ISOCELL HP9
The ISOCELL HP9 is the world’s first 200MP telephoto lens for smartphones. Samsung claims its overall image quality, autofocus, HDR, and FPS will be on par with a smartphone’s primary camera. The lens has a pixel size of 0.56-micron (μm), while the sensor itself is 1.4-inches. It is a periscope telephoto lens, to be precise, offering 2x or 4x in-sensor zoom. When used with a 3x telephoto module, the lens can zoom up to 12X, without compromising the image quality.
A new material has been used in the ISOCELL HP9, enhancing the sensor’s light-gathering capability. Compared to its previous generation, this allows for more vibrant color reproduction and improved focus with 12% more light, along with a 10% improvement in autofocus contrast.
The HP9 also offers 16-in-1 pixel binning, which works by combining groups of four pixels on the sensor into larger pixels. This results in improved low-light performance, along with sharper portrait shorts at dark and better bokeh effects.
While the lens has just been announced by Samsung, it already debuted on the Vivo X100 Ultra last month. On that phone, it sits as a periscope telephoto lens that achieves up to 3.7x optical zoom and 100x digital zoom.
ISOCELL GNJ
The ISOCELL GNJ is a 50MP sensor with a 1.0-micron pixel size in a 1/1.57-inch format. Thanks to the dual-pixel tech, each pixel on the sensor embeds two photodiodes, offering improved autofocus speed and accuracy. Paired with an in-sensor zoom feature, it delivers clearer videos and higher-resolution photos without artifacts.
Samsung has also made further improvements to the ISOCELL GNJ to help it gather more light and reduce reflections, while also ensuring it doesn’t over-brighten the dark areas. The images captured on the sensor will be more accurate, detailed, and precise. Furthermore, it’s also more power efficient than its forerunner, consuming 29% less power in preview mode, and 34% less in video mode at 4K 60fps.
ISOCELL JN5
The last of the lot is the ISOCELL JN5, another 50MP sensor but with a smaller 1/2.76-inches size and a smaller 0.64-micron pixel size. It features “Dual vertical transfer gate (Dual VTG) technology” for clearer images with lesser noise in extremely low-light conditions.
Moreover, with “dual slope gain (DSG) technology,” the ISOCELL JN5 also sees improvement in HDR, as it can produce a wider range of colors. The camera shooting speeds are also improved while allowing real-time zoom in both preview and capture modes.
According to Samsung, the JN5 is a versatile sensor that can be used on a smartphone’s rear cameras as a wide-angle, ultrawide-angle, or telephoto lens, or even on the front as a selfie shooter.
Could We See These Lenses On Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Series?
It’s highly likely that we’ll see these sensors in the upcoming Galaxy S25 lineup, given that their predecessors have also been used in the current and previous S-series phones.
The ISOCELL HP9 could find its way to the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. It would be a perfect match for the phone’s primary camera, enhancing its overall image quality and zoom performance compared to the Galaxy S24 Ultra.
The ISOCELL GNJ could be used as the main camera for the Galaxy S25 and S25 Plus, as it’s similar to the one on the current Galaxy S24 and S24 Plus. Previously, a tipster also suggested that the upcoming S25 and S25 Plus will continue using a 50MP primary lens.
That said, these are just speculations, and we’ll have to wait until next year for the release of the Galaxy S25 lineup to find out. In the meantime, we might see these lenses being used on other smartphones.
