Sony has developed a chip that should allow vastly sharper photos for the coming generation of smartphones. — dpa
Sony is gearing up to help the next generation of smartphones take even sharper pictures thanks to a new picture sensor. Sony’s IMX586 picture sensor will deliver a whopping 48-megapixel resolution, helping it to compete with professional cameras.
Still, because the number of pixels by itself won’t necessarily ensure better pictures, the Japanese manufacturer is emphasising a number of other technological advancements.
The individual photo pixels of the sensor have been shrunk down to extremely small sizes, which could lead to noise on images, particularly in bad lighting conditions.
But while the new chip will have the smallest photo pixels on the market with an edge length of only 0.8 micrometers, every pixel will also pick up signals from four adjacent pixels under poor lighting, which should improve the quality of pictures.
The first prototypes of the chips should be delivered in September – meaning that smartphones should arrive on the market with these chips in the coming year. The IMX586 is priced at 3,000 Yen (RM109), according to Sony.
The Japanese conglomerate is the leading supplier of picture sensors for smartphones and sells them to market leaders like Samsung and Apple, among others. Sony has positioned its own smartphones as having above-average picture quality. Still, the electronics giant's Xperia models have only been able to capture a small share of the smartphone market despite being among the first to be waterproof. — dpa
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