Xiaomi working on a camera beast with a 48MP sensor?

Xiaomi’s President, Lin Bin, has teased a device which apparently will feature a 48MP camera, and according to him, it was “not bad” during his “usage over a few weeks”. And he also revealed the announcement date, which will be a month from now. CES 2019 in in January, so it might be announced at that event.

The new 48MP sensor is reportedly going to come either from Sony or Samsung, and both has 0.8µm pixels despite the large 1/2″ sensor size. We expect Xiaomi to not shoot 48MP images by default, but combine the tiny pixels into one large one with more dynamic range. This technology has been historically used by Nokia, while HUAWEI has a more recent implementation of it in the HUAWEI P20 Pro as well as the HUAWEI Mate 20 Pro and Mate 20 X.

There are a number of ways Xiaomi can take advantage of the high pixel count of the new sensor. Will Xiaomi enable the lossless digital zoom pioneered by Nokia, or will they use it solely for enhancing the dynamic range of their images, and add a dedicated telephoto camera? That will be something we will have to wait and see. Xiaomi has been working hard on improving their camera processing, so they should be able to pull off something spectacular with this new sensor.

Xiaomi has been gradually upping their camera game across the board, with even mid-range devices like the Redmi Note 5 touting the flagship-class Sony IMX 363 sensor. Xiaomi’s recent flagships have all made their way onto the DxOMark ranking chart too, a testament of their progress in their area. So to see a groundbreaking 48MP sensor in their upcoming device doesn’t really seem all that outlandish at this point.

Will the camera race revert to the megapixel race again? Well, at least they don’t result in trypophobia-inducing smartphone designs. Maybe large humps though.

Pokdepinion: Can’t wait to see what will Xiaomi bring to the table, given that their progress has been nothing less of prolific at the moment!