It has been rumoured for a long time that Xiaomi is going to bring a 1-inch sensor on their upcoming Ultra phone.
It is now almost confirmed that Xiaomi will be using a new image sensor that they co-developed with Sony in their upcoming Xiaomi 12S Ultra.
If a leaked press release is to be believed, the new image sensor that the Xiaomi 12S Ultra will be using is called the new Sony IMX989 and it is a 1-inch sensor. This new and powerful sensor will debut with Xiaomi's new flagship device.
Though it will not be the first time a 1-inch sensor is used on a phone, Sony has used the sensor from their RX100 VII camera previously on their Sony Xperia Pro-I.
Official Email from Sony pic.twitter.com/aPAwZsUKIQJune 29, 2022
Being a sensor that is co-developed by Sony and Xiaomi, it brings an important question to the mix, if the IMX989 sensor will be exclusive to Xiaomi phones or not. Looking at the previous sensor Xiaomi and Sony collaborated on, Sony IMX707, we can be sure that it might be a timed exclusive or an outright exclusive sensor for Xiaomi.
To recall, the IMX707 is still only used in Xiaomi phones and is not available to any other smartphone maker. Xiaomi 12 Pro uses the same sensor. In fact, the other phones in the Xiaomi 12S series, Xiaomi 12S Pro and Xiaomi 12S are expected to it as well.
The teasers share that this is a 1-inch sensor, and there is no indication of the megapixels of the sensor. So, we don't really know if IMX989 is a 50MP sensor or a 100MP sensor as rumoured previously.
It is also unclear whether Xiaomi will be using the whole of that 1-inch sensor or not. Sony has chosen not to use the full sensor area of the 1-inch sensor on Xperia Pro-I, we will have to wait till the launch to know more about Xiaomi's implementation.
Xiaomi aiming to gather foothold as the new Huawei
With Huawei out of the smartphone game globally, Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo have been looking at grabbing Huawei's market share. Vivo has been churning out impressive camera-centric phones with their X series in collaboration with ZEISS.
Oppo has brought in Hasselblad, even though carried over from OnePlus. But neither of the collaborations don’t have the much-celebrated Leica collaboration that was a staple of Huawei’s P and Mate series flagships. Xiaomi is looking to capitalize on just that by bringing Leica branding into their phones.
Xiaomi is also trying to bring in hardware Innovations which is evident with these investments in custom image sensors. Even though they have tried it before with Samsung with their 108MP ISOCELL HMX sensors, which focused more on megapixels, Sony IMX989 feels like a much more impressive effort.
We will have to wait for the official launch of the phone to see the results. Although there is also a rumour that the Xiaomi 12S series would be a China exclusive. It would be unfortunate if it ends up like that.
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