At the end of 2019, in the eyes of everyone, the Xiaomi CC9 Pro was officially released.
For Xiaomi, the CC9 Pro is undoubtedly a model of extraordinary significance, and the birth of this product has also changed the outside world's concept of the image level of "Xiaomi mobile phone". At the same time, the design of the image part of the CC9 Pro has also directly affected the subsequent products to a large extent.
For the entire mobile phone industry, the 100 million pixel main camera scheme launched by Xiaomi CC9 Pro has contributed to the intensification of the dispute between the flagship model "ultra-large bottom ultra-high pixels".
The high-resolution camera phone caught fire, and then it seemed to stop there
As a result, from the beginning of 2020, the market ushered in more and more new super-bottom CMOS and their powered models, such as the Xiaomi Mi 10 series, such as the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra, such as vivo X50 Pro+. These models have led the way, and their picture quality and image experience have indeed generally brought significant improvements compared to the previous generation in 2019.
But if you pay attention to these earliest flagship super-bottom ultra-high pixel models, you will find that although these models have launched upgraded models in 2021, the oversized bottom CMOS solutions they use seem to have been stagnant throughout 2021, and even until the beginning of 2022.
The main camera on the Xiaomi Mi 11, CMOS is also the same as the CC9 Pro
For example, the 1/1.33-inch, 108-pixel CMOS solution HMX, which is exclusive to Xiaomi's flagship model, is still in use on Xiaomi 11 in 2021 since its release at the end of 2019. Vivo's 1/1.33-inch, 50-megapixel GN1 solution, which debuted on the X50 Pro+, has also been using at least three generations of models. Not to mention that the Samsung HM2, which has the lowest specifications and much-criticized experience in the 108-megapixel CMOS solution (mostly seen in some lower-positioned imaging models), has not been introduced since its launch, and has been used almost from 2019 to 2022.
New technical solutions have been introduced one after another, and the flagship bottom battle is expected to restart
However, just when we thought that the oversized CMOS solution was going to continue to "lie flat" in this way, starting in 2022, some exciting news has been coming out.
First of all, on the Xiaomi Mi 12 Pro released at the end of last year, it adopted a new Sony IMX707 main camera solution, which has a 1/1.28-inch, 50 million pixel specifications. This also means that Sony has launched a new oversole phone CMOS for a long time.
Secondly, there is news a few days ago that a 1/1.1-inch size of the oversized bottom 50 million pixel Sony CMOS has been in the testing stage. After the news came out, the outside world speculated that this CMOS may be Sony's "hidden" super-bottom flagship CMOS IMX800 for a long time. And in terms of rumored relevant specifications, the market positioning and performance of the IMX800 are expected to be higher than the current Xiaomi 11 Ultra exclusive Samsung GN2 (50 million pixels, 1/1.12 inch), thus serving as the main camera solution of Xiaomi's new generation of imaging flagship models.
In addition, although Samsung released the 200 million pixel ultra-large bottom solution HP1 very early, there are rumors that the model equipped with this new ultra-high pixel CMOS may not be available until the middle of this year. The evidence is that there is a recent spy photo of a suspected moto new machine with high credibility. In this photo, we can clearly see that the side of the rear camera module is marked with the words "200MP HP1", and the CMOS model under the main lens is announced in a high profile.
This is not the end, according to subsequent rumors, the CMOS scheme of the new moto machine may even have undergone some changes on the latest test machine. In view of this, it may actually be that another 194-megapixel, 1/1.5-inch medium and large bottom new CMOS has been exposed.
Why did outsole CMOS stagnate? Because they used to be less useful
What does this mean? To put it simply, in the nearly two years from the end of 2019 to the end of 2021, in addition to the exclusive and extremely expensive GN2 on the Xiaomi 11 Ultra, and the HM3 that Samsung has not sold for its own use, all the oversized bottom CMOS solutions greater than or equal to 1/1.5 inch on the rest of the models are almost all products released in 2020. And in 2022, suddenly ushered in at least four new oversole CMOS.
Why is that? Comprehensive analysis of these super-low, ultra-high pixel CMOS solutions in the past, as well as the market environment in which they are located, it is not difficult to find that there are several factors that have jointly led to the "sudden stagnation" of the development of this super-bottom CMOS.
First of all, the earliest batch of oversized bottom CMOS itself has certain shortcomings in functional design, the most typical problem of which is focus performance. In fact, whether it is Xiaomi's earliest HMX, Samsung's exclusive HM1, HM3, or later relatively common HM2, they all use a relatively simple partial area phase focus design.
This means that these oversized CMOS are actually only an area in the center of the picture that can be focused, and the content of the picture located around it is difficult to be measured and focused. Second, once the subject is in motion, these early oversized bottom CMOS are likely to fall short of focus.
Between focus and high pixels, OPPO opted for focus in 2020
However, it is well known that since 2020, with the rollout of 5G networks, home gigabit broadband, WiFi6 and other technologies, "video shooting" has gradually replaced the traditional static shooting and become the focus of the promotion of a new generation of flagship imaging models. However, these 100 million pixel oversized CMOS are generally not good at dynamic focusing, and it is difficult to adapt to the needs of video shooting scenes. This has led some manufacturers to prefer to use a smaller size, more focused 50-megapixel medium-size CMOS (such as the IMX766) throughout, rather than using these "big outsole CMOS" that are only suitable for high-quality static recording.
More importantly, even 50 million pixels (including other 64 million pixels, 48 million pixels) CMOS, before 2022, their "performance" will not be able to fully play out. This is because the performance of the ISP unit in the master control at that time is not strong enough to achieve the "full pixel" continuous shooting processing of the ultra-large bottom and ultra-high pixel CMOS.
So at that time, many ultra-high-pixel models often saw such a phenomenon, Obvious mobile phones have 50 million or 100 million pixels, but what is taken is 12 million, 12.5 million pixel photos; Obvious mobile phones have powerful AI cameras, night scene noise reduction and other functions, but as long as the "high pixel" mode is turned on, these functions become unavailable.
A large number of video flagships are coming, but is it really worth the pursuit of the past?
Yes, the design of CMOS itself has not kept up with the changes in market demand, and the processing performance of mobile phones has not kept up with the "expansion" specifications of CMOS pixels. The above two reasons, most likely, are the reasons why the "big bottom ultra-high pixel" CMOS update has not been positive in the past two years.
Knowing this, and looking at the new batch of oversized CMOS and the hardware platforms they are adapted to, you can clearly see many highly targeted improvements.
Focus-chasing performance is a big advantage of the Xiaomi Mi 12 Pro
For example, in terms of focus and focus tracking, sony IMX707 no longer uses phase focus, but is equipped with a full-pixel octa-core focus structure. This means that when in 12.5 MEGAPI mode, it can be equated to an "omni-pixel omnifocus" design, providing a focus area that covers the entire sensor and excellent object tracking performance.
For example, in terms of video recording, Samsung HP1 not only supports 4K 120FPS shooting, but also is the first ultra-large bottom CMOS to introduce intelligent ISO technology into video. This allows it to theoretically output 12-bit HDR video footage, providing better video quality performance than oversized-bottom CMOS in the past.
With the blessing of the new flagship SoC, today's 100 million pixels can even play the advantage of resolution in night environments
In addition, whether it is the new Snapdragon 8 or the Tianji 9000, these new flagship SoCs in 2022 have greatly strengthened the support for ultra-high pixel CMOS. In fact, they can not only support UP to 200 million pixels of CMOS, but can already handle 108 million pixels of continuous shooting signals at 30 frames per second. Reflected in the actual use, that is, the flagship model released this year has basically been able to complete the shooting at the moment of pressing the shutter after opening the "high pixel mode", and various AI, and even night view algorithms, have begun to become available in high pixel mode.
This means that whether it is from the user experience or the technology itself, we can say that this year's super-bottom CMOS and their onboard machines are more worth looking forward to. But in turn, this also makes us think about the question, if the "super-bottom ultra-high pixel" design on smartphones has only generally become more mature and easy to use this year, then what is the significance of chasing higher pixels and larger bottoms in the past two years?
【The picture of this article comes from the network】