Sony comes with the first 1-inch camera sensor that is specially made for smartphones. The IMX 989 will be the first to be used as the main camera in the Xiaomi 12S series that will be released in July. This is why it is an important step for smartphone photography.
1 inch smartphone camera
It’s not official yet, but according to a leak from the well-known rumor spreader Ice Universe Xiaomi is going to use a brand new 1 inch camera sensor from Sony in its upcoming 12S series of flagships. We can already see an image with the new IMX 989 next to the other sensors from Sony’s line-up.
A 1-inch camera sensor has a larger surface area than all other cameras now used in premium smartphones. You can see that clearly in the image above. A larger sensor area allows more light to fall, which is crucial for getting better photos. The sensor has to make particularly good images in dark lighting conditions. The camera has 50 MP and relatively large pixels of 1.5 µm.
Photography at a higher level
The Xiaomi 12S phones will not be the first to use a large 1-inch camera sensor, as Sony already launched such a phone at the end of 2021 with its Xperia Pro-I flagship. Only then, the company used an ‘Exmor RS’ sensor that is also used in compact cameras from the Japanese brand. The sensor was also partly covered by an aperture that was too small, so its full potential was not realized. In our camera test, we were not really blown away by the Xperia Pro-I. With the new IMX 989, which is designed for telephones, the entire surface of the sensor would be used.
Sensors like the IMX 989 can play an important role in taking smartphone photography to the next level. The smartphone is increasingly becoming a competitor for today’s DSLRs and system cameras due to the combination of larger sensors and artificial intelligence. It was also Sony that recently predicted that the smartphone camera will take better pictures than the DSLR within three years.
200 MP Competitor
Sony is not the only company to bring ever better camera sensors for phones to the market, as Samsung recently released the second generation of its 200 MP camera. The ISOCELL HP3, as it is called, should theoretically be able to capture more detail than the IMX 989, but at 1/1.4 inch it is a lot smaller than the Sony camera.
- All about smartphone photography
The Xiaomi 12S series has been teased by Xiaomi this week and the phones will be in the spotlight on July 4. If you want to know how to take the best photos in the dark with your current phone, discover these seven tips. And did you know that taking photos in RAW produces much nicer photos? Be sure to check out our favorite photo editing apps.
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– Thanks for information from Androidworld. Source