Sony announces new 21MP smartphone camera sensor

PanARMENIAN.Net - Sony is touting a new smartphone camera sensor that packs 21-megapixels into a small 1/2.4-inch design, with vastly improved autofocus performance and better HDR capabilities, PCWorld reports.

The company says its Exmor RS IMX230 is the first smartphone camera sensor with “image plane phase detection autofocus system,” which is designed to improve the focus tracking for fast-moving objects so the users don’t miss out next time they’re taking pictures of a cat chasing that red laser pointer. The sensors enables up to 192 phase-detection sample points.

The new sensor also ramps up the quality of its HDR capabilities, offering an example to support its claim that it can use the full megapixel capacity of the sensor, while other smartphone cameras must downgrade the quality in order to balance out the image.

Sony says it will be available in April 2015.