Android phone camera better than human eye? That's Samsung's big vision with 600MP sensor

• Samsung wants to make a camera sensor for Android phones that is better than the human eye. Here's how the plan might actually work.

Samsung Galaxy s20

Challenging nature in its best form is the ideal goal for humans. Be it space explorations or digging to the core of the planets to unearth nature's best-kept secrets, humans are at the forefront of new discoveries. But on a more relatable front, smartphones, as we know it, has evolved beyond our imagination in the last decade and it's just the beginning.

Remember the VGA cameras in one of those classic feature phones we used to cherish back in the day? Now, compare those with today's 108MP camera setup, which can practically zoom to the moon to give you a shot no one thought would have been possible even a few years ago. But here we are.

Besting human eye - the next milestone

Samsung is one of the few notable brands that are actively leading smartphone camera innovations in the industry. After the 108MP sensor in the Galaxy S20 family, Samsung has its eye on, well, the human eye. According to Yongin Park, Head of Sensor Business Team at Samsung, the human eye have a resolution of around 500MP and Samsung is trying to outdo that. But it's not all about the sensors and its application not limited to smartphones.

In order to fit millions of pixels in today's smartphones that feature other cutting-edge specs like high screen-to-body ratios and slim designs, pixels inevitably have to shrink so that sensors can be as compact as possible. On the flip side, smaller pixels can result in fuzzy or dull pictures, due to the smaller area that each pixel receives light information from. The impasse between the number of pixels a sensor has and pixels' sizes has become a balancing act that requires solid technological prowess," Park explained.

Samsung's Tetracell and Nonacell technologies are industry standards in image sensors, which greatly improve the light absorbed on individual pixels. Then, the company went on to innovate further and reduced the pixel size to 0.7μm - an unmatchable feat.