Samsung Electronics has unveiled its latest 200-megapixel camera sensor, which has some of the tiniest pixels, which it says will allow manufacturers to keep their high-end smartphones ultra-thin. At the same time, the technology included in the HP3 sensor includes autofocus capability for each pixel, sorting for better low-light capability, and multi-gain ISO for maximum dynamic range.

The sensor measures 1/1.4 inch, which is quite large for a smartphone, but very small for a 200-megapixel sensor. Samsung claims it has the industry's smallest 0.56 micron pixel, 20 percent smaller than the 0.64 micron pixel of the ISOCELL HP1 introduced last year. However, that's not quite accurate, as Chinese manufacturer Omnivision launched a 2-megapixel sensor with the same 0.56 micron pixel size back in February.

Samsung's latest 200-megapixel smartphone sensor has smaller pixels than ever.

Still, Samsung's sensors have some nice technical tricks. Every pixel has autofocus detection capability." Super QPD & quot; Technology uses a lens at four pixels, allowing for faster, more accurate autofocus. It can also combine four 0.56 micron pixels into a larger 1.12 micron 50 megapixel sensor for better low-light capability, and can even combine 16 pixels into a 2.24 micron size. That's still a lot smaller than most camera sensors (SONY's 61 megapixel full-frame A7R IV sensor has 3.76 microns), but should allow for decent low-light shooting capability.

In addition to high-resolution photos, it allows shooting 8K video at 30fps and 4K video at 120fps while using almost the entire sensor width. Finally, it offers a 14-bit color depth (4 trillion colors), quadrupling the 12-bit depth of most smartphone sensors. Mass production will begin this year, and you could see a 200-megapixel phone using the sensor in 2023.