Sony unveils 48MP smartphone camera sensor

Sony has announced a new smartphone sensor, and it’s a big one.

Named the IMX586, the Japanese company’s latest CMOS image sensor squashes each pixel into just 0.8μm, the smallest pixel size of any smartphone sensor at present, Sony claims.

With all that extra space, there’s room for 48 megapixels, the highest pixel count of any smartphone sensor available.

“The new sensor uses the Quad Bayer color filter array, where adjacent 2×2 pixels come in the same color, making high-sensitivity shooting possible,” the company adds.

It also has some fancy low-light technology using super-sampling.

“During low light shooting, the signals from the four adjacent pixels are added, raising the sensitivity to a level equivalent to that of 1.6 μm pixels (12 megapixels), resulting in bright, low noise images,” Sony notes.

The sensor’s also compatible with 90 frames per second 4K recording, pushing that particular limit, while four-times greater dynamic range than its previous sensors is also mooted.

The product will begin shipping by September 2018, but it’s not clear when we’ll see the sensor in future smartphones.

Feature image: Sony