World’s first 48-megapixel smartphone camera sensor unveiled by Sony

Popular electronic items manufacturing company, Sony has just upped its mobile camera game by unveiling the world's first 48-megapixel smartphone camera that has better light sensitivity with the latest CMOS image sensor.

With 48-megapixel, Sony's latest IMX586 has the “industry’s highest pixel count”, bettering its own previous high-end camera like the A7R III, which had a 42.4-megapixel camera.

According to a report by Engadget, on a chip size that yields 0.8-micron pixel, putting 48 megapixels would give a positively high resolution but poor nighttime shooting capability.

Sony’s “Quad Bayer” colour filter array has the potential to merge four pixels into one. This produces an effective pitch of 1.6 micrometres, significantly better than the currently best camera smartphone Google Pixel 2 XL (1.4 microns).

It has to be noted that Huawei's P2O Pro smartphone has a similar technology called 'Pixel Fusion' which uses Sony’s 40-megapixel IMX600 to deliver high-resolution images but it can also join four pixels together to create a 10-megapixel sensor having a much better light-gathering capability.

Signal processing technology of Sony also allows fast output speeds and dynamic range “four times greater than conventional products”. It means that you could record 4K video at 90 frames per second (fps) and 1080p at a time-stopping 240 fps.

With the arrival of its image sensor division in 2015, Sony currently dominates sensor sales for both smartphones and premium DSLR or mirrorless cameras. It vowed to maintain that position in the last quarter by spending up to $9 billion in developing new technology.