to market. It’s not uncommon for smartphone manufacturers to take advantage of other OEMs’ components and Samsung is among those that various device makers turn to. Bearing that in mind, this new solution is intended to reduce the time it takes for testing to occur since the optimization is done at the module-level instead of just on the sensor. That applies specifically to partner companies that use Samsung camera technology in their devices and the Korean tech company says that using the solution can save up to four months of development time. That’s because the sensor module is pre-tuned to work well with the array of components lenses and actuators used by third-party firms. Effectively, that equates to a solution that can simply be placed without needing to re-optimize.
With regard to the sensor itself, the solution is based on a 1.0μm ISOCELL Slim 3P9 sensor, which can also act as a 2.0μm sensor for selfie shooters. Moreover, Samsung says that it features a new phase detection auto-focus with doubled auto-focus agent density compared to traditional sensors of that type. Beyond even that, it features a new gyro-synchronizer to enable greater stability against angular movement than is generally possible with frame-by-frame analysis and compensation. Taking that in combination with the new Plug and Play solutions, this camera sensor should perform very well in low-light conditions or for users that don’t have the steadiest of hands.
In terms of availability, Samsung has already made the new turnkey solution available as of May 3 – which is also the day the announcement was made. So partners can already get started using the new ISOCELL Slim 3P9 sensor right now, saving a ton of time without worrying about whether or not the end-user experience will be degraded. It bears mention that Samsung has not provided any information about the overall cost of the new solution. So any OEMs or partners who may be interested in checking out the new sensor and solution will need to head over to Samsung’s site.