Samsung Galaxy S9 May Have A 1000fps Camera
The South Korean tech giant, Samsung, has built a camera that clicks a thousand images in a second. Samsung has completed the test phase and may move into mass production in November. With the Samsung Galaxy S9 expected to launch in Q2 of 2018, the next year’s flagship might just feature this camera.
Samsung is working on a “three-layered image sensor.” In a normal setting, there is a camera sensor and a logic board that is responsible for the process of taking pictures. The logic board takes the image passed through the sensor, does some calculations, and turns what the human eye sees into data to be stored on the phone. Samsung is adding a DRAM chip into that equation to allow the camera to capture video at 1000 fps. If Samsung delivers this, it will join Sony as the slowest slow-motion camera right now.
Sony was the first company to commercialize the ‘three-layered image sensor’ with the XZ Premium. The Sony XZ Premium features a camera that records 720p videos at 960fps. It is reported that Samsung’s implementation of the same costs way more than Sony’s. Samsung decided to go with a different method in order to avoid paying a royalty fee to Sony for using their method.
The manufacturing process of a three-layered chip can be tedious and costly. If any of the three layers are bad, the whole chip will have to be tossed, which can be quite costly. Samsung’s process even though costlier, has its positives. The South Korean tech giant is a conglomerate, and therefore, can get its hands on the chip it needs internally. Whether this process yields in better performance than Sony is yet to be seen. Samsung uses Sony’s sensors in a lot of its flagship devices, especially for the US market. If the 1000fps camera makes its way to the Galaxy S9, we may see a high-performing Sony sensor for the American market and an in-house sensor for the South Korean market.
