Samsung is working on Hexa²pixel technology, which could bring 450 MP photo sensors to market

Samsung was a year ago the first company to announce a 200-megapixel sensor to be integrated into a smartphone. While the first smartphone equipped with this camera is still expected (but not for long, given the rumors about Motorola’s next flagship), it seems the South Korean manufacturer is already preparing for even higher resolutions. A new trademark for a technology called Hexa²pixel might suggest that Samsung is considering upping sensor resolution to 450 megapixels.

Samsung’s Hexa²pixel technology could require 450-megapixel photo sensors

ISOCELL HP1 and HP3 sensors have yet to be integrated into phones, even from Samsung. But it seems the company’s ambitions are even higher. Hexa²pixel technology suggests it will do 6×6 pixel binning to create an enhanced 12.5 megapixel image. This would require 32 pixels for every final pixel, or a total of over 400 million pixels. Thus, the sensor resolution should be somewhere around 450 MP.

Also, such a sensor could be used for 3×3 pixel binning for much improved 50 megapixel images, as promised by today’s 200 megapixel sensors, such as, HP1 a 2×2 binning.

If their Tetra²pixel is 4×4 this seems like 6×6 which would have to be a 450mp sensor to get the standard 12.5mp output

– Brad (@bradlewis295) July 21, 2022

However, for such huge images and their processing, much improved chipsets will also be needed, with new generation image processors and very powerful AI processing capabilities. Such sensors could thus debut on smartphones only in a few years, when such limitations will be overcome.

Rumors today say that while Motorola will be the first company with a 200-megapixel smartphone on the market, Samsung may avoid integrating a 200-megapixel sensor on next year’s Galaxy S23 generation.

TMDN via Slashgear