The smartphone megapixel war rages on, with the Motorola X30 Pro becoming the first to offer a 200MP primary sensor at the back. While many phone makers would continue to prattle and market the advantages of using such a camera, they conveniently leave out its drawbacks, which Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun pointed out in his tweet. The executive also hints that his own company’s smartphone range will not be hindered by the same problem.
Lei Jun Claims That the Xiaomi 12T Will Not Display the Same Problem as Other 200MP Smartphone Cameras
Waiting five seconds for a smartphone to process a single image is unacceptable, and this revelation highlights an unnecessary aspect of using a 200MP camera on a smartphone. Keep in mind that alongside the hardware, the software, camera app, and the SoC’s ISP play a pivotal role in processing that high-resolution image. If the raw data captured by this sensor cannot be processed into an image in a few milliseconds or, worse, a single second, it pretty much shows that the software is simply not ready to support this level of hardware.
Additionally, if a 200MP smartphone camera takes 5 seconds to process a whole image, the user will have to remain incredibly still for the result to come out pleasing, or at the very least, acceptable. A slight shake here or an immediate jolt there will bring out a blurry image, and the quality takes a massive nosedive during nighttime since there is not enough light for the sensor to process.
Lei Jun believes that this limitation will be removed from the upcoming Xiaomi 12T series, though he did not say how many seconds it would take for the flagship lineup to capture a 200MP image. The Galaxy S23 Ultra for next year is also said to ship with Samsung’s 200MP sensor, so we will see what improvements are made when newer models launch next year.
It is possible that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2’s ISP, which is said to be improved greatly, can help process a 200MP image significantly faster than Qualcomm’s current-generation chipsets. Hopefully, the upcoming hardware can unlock the actual potential of an ‘over the top’ sensor.
News Source: Lei Jun
