Samsung 50MP ISOCELL GN1 Smartphone Camera With 8K Video Support Launched

Samsung is known for developing high-resolution smartphone camera sensors, going up to 108MP. The company's latest entrant-- the ISOCELL GN1 is the world's first 50MP smartphone camera sensor with smart features like fast autofocusing.

The 50MP ISOCELL GN1 sensor from Samsung offers 1.2μm-sized pixels, offering improved low-light and daylight performance. According to the company, this is the first smartphone camera sensor that supports both Dual Pixel and Tetracell technologies.

The sensor has two photodiodes placed side-by-side within a single pixel. This technology ensures that the sensor can phase detect even if the light is coming from different angles. Not just that, the camera sensor has 100 million phase-detection auto-focus (PDAF) agents to offer best-in-class autofocusing.

The 50MP ISOCELL GN1 is capable of focusing on a subject even if in motion with the low-light surrounding. Similarly, a single-pixel output is created by merging outputs from two photodiodes and the company also offers a software algorithm to take light information from each photodiode to produce an image with resolution comparable to 100MP. By default, the ISOCELL GN1 takes 12.5MP images by combining four nearby pixels (Tetracell technology) which also increases the sensor's pixel size to 2.4μm.

Additional features like Smart ISO, which helps the phone to select optimal ISO depending on the lighting situation and the sensor can also capture real-time HDR videos. The sensor's electronic image stabilization (EIS) is powered by gyro-technology. As per the video recording, the sensor can capture up to 8K resolution videos at 30fps.

When We Can Expect To See Smartphones With ISOCELL GN1?

The Samsung ISOCELL GN1 will go to mass production from May 2020 and we can expect to see the first batch of smartphones by Q3 or Q4 2020. the sensor is likely to be used by mid-range and flagship Android smartphones from OEMs like Samsung, Xiaomi, Realme, Oppo, and Vivo.