After Samsung previously announced the screen for the S23 Ultra, it is now time for the camera sensor. And so little by little, it becomes clear what the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra consists of.
Samsung's naming scheme is a bit confusing. For example, the ISOCELL HP1 camera sensor, announced in September 2019, can be found in the Xiaomi 12T Pro. A year later, in June, Samsung Semiconductor announced the ISOCELL HP3 sensor. However, to our knowledge, this sensor has not yet been deployed anywhere.
And now there is the ISOCELL HP2. This sensor is meant for the Galaxy S23 Ultra. Perhaps the most significant difference between the HP2 and HP1 is the size; 1/1.22" vs. 1/1.3". The pixels on the HP2 are 0.6 microns in size, slightly smaller than its predecessor.
Dual VTG
That shouldn't matter because by utilizing a new technique called Dual Vertical Transfer Gate (D-VTG), each pixel can absorb up to 33% more electrons. According to the press release, that results in more colorful images with more sharpness.
Tetra2pixel
The ISOCELL HP2 uses pixel binning, where 16 pixels are merged into one. Photos are roughly 12 megapixels in size, so your phone storage will not fill up too quickly. Video can still be shot up to 8K. Samsung further writes that it has begun mass production of the sensor. Not surprising when you consider that the S23 Ultra is expected as early as February 1.
