New phone camera sensor promises dramatically improved low light photos
- Vivo is working on an RGBW camera sensor that could lead to huge improvements in photography in low light.
- It’s supposedly twice as efficient as a traditional sensor.
- Phones that use the sensor are already in the works and are expected to arrive in 2021.
It’s still difficult to get a good photo in low light with your phone, but Vivo may fix this in the near future. The Chinese brand has unveiled plans for an RGBW (red, green, blue, white) camera sensor that will excel in low light.
The design is billed as the first sensor with both an RGBW matrix and a color filter array and is reported to have 200% more photosensitivity efficiency than a traditional RGGB device (red, green, green, blue) – you will “Precise and clear photos in low light, claimed Vivo. According to Vivo, it is even 60% more efficient than the RYYB sensors (red, yellow, yellow, blue) in phones like the Huawei P40 Pro and is not prone to problems with color casts.
Devices that use the new sensor are in the works and are expected to go on sale in 2021. Vivo stated that they had been working “discreetly” on the sensor for about a year.
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This isn’t the first time phone manufacturers have used RGBW sensors. Huawei used one in the 2015 P8 to reduce low light noise and improve brightness in high contrast situations. We generally liked the output, although there were issues with brightly lit backgrounds as well as color saturation in dark scenes. That was five years ago, however, and we would expect Vivo to benefit from technological advances since then.
There is no guarantee that this will result in the excellence the company has promised. However, Vivo has developed a knack for photography in low light in devices like the X50 Pro, even without relying on a night mode. The main concern is simply that the competition doesn’t stand still. Samsung is rumored to be developing a new version of its 108MP sensor and we would expect sensor experts like Sony to deliver updates in 2021 as well. However, this suggests that Vivo will not be left behind.
