Apple may finally be catching up with its competitors in terms of megapixel count as the company has begun testing a 200-megapixel camera for future devices, according to Chinese insider Digital Chat Station.
Currently, many mobile manufacturers are already using such a camera. In particular, 200 megapixels can be seen in Samsung's flagship smartphones starting with the Galaxy S23 Ultra, as well as similar cameras from Motorola and Chinese manufacturers such as Xiaomi and Honor.
Among the advantages of a 200-megapixel camera is better cropping capabilities. Sensors like Samsung's Isocell HP3 also allow for 4x zoom without loss of quality due to the higher pixel count.
However, most mobile sensors, due to their smaller size, cannot take full advantage of such a high pixel count. One of the disadvantages is poorer image quality in low light conditions.
Additionally, high-resolution sensors have smaller individual pixels, although there are solutions for this as well. For example, Samsung uses nona-binning technology, which combines nine pixels into one, which improves image quality.
As for Apple, there are no details about the camera. The 200-megapixel sensor will probably only appear on the top models of future iPhones. By the way, currently the highest resolution camera on Apple smartphones is 48 MP.
It is also currently unknown which sensor manufacturer the Cupertino company will turn to. Among the obvious options are the already mentioned 200MP Isocell sensors from Samsung, but it is also known that Sony is working on its own similar sensor.