Apparently, Samsung is sticking around with 108-megapixel sensors, as the company is rumored to be using a 108MP sensor on the Galaxy S21 Ultra.
It’ll be a new sensor though, the successor to the HM1 sensor, which was used in the Galaxy S20 Ultra.
This is all according to Ice Universe, who has been pretty spot on with his leaks regarding Samsung and other companies. But, we do have to warn you, that it is still fairly early in the development stage of the Galaxy S21 line up. So things could change between now and February/March, when the device is officially unveiled.
108MP sensors still need a lot of work
As we have found out this year from the Galaxy S20 Ultra, Note 20 Ultra and other smartphones using 108MP sensors, those sensors could use some work. They are still quite slow, and not as sharp as they should be, with that many megapixels.
However, that is likely mostly due to the software in post processing of these images. But it does highlight that more megapixels doesn’t always mean a better image.
Samsung is not giving up on the 108MP sensor though, since the Galaxy S21 Ultra will have one. And that’s not a big surprise. It would be tough for Samsung to go down to a 64MP or 48MP sensor on the Galaxy S21 Ultra without customers being upset.
No word yet on if the new laser autofocus system is coming too
With the Galaxy Note 20 lineup, Samsung debuted the new laser autofocus system, which drastically improved autofocus from the S20 lineup. It made a pretty huge difference in the camera on the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, which is pretty surprising.
It will likely be coming to the Galaxy S21 lineup though. Since Samsung won’t be using ToF, at least according to an earlier rumor that we saw about the Galaxy S21. There is room for the laser autofocus. And it will also be needed.
Samsung has continued to improve its camera system every year, and it’s getting really good. Now that autofocus is pretty much solved, Samsung really just needs to work on the shutter speed. Which is still a bit slow, and makes it tough to photograph anything that is moving. Like kids or pets. As they will come out a bit blurry. However, that is a problem that almost every phone (except for Pixel) has. Once Samsung can improve the shutter speed, its camera system is going to be insane.