Robert Triggs / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Android OEMs are experimenting with a larger 200MP primary sensor that could enhance low-light performance and reduce reliance on dedicated telephoto modules.
- This is likely the new 200MP larger sensor from Sony that is intended to be used as a primary sensor instead of being relegated to periscope telephoto duties.
- While a phone with a 200MP large primary sensor and a 200MP periscope telephoto sensor would be the holy grail, no OEMs are currently working on such a phone.
Phones like the Xiaomi 15 Ultra and the vivo X200 Pro have pushed the boundaries of what you can expect out of your Android camera flagship. One of the highlights of these phones is the 200MP periscope telephoto camera that performs excellently. What if you could have more of that 200MP sensor, possibly even on the primary camera or the ultrawide? If you’re already dreaming of phones with multiple 200MP cameras, you’ll have to wait a while for those dreams to become reality.
Leaker Digital Chat Station has shared on Weibo that an OEM is experimenting with a 200MP primary camera with a larger sensor size but falls short of sharing more concrete details.
A 200MP primary sensor should be able to deliver images with optical-quality lossless zoom, which replaces the need for a dedicated telephoto module for portrait shots. A 200MP sensor with a larger sensor size will offer better light intake, which comes in handy across all lighting situations, but most noticeably in dark, low-light conditions.
Chinese OEMs have relied on 50MP 1-inch type sensors to fill this role, so I am curious to see how this space will evolve. Sony is said to be working on a 200MP primary camera sensor that is said to be a “little bigger” than 1/1.3 inches, which is the size of Samsung’s 200MP ISOCELL sensors like the HP2 on the Galaxy S25 Ultra. It remains to be seen which OEM becomes the first to incorporate this larger 200MP Sony sensor.
What if you could pair this larger 200MP Sony sensor with the 200MP sensors for periscope telephoto? Digital Chat Station mentions that no one is currently exploring phones with two 200MP sensors among Android OEMs.
For the foreseeable future, OEMs will still be choosing whether to equip a 200MP camera for the primary shooter, as on the Galaxy S25 Ultra, or for the periscope telephoto sensor, as on the Xiaomi 15 Ultra.
200MP camera sensors are physically large in size, and using them on a phone almost guarantees that we get a large and thick camera bump. Usable physical space inside a phone is already rare, so accommodating two large 200MP sensors will be a difficult challenge that no one seems to be up for. If and when we do in the future, we could be looking at a camera beast with a 200MP large sensor primary camera and a 200MP periscope telephoto — a setup that could take care of most of your important focal lengths outside of ultrawide.
Would you pay flagship prices for a phone with two 200MP cameras? Let us know in the comments below!
