Combining ultra-high resolution with fast autofocus and unparalleled low-light performance, Samsung’s newest image sensor allows you to capture any moment in impeccable detail. Here’s how the ISOCELL HP1 is changing the mobile photography game.

200 Million Pixels

The ISOCELL HP1’s ultra-high resolution is a big leap forward for mobile photography. Based on Samsung’s 0.64μm pixels, the ISOCELL HP1 is the world’s first 200-megapixel (MP) image sensor.

The sensor’s groundbreaking pixel count allows you to faithfully capture each and every aspect of your favorite moments. This means that images captured with the ISOCELL HP1 contain a world of detail even when cropped or zoomed in. To help users take full advantage of the 200MP sensor, the ISOCELL HP1 comes with Samsung’s new 4×4 hybrid pixel-binning technology, which allows it to adjust its pixel layout to suit the shooting environment, and is powered by a sophisticated, deep learning-based software remosaic.

The sensor’s pixel-binning technology also enables it to record crisp 8K videos with minimum loss in the field of view. It works by combining four pixels into one 1.28μm-sized pixel, allowing you to capture gorgeous 8K videos at 30fps, and stunning 4K slow-motion clips at 120fps.

Light Up the Night

Say goodbye to grainy low-light photos. The ISOCELL HP1’s combination of pixel-binning technology, Smart-ISO and multisampling allows you to capture clearer photos in dark settings.

When shooting in low-light environments, 4×4 hybrid pixel-binning technology – one of the ISOCELL HP1’s most versatile innovations – merges 16 pixels into one large, 2.56μm-sized pixel. This greatly improves the sensor’s light absorption, producing bright, 12.5MP images with less noise.

Smart-ISO, meanwhile, allows the ISOCELL HP1 to intelligently adjust to various lighting conditions. In dim environments, it switches to High ISO mode to deliver brighter, clearer photos. In well-lit environments, it selects Low ISO mode to ensure accurate colors and to reduce oversaturation. Finally, the image sensor’s multisampling technology reduces noise by analyzing multiple readouts of each pixel and averaging them into one.

Vibrant HDR Photos

The ISOCELL HP1 combines crystal clear details with vivid colors that make your photos pop. This is possible thanks to the addition of cutting-edge technologies like Staggered HDR and Smart-ISO Pro.

The former allows the image sensor to achieve a wide dynamic range of 100dB. A fast and efficient method of producing high dynamic range images, Staggered HDR captures frames at short, middle and long exposures to accurately expose shadows and highlights. It then merges those exposures into one image, so you can enjoy crisp, clear photos even in mixed-lighting scenarios. The ISOCELL HP1 also features Smart-ISO Pro, which takes Smart-ISO’s benefits a step further to enhance HDR video recording with sharper images and fewer motion artifacts.

Focus at the Speed of Life

To make it easier for users to capture fleeting moments, Samsung equipped the ISOCELL HP1 with fast and accurate autofocus. This is made possible thanks to the image sensor’s Double Super PD phase detection technology. Double Super PD technology contains twice as many autofocus pixels as Super PD. Those pixels are covered by AF micro-lenses that allow you to focus on fast-moving objects faster and capture stunning content.

With its groundbreaking resolution and cutting-edge technologies, the ISOCELL HP1 offers users access to a whole new world of detail. Get the most out of any moment with an image sensor that’s designed for a new era of mobile photography.

Samsung Electronics, a world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, today introduced its next-generation 108-megapixel (Mp) image sensor, Samsung ISOCELL Bright HM1. With a spectrum of light-enhancing technologies spanning from Nonapixel** and Smart-ISO to real-time HDR, ISOCELL Bright HM1 allows brighter and more detailed 108Mp photographs and crystal-clear 8K videos at 24 frames per second (fps), even under extreme lighting conditions.

“To capture meaningful moments in our lives, Samsung has been driving innovations in pixel and logic technologies that enable ISOCELL image sensors to take astounding photographs even when lighting conditions aren’t ideal,” said Yongin Park, executive vice president of the sensor business at Samsung Electronics. “By adopting Nonapixel and Smart-ISO technologies, the 108Mp ISOCELL Bright HM1 helps take vivid high-resolution pictures across a wide range of lighting environments.”

At a 1/1.33” scale with 108-million 0.8μm pixels, the ISOCELL Bright HM1 features the industry’s first state-of-the-art Nonapixel technology, which delivers brighter images in low-light settings. In 2017, Samsung introduced Tetrapixel,** a pixel-binning technology with a special two-by-two array that merges four neighboring pixels to work as a single large pixel. Nonapixel is an enhanced version of Tetrapixel with a three-by-three pixel structure. In the HM1, Nonapixel merges nine neighboring 0.8μm pixels to mimic a large 2.4μm pixel, more than doubling Tetrapixel’s light absorption.

As the number of adjoined cells increase, so does color interference, making pixel-binning technologies more challenging, While such difficulties had limited Nonapixel to a theory, the HM1 was able to realize the method by adopting Samsung’s ISOCELL Plus technology, which dramatically reduces crosstalk and minimizes optical loss as well as light reflection.

For ultimate results under any lighting condition, the HM1 supplements Nonapixel with several other advanced pixel technologies. For example, the HM1’s Smart-ISO technology produces vivid and vibrant images by intelligently selecting the optimal ISO. High ISOs are used in darker settings while low ISOs are better for brighter environments to control light saturation.

In challenging mixed-light environments for photo-taking, the HM1’s real-time HDR technology optimizes exposures, producing more natural looking videos and still photographs. By assigning the most appropriate exposure lengths to each pixel, the HM1 is able to capture scenes in multiple exposures simultaneously, generating HDR images in real-time for both preview and capture modes. For sharper results, the HM1 supports a gyro-based electronic image stabilization (EIS) and Super-PD, an advanced phase detection technology for fast and accurate auto-focus.

The HM1 allows users to preview and capture full shots and close-ups of the subject at up to 3x lossless zoom, preserving the quality of the image. This is made possible by the sensor directly converting the pixels using an embedded hardware IP, rather than having the task delegated to the mobile processor. With 108-million pixels, the sensor is also able to produce images up to 3x zoom at a 12Mp resolution without upscaling.

Samsung ISOCELL Bright HM1 is currently in mass production.

* Samsung first announced its ISOCELL technology in 2013, which reduces color crosstalk between pixels by placing a physical barrier, allowing small-sized pixels to achieve higher color fidelity. Based on this technology, Samsung introduced the industry’s first 1.0um-pixel image sensor in 2015 and a 0.9-pixel sensor in 2017. In June 2018, Samsung introduced an upgraded pixel isolation technology, the ISOCELL Plus.

** Technological terms of “Nonapixel” and “Tetrapixel” were updated in July 2022.