In July, Xiaomi released the Mi 12S Ultra with the world’s first Sony IMX989 flagship sensor onboard. At that time, Xiaomi founder Lei Jun pointed out that Xiaomi and Sony jointly developed the sensor. Moreover, the Xiaomi engineer team participated in the specification definition and part of the design and verification of the IMX989.
Also Read: Sharp AQUOS R7 Uses The Same IMX989 Lens As Xiaomi Mi 12S Ultra
Lei Jun said that after Xiaomi debuted the Sony IMX989, it will be open to domestic manufacturers. The main reason behind sharing their achievements is that Xiaomi wants mobile imaging to develop more rapidly.
Today, we learned that the Sony IMX989 is already available for OEMs. From a well-known Chinese leaker, we can learn that the new flagship with this sensor onboard will hit the market as soon as this month. When saying this, we don’t mean the Xiaomi Mi 13 Pro. As you know, the latter is the world’s second smartphone sporting the lens. We mean that one of Xiaomi’s rivals will use it.
As for key specifications, the Sony IMX989 has a 1-inch monster-level outsole. Its development cost is $15 million. Xiaomi and Sony each bear half of it. This is not only a milestone for Xiaomi but also a milestone in the field of mobile imaging. Not accidentally, Lei Jun called it the ceiling in the mobile imaging.
Compared with the iPhone 13 Pro Max, the Sony IMX989 has a 72% increase in the photosensitive area, a 76% increase in the photosensitive capacity, a 32.5% increase in the camera speed, and an 11% increase in the startup speed.
Thus, Xiaomi and its partners are working hard to make tough competition to Apple and its products. Honestly, this sensor really performs well. And though we guess it still yields the iPhone 14 Pro models, soon, everything might change. We mean after polishing, it should perform much better.
