Google launched its Pixel 7 line of smartphones in October 2022, with a faster Tensor G2 SoC, slight refashioning in design, and improvements to the camera, over the Pixel 6 series. While Google’s latest flagship smartphones use the same 50MP Samsung ISOCELL GN1 camera sensor as the older Pixel 6 lineup, the imaging quality on the Pixel 7 series is superior to its predecessor. However, Google could refresh the following year’s Pixel 8 phones with a new camera sensor.
According to developer Kuba Wojciechowski, who spotted new strings of code in the Google Camera Go app, the next-gen Pixel devices could support staggered HDR. For those wondering what this feature means, staggered HDR is an advanced image capture technique in which a long and short exposure gets captured simultaneously on the same camera sensor and then combined into a single image using computational HDR. As a result, this produces an HDR image faster and with higher quality even when the subject is moving. In comparison, the standard image sensors used in most phones can only handle a single exposure at a time. Unlike computational photography features enabled by software tweaks, Staggered HDR requires hardware that supports the feature. It’s a relatively new addition to smartphone camera sensors. Therefore, only a few image sensors support staggered HDR at the moment. — Kuba Wojciechowski⚡ (@Za_Raczke) December 19, 2022 As we already know that the Pixel 7’s GN1 sensor does not support staggered HDR, it is safe to assume that Google is working on a new sensor that supports the staggered HDR feature for its next-generation flagships. Wojciechowski also mentions that Samsung’s 50MP ISOCELL GN2 sensor, a successor of the GN1 sensor, supports staggered HDR. However, there is no guarantee that big G will ship the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro with this new 50MP GN2 sensor. Via: SlashGear
