Will Samsung Move Away From Its ISOCELL Camera Technology?

Samsung’s Galaxy S24 range has leaked repeatedly ahead of a presumed launch on January 17th. Now, the next generation of Samsung’s Galaxy camera technology has been leaked, but it comes with a twist.

With photography one of the battlegrounds between smartphone manufacturers, maintaining a lead (both a practical lead in hardware and a perception lead in the eyes of the consumer) is critical. It might be hard to explain concisely to consumers why a larger vapour chamber allowing the chipset to run slightly colder is a good thing, but it’s easy to show a picture and go, “This is better than the same subject as last year."

The phone camera is a proxy for the entire phone.

It should come as no surprise that Samsung is working to improve the camera on its smartphones. The Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S23 family are using Samsung’s own 50-megapixel camera sensor, the ISOCELL GN3. Noted Samsung source @Tech_Reve is reporting that Samsung is preparing to switch away from ISOCELL to a new camera sensor from Sony.

The ISOCELL GN3 delivers results, but it was never intended to be a sensor for a flagship device; this year's Galaxy S23 and S23+ carried the GN3, but the top-of-the-line S23 Ultra used the 200-megapixel ISOCELL HP2 sensor. It’s a slight difference (120 vs 140 using the DxOMark ratings), but it is noticeable.

The leak also illustrates the lengthy design process for a modern flagship, as the potential switch in the camera sensor is for the Galaxy S25 and S25+, which will not be on sale until 2025. The upcoming Galaxy S24 handsets will continue using Samsung’s ISOCELL sensors.

Google’s recently launched Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro are using ISOCELL sensors and are picking up plaudits for their photographs. Add in the new AI features provided by Samsung Gauss and the familiarity the South Korean company has with its sensors, and the coming handsets are likely to be some of the best smartphone cameras on the market.

Then, like every smartphone that has come before it, work will continue to beat it the following year, including the camera technology.

Now read how Samsung is changing the design of the Galaxy S24 Ultra to accommodate a key hardware upgrade...