Samsung Galaxy Note 10 may miss out on the new 64MP camera sensor

Just after Samsung announced a new 64MP camera sensor that could appear in next year's Galaxy S11, hopes of the sensor coming to the Galaxy Note 10 later this year were dashed by a reputable Samsung device leaker.

"To be sure, Samsung Note10 will not use 64MP CMOS," Tweeted @UniverseIce, but also noting "This is not necessarily a bad thing."

The new 64MP camera sensor appeared alongside a 48MP sensor in a Samsung Newsroom post on May 9, expanding the company's lineup of sensors with 0.8-micron pixels. Both are expected to go into mass production in the latter half of 2019.

New camera technology is definitely exciting for anyone on the lookout for the next best camera phone. And, with new Samsung flagships often raising the bar for smartphone cameras, heightened expectations for the Galaxy Note 10 are only natural, especially in the wake of the new sensor news. But, if @UniverseIce is right, which seems plausible, it may not be all the bad for the Galaxy Note 10.

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Because megapixels only count for so much

Given that Samsung itself has said mass production of the 64MP and 48MP sensors isn't expected until the second half of the year, it seems like a stretch to include them in the Galaxy Note 10. With the launch for that phone expected in late summer, the window between mass production of the sensors and launch of the phone would be incredibly small.

But, the Galaxy Note 10 camera can be a good one even without the souped-up sensor. For one, megapixels aren't the whole story, as pixel size can play a role in how well a sensor handles low-light photography.

The 0.8-micron pixels in these new sensors are smaller than the pixels found in many best-in-class smartphone cameras like the Pixel 3's 12.2MP main camera, which has 1.4-micron pixels.

Samsung has done a good job with the 1.22-micron pixels in the Samsung Galaxy S10's main camera, and it can likely pull off something even better with the Galaxy Note 10 without the need for the 64MP sensor.