Chinese electronics company Xiaomi and the South Korean conglomerate Samsung have partnered to create the world’s first 100-megapixel camera for smartphones, in a bid to woo more people away from Apple's iPhone 11 Pro series and the Google Pixel 4 phone.
In a statement by the two companies, the tech giants are working together to develop Samsung’s 108-megapixel sensor.
"With over 100 million effective pixels enabling extremely sharp photographs rich in detail, the ISOCELL Bright HMX also produces exceptional photos even in extreme lighting conditions," said Samsung on its newsroom post.
According to Xiaomi, the sensor is the largest ever to date, and is capable to produce 12032 x 9024 pixel resolution images. The company claims that the figure is the highest resolution for images ever shot on a smartphone.
It's also reported that the sensor can shoot “high quality” 27-megapixel shots in 2x zoom.
This just in! Two big pieces of news from Xiaomi's Images of the Future Conference:
Redmi and Samsung Electronics jointly announced a 64MP camera
Xiaomi and Samsung Electronics teased an upcoming 100MP ultra high-resolution camera
RT if you're excited for this new era of cameras! pic.twitter.com/f88OpJfdIS— Xiaomi #First108MPPentaCam (@Xiaomi) August 7, 2019
According to Lin Bin, co-founder and president of Xiaomi:
"As we continue our partnership, we anticipate bringing not only new mobile camera experiences but also a platform through which our users can create unique content."
Here, Xiaomi unveils the CC9 Pro that is equipped with this huge camera sensor. The CC9 Pro is not going to be sold outside of China, the Mi Note 10 which has an identical sensor, will.
Mi Note 10 is a 6GB RAM Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G-powered phone, and it boasts five rear cameras: 12-megapixel f/2 2x telephoto, 5-megapixel f/2 5x telephoto, 20-megapixel f/2.2 ultrawide, 2-megapixel macro, and of course, the 108-megapixel f/1.69 wide sensor.
The phone has a 6.47” Super AMOLED panel with Full HD+ resolution, waterdrop notch and a fingerprint scanner under the display.
The Mi Note 10 isn't as fast and as powerful as those flagship devices running Snapdragon 855, but the main selling point here would be its cameras, most notably, the 108-megapixel one.
Xiaomi also plans to release a Redmi handset with a 64-megapixel camera sensor, also co-developed by Samsung.
This was revealed in the same statement.
The 64MP sensor, which was announced back in May, was already previously teased by Redmi, Xiaomi's budget-focused spin-off phone business This camera sensor is a direct competitor to the 48-megapixel Sony sensor found on some popular phones, like the OnePlus 7 Pro and ASUS Zenfone 6.
Xiaomi wants to sell the CC9 Pro at around $400 in China, while the Mi Note 10 at €549.
By partnering with Samsung, Xiaomi has become one of many companies working to boost mobile photography offering.
In the crowd, some of the top performing are, the Pixel 4 phones with multi-sensor rear cameras, Apple with iPhone 11 Pro series with three cameras, and the Huawei P30 Pro which packs a 50x zoom capability.