Compared with Sony and Samsung, a considerable number of friends in Howey's CMOS may not even have heard of it. As a former CMOS leader, its market share was once as high as 50%, and even the well-known iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 chose to use Howey's CMOS, which can be said to be the limelight.
After years of baptism, Howey CMOS has been surpassed by Sony and Samsung and left behind, and most of them currently only appear in the main camera of some domestic mid-range models or the tactical cameras of flagship machines. In the second article, we will shift our attention to Howey who is trying to glow the "second spring", and the article understands the silly and indistinguishable mobile phone camera CMOS Chapter 2 - Howey chapter, and start immediately.
Naming conventions
Unlike Samsung CMOS, which has obvious series divisions, Howey CMOS only summarizes the same resolution in the name, and distinguishes them with different letter suffixes, often appearing that although the resolution is the same, their respective characteristics are very different.
For the current mainstream Howey CMOS on the market, it is necessary to pay attention to the following two name points:
For example, "50" in "OV50A" indicates that the effective resolution of the CMOS is 50 megapixels (except for the recently launched OVB0B);
The letters at the end of the name only distinguish between different CMOS at the same resolution, and the order of letters has nothing to do with the configuration strength and release time;
According to the above two points, we can divide the mainstream Howey CMOS on the market into "OV48 Series", "OV64 Series" and "New Howey CMOS".
OV48: Once the "Invincible Hand"
OV48C, 1/1.32", 48Mp, 1.197 m, 4-in-1 output equivalent 2.394 m
OV48B, 1/2", 48Mp, 0.801 m, 4-in-1 output equivalent 1.602 m
As the flagship CMOS of Howey, the OV48 series has launched a total of two products, focusing on the flagship "OV48C" with extreme performance and the entry-level "OV48B".
(With the blessing of OV48C, Xiaomi Mi 10 Supreme Commemorative Edition is still the emperor of the image machine in the minds of many people)
OV48C, I believe many digital enthusiasts have heard of its prestige. Although it was almost two years ago, 1/1.32", with a unit pixel of up to 1.197 m and the ability to output 2.394 m equivalent pixels, is a top flagship level even in 2022. Coupled with the industry's unique dual native ISO fusion technology, the Xiaomi Mi 10 Supreme Commemorative Edition equipped with OV48C is still the emperor of the image machine in the minds of many people.
OV48C has the best chance to become a step in the re-emergence of Howey, but because of the high cost and insufficient production capacity, only one model of the Xiaomi Mi 10 Supreme Commemorative Edition has been used since its release, which can be described as a lot of regret.
OV64: Versatile "all-rounder"
OV64A, 1/1.32", 64Mp, 1.008 m, 4-in-1 equivalent output of 2.016 m
OV64C, 1/1.7", 64Mp, 0.801 m, 4-in-1 equivalent output of 1.602 m
OV64B, 1/2", 64Mp, 0.702 m, 4-in-1 equivalent output of 1.404 m
At present, more than half of the mainstream Hearey CMOS on the market are from the OV64 series, of which "OV64A" mostly acts as the flagship main camera, "OV64B" generally appears as the flagship secondary camera or the main camera of the mid-range machine, and the "OV64C" is currently not commercially available for use.
Although the sensor size of the OV64A has reached 1/1.32" of the flagship level, it is clear that many mobile phone manufacturers are not interested in it, only Huawei, Honor and Lenovo have used it; and the OV64B, as the successor of OV48B, carries the banner of Howey CMOS market share. Compared with the OV48B, on the basis of retaining the same size, the OV64B will increase the resolution from 48 million pixels to 64 million pixels, which is the same reason why GW3 is favored in my first Samsung article, and high pixels are more conducive to manufacturer publicity.
(The Honor 60Pro and OPPO Reno7 we are familiar with are equipped with OV64B.)
New Howey CMOS
The remaining four mainstream Howey CMOS are newly launched new products, and each has opened up a new resolution "track", they are the 40-megapixel "OV40A", the 50-megapixel "OV50A", the 60-megapixel "OV60A" and Howey's first 200 million-pixel CMOS - "OVB0B".
OV50A, 1/1.55", 50Mp, 1.008 m, 4 in 1 output 2.016 m
OV40A, 1/1.7", 40Mp, 1.008 m, 4 in 1 output 2.016 m
As can be seen from the pixel size, OV50A and OV40A should belong to the same type of CMOS, and their difference is that the sensor size is different to form the effective resolution of the two sizes. The OV50A's peer rivals are undoubtedly the Sony IMX766 and Samsung GN5. At present, the three major CMOS manufacturers have 1 m+50Mp high-quality CMOS, although IMX766 has a first-mover advantage, but as I said before, GN5 and OV50A can not be underestimated, and it is difficult to say who can be more favored in the future.
(OV50A will be the CMOS promoted by Howey in 2022)
The OV40A is currently not equipped with a model, but the quality of the OV50A is in line with the quality, so that it may meet with everyone as part of the flagship sub-camera and mid-range machine main camera.
OV60A, 1/2.61", 60Mp, 0.612 m, 4 in 1 output 1.224 m
If the OV50A is benchmarked against the IMX766 and GN5, then the OV60A is benchmarked against Samsung's JN1. In contrast, the OV60A is more extreme, making the unit pixel size the smallest in the industry of 0.612 m, and cramming 60 million pixels into the 1/2.61-inch sensor. The extreme small size and high pixels allow mobile phone manufacturers to have more choices in image stacking.
Similarly, the OV60A is mostly used as a front camera and a co-camera, but at present, only Honor and Motorola are using, which is obviously behind the fire of JN1.
(Moto edge X30 world premiere OV50A and OV60A)
OVB0B, 1/1.28", 200Mp, 0.612 m, 16-in-1 output 2.448 m
As the only 200 million pixel CMOS on the market, like the Samsung HP1, Howey's OVB0B is also currently existing as a "show muscle" CMOS, and no commercially available model is used. I hope to see the performance of these two CMOS when competing in the same field later.
(OVB0B, Howey's first 200-megapixel CMOS)
summary
The above is the content of the Howey article, and it can be seen that Howey can still make a top-level CMOS. Rivals Sony and Samsung, the biggest reason is that Howey is a fabless-free pure chip design company, so that the overall cost of CMOS is high, and the production capacity is not stable enough.
The third Sony article will also be updated in the near future, so don't miss it! Finally, a list of mainstream Howey CMOS specifications on the market is attached.
(List of mainstream Howey CMOS specifications)