Xiaomi launched the Mi Note 10 last year and became the first company to launch a smartphone with a 108 MP camera.
That same sensor was used in the Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro that were released at the beginning of the year, but the company has dropped it in the new Mi 10 Ultra.
It seems that Xiaomi has considered that the 108 MP sensor is not ideal. This sensor, whose full name is Samsung ISOCELL Bright HMX, seems to have not lived up to Xiaomi’s expectations, which has led to the change for a lower resolution 48 MP sensor in the Mi 10 Ultra.
Instead of Samsung’s 108 MP ISOCELL Bright HMX, the company has chosen the OmniVision 0V48C sensor which, as the name suggests, is a 48 MP sensor.
While Samsung’s sensor is 1 / 1.33 “in size, the OV48C is slightly larger at 1 / 1.32” size. It also has much fewer pixels, so instead of the 0.8μm pixels from the 108 MP sensor, we have much larger pixels at 1.2μm.
It is not uncommon for Xiaomi to have adopted the new OV48C sensor. The cost of the OV48C is probably much cheaper than Samsung’s ISOCELL HMX.
Also, the 108 MP ISOCELL HMX sensor had some issues with autofocus and places a higher burden on the ISP due to its higher resolution. In any case, the Mi 10 Ultra and its OmniVision sensor seem to work very well as the phone has been crowned DxOMark # 1.
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