Samsung registered the term “Hexa²pixel”, described in the filing as “image sensors for photographic devices”. This was noticed by Galaxy Club initially, now leakster Ice universe tweeted about the brand, teasing the resolution of the sensor in question.
The leakster implies that this sensor will bin 36 pixels into 1 (a group of 6×6 pixels merged into one), which is well above the current Tetracell (2×2) and Nonapixel (3×3) layouts. If the target is 12 MP out (as for the other two) we can calculate the resolution.
It runs at 432MP, although it could be rounded up to 450MP. In any case, it will double the resolution of Samsung’s 200 MP sensors, ISOCELL HP1 (1 / 1.22 “, 0.64µm pixel) and HP3 (1 / 1.4”, 0.56µm).
The arrangement of the ISOCELL HP3 color filter allows for 4 in 1 and 16 in 1 binning
Both HP sensors have “Tetra²pixel” color filters, which allow them to bin both 4×4 and 2×2 pixels for 12MP and 50MP output respectively. Given the “²” in the name of the new sensor, it will likely have two output modes as well.
6×6 and 3×3, maybe? In that case, it will be able to output images with resolution of 12MP and 48MP respectively. Binning will be necessary since even though the sensor is huge, fitting so many pixels will make them quite small.
A few years ago some rumors suggested that Samsung was working on sensors with resolutions up to 600 MP (with an insane 1 / 0.57 ”optical format), so this Hexa²pixel sensor could only represent half of what will come in the next few years.
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