Sony has just announced their latest creation in the field of camera sensors for mobile phones and this puppy is single handedly redefining what advanced technology is capable of achieving. When it comes to snapping stills, it’ll do 17.7 megapixels worth, which doesn’t really mean much these days since we all know more pixels don’t directly correlate to better image quality. Where the magic comes in however is the sheer bandwidth this thing is capable of pumping out: 34.8 Gbps. That’s almost 4x faster than Intel’s latest Thunderbolt technology that first appeared on the recently announced update to Apple’s MacBook Pro lineup. Photos take up to 75% less time to process and video can be captured at an insane 120 frames per second using the full 17.7 megapixels the sensor offers. Forget HD, that is practically human vision. Now there are some caveats to all this. First, there’s no word on when this sensor will hit the market. Second, there aren’t going to be smartphones that can handle the type of processing power this thing demands. Finally, there are no displays capable of actually rendering 17.7 megapixel video, much less at 120 fps.
Does that make this thing any less cooler? Absolutely not. Like most bleeding edge technology, features of this CMOS image sensor will eventually trickle down into other, cheaper, sensors that will find themselves in a device soon to be in your pocket. Right now the most capable cameraphone on the market is the Nokia N8, and there are rumors that the next generation iPhone, due to be announced this summer, will use a new and improved backside illumination technology from OmniVision to offer image sensitivity levels that until now have only been seen in professional DSLR cameras.
All we know is this, the best camera is the one you always carry with you, and Sony is looking at making the tiny hole in the back of your smartphone the most powerful image capturing device you’ve ever owned.