Samsung announces 50-megapixel camera sensor with faster autofocus

Samsung has announced a new 50-megapixel camera sensor called the ISOCELL GN1. It’s Samsung’s first sensor to include both dual-pixel autofocus and Tetracell pixel-binning, which the company says should offer a combination of fast performance and good low-light image quality.

The pixel size is 1.2μm, closer to what you’d find on a conventional phone camera sensor than the high-resolution chips that’ve become increasingly popular over the past year-plus. The obvious competitor is Sony’s new IMX689 sensor, featured in phones like the Oppo Find X2 Pro, which has 48 megapixels at 1.22μm. By default, Samsung’s sensor will take 12.5-megapixel photos with four pixels binned into one.

The addition of dual-pixel phase-detection autofocus is...

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