The ZTE Axon 30 Pro 5G is starting to take shape. Last week, we saw the company posting an official teaser for the phone on the Chinese microblogging site Weibo. Lu Quinhao, Director of Consumer Experience Department at ZTE, suggested the device will feature the “strongest imaging system” on a mobile phone to date. Now a new report claims that the ZTE Axon 30 Pro 5G may pack Samsung’s yet-to-be-announced 200-megapixel camera.
According to the information passed along by a Weibo user named WHYLAB, the upcoming ZTE phone could be the first to use Samsung’s new S5KGND image sensor. It is said to be a 1/1.37-inch sensor with a pixel size of 0.64µm. The image sensor may use 4×4 pixel binning for an effective pixel size is 1.28µm. The current 108-megapixel image sensor that Samsung uses in the Galaxy S21 Ultra sensor employs 3×3 pixel binning and has a footprint of around 1/1.33 inches. So the new sensor appears to be slightly smaller than the current sensor.
The report further suggests that the yet-unannounced S5KGND sensor would support two pixel-binning modes – 4 in 1 and 16 in 1. The former would result in 50-megapixel images, whereas the latter would produce 12.5-megapixels stills. There’s also a mention of support for 16K video recording. However, no mobile SoC offers this ability as yet. Maybe Samsung has such a chipset in the works as well.
A report last month suggested that Samsung’s new 200-megapixel image sensor for smartphones is “coming soon”. Maybe we’ll see it arrive in time for the company’s next flagship, which could either be a Galaxy Note smartphone or the foldable Galaxy Z Fold 3.
ZTE Axon 30 Pro 5G 5G to use Samsung’s 200-megapixel camera
The ZTE Axon 30 Pro 5G will succeed last year’s Axon 20 5G, the world’s first smartphone with an under-display selfie camera. Although the company has yet to confirm that the new phone will have the same camera technology at the front, there’s no reason why it wouldn’t. After all, it’s the technology for the future.
Meanwhile, the Axon 30 Pro 5G also seemingly packs the best-in-the-industry image sensor at the back. In his teaser post on Weibo, Lu Quinhao has stressed the fact that the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888’s new Spectra 580 ISP supports 200-megapixel cameras. This does suggest that the latest information shared on Weibo is indeed true. Quinhao also boasted some of the camera features of the new Snapdragon processor.
There’s still probably a long way to go before the Axon 30 Pro 5G becomes official. ZTE only recently opened the Axon 20 5G for an open sale globally. It now remains to be seen how things pan out. We will keep you posted as and when new information comes out.