An claimed leak from China claims that Sony is developing a 200MP smartphone camera sensor for premium handsets. Sony is now directly competing with Samsung’s ISOCELL HP9 and HP2, but will it be superior in the long run? It will serve as flagship phones’ primary camera.
Smaller pixels, the same sensor size, and more megapixels
According to reports, Sony’s next sensor will be bigger than Samsung’s 1/1.3-inch 200MP models, allowing it to capture more light overall. But since 200 million pixels are packed inside it, each one will be extremely small, perhaps less than 0.6 μm.
Compared to the 1.0μm+ pixels seen in 50MP sensors, this is much smaller. Early high-MP attempts, such as the 108 MP ISOCELL Bright HMX and even the present 200 MP system, suffered from the same problem: smaller pixels have trouble in low light, which results in greater noise.
In order to improve light capture, Samsung uses pixel binning, which combines four or sixteen pixels into one. But this method does not produce the same smooth bokeh that is possible with larger pixels. Sony is likely to follow suit, but the advantages might be minimal given the pixels’ current modest size.
200 MP 1/1.3-inch± or 50 MP 1-inch
Currently, 1/1.3-inch and 1/1.4-inch designs are used by Samsung’s HP2 (Galaxy S25 Ultra) and HP9 (Vivo X100 Ultra, X200 Pro, and Xiaomi 15 Ultra Periscope), respectively. This is also the size of Sony’s sensor.
Large individual pixels are difficult to beat, even with computational gimmicks. For this reason, Sony’s own 1-inch 50 MP LYT900 is doing well in low light on phones like the Oppo Find X7 Ultra and Vivo X100 Ultra.
The Chinese market, where camera features impact sales, is the target market for this sensor. In late 2025, this sensor should be seen in flagships, most likely in conjunction with the MediaTek Dimensity 9500 or Snapdragon 8 Elite 2. It is unclear if this will be a revolution or just another flex of the specifications sheet.