Samsung introduces a new camera sensor for the Galaxy S23 Ultra

Samsung has now introduced its new Isocell HP2 camera sensor, a sensor that will be used in the upcoming Galaxy S23 Ultra. It’s the company’s latest 200-megapixel camera sensor, but in this case with a 1/1.3-inch sensor with 0.6-micron pixels. This means that the sensor is smaller than the Isocell HP1 launched in 2021 which had a 1/22 inch sensor with 0.64 micron pixels.

According to Samsung, the Isocell HP2 is more advanced because it uses a technology called D-VTG (Double Vertical Transfer Gate) which should increase the total capacity of each pixel by more than 33 percent, resulting in better color reproduction and a lower risk of overexposure. It also has the ability to shoot 15fps at 200MP at full resolution.

The new image sensor contains Tetra2Pixel and is Samsung’s own solution to a technology called binning. Simply put, it is about combining multiple pixels into a single pixel. At 50MP mode, 4 pixels (2 x 2 pixels) are combined and at 200MP, 16 pixels (4×4 pixels) are combined, with the latter named Tetra2Pixel after the Greek word for counting four. Here, the Isocell HP2 can acquire 50-megapixel images with 1.2 µm pixels (4-in-1 binning) or 12.5-megapixel images with 2.4 µm pixels (Tetra2Pixel) depending on ambient light.

The sensor also provides faster and more reliable autofocus in low light thanks to Super QPD (Quadruple Phase Detection) as it uses 200 million pixels as focus factors. Thanks to the use of four adjacent pixels grouped together, it can recognize horizontal and vertical pattern changes even under extremely dim conditions such as moonlight (about 1 lux), which is comparable to normal office lighting which is usually 320-500 lux.

Isocell HP2 also raises the bar for video recording up to 8K 30fps with a wider field of view in the 1.2µm 50MP mode. It can also record 4K video at 120fps and Full HD video at 480fps, as well as take 12.5MP photos while recording 4K HDR video at 60fps.