Samsung seems to be prepared to switch to a 200MP camera after equipping its past three generations of flagships with a 108MP unit. Next year’s Galaxy S23 Ultra is all but officially confirmed to feature the highest resolution smartphone camera yet. Multiple rumors have hinted at this development in recent weeks. Korean publication ET News is now reporting the same. According to the new report, Samsung has told its camera partners that the Galaxy S23 Ultra will feature a 200MP camera on the back.
The report states that the Korean behemoth has placed component orders for the new camera sensor. It also shared details of the development plan and a tentative production timeline. Unfortunately, we don’t have much information about the sensor itself. Rumors are that Samsung will name it the ISOCELL HP2. If you remember, the company has already launched two 200MP smartphone cameras — the ISOCELL HP1 last year and the ISOCELL HP3 earlier this year. The former recently debuted on Motorola’s Moto X30 Pro.
The ISOCELL HP2 slots in between these two sensors in Samsung’s 200MP camera lineup. However, it’ll be the best yet when it comes to photography and videography capabilities. Samsung is calling it HP2 because of its pixel size. The upcoming sensor will reportedly feature 0.6μm-sized pixels, smaller than HP1’s 0.64μm pixels but larger than HP3’s 0.56μm. The latter boasts the industry’s smallest camera pixels yet.
Apart from this, there’s not much info available about the ISOCELL HP2 at the moment. The new report tells us that Samsung Electro-Mechanics and Samsung Electronics will manufacture the sensor in a 70:30 ratio. Note that only the Galaxy S23 Ultra will use it. The vanilla Galaxy S23 and the Galaxy S23+ will likely stay at 50MP, or upgrade to 108MP at best.
The Galaxy S23 Ultra will not change other cameras
While Samsung is switching to a 200MP camera for the main shooter on the Galaxy S23 Ultra, the rest of the cameras will reportedly remain unchanged from the Galaxy S22 Ultra, at least in terms of the megapixel count. We are expecting a 12MP ultrawide lens, 10MP periscope lens for 10X optical zoom, and another 10MP telephoto camera for 3X optical zoom. The company may improve the picture quality, though.
Samsung is expected to unveil the Galaxy S23 series early next year. Rumors about the new Galaxy flagships should start coming in thick and fast over the next few months. We will keep you updated with all the latest information about the devices.