Technologies

Galaxy S23 Ultra’s Secret Weapon Could Be This New Samsung Chip

Exclusive: Samsung’s Isocell HP2 image sensor can shoot photos at 12.5, 50 or even 200 megapixels thanks to new pixel binning options.

With its new 200-megapixel Isocell HP2 image sensor, Samsung will try to give smartphone photographers the best of both worlds: high resolution and good image quality in challenging conditions.

The HP2 is in mass production. Samsung has neither announced its shipment date nor confirmed which phone it will arrive in. Still, the sensor is expected to power the main camera on the company’s flagship Galaxy S23 Ultra phone, likely to debut Feb. 1.

Image sensor designers face a tradeoff. Increasing resolution means each pixel on the sensor is smaller, and smaller pixels aren’t able to gather light as well. That means shots taken in low light are marred by noise speckles. They lose detail in shadowed parts of a scene. And they suffer blown-out highlights in bright areas like skies.

The HP2, though, brings new methods to counteract those problems and make the most of each photon of light, Samsung revealed exclusively to CNET.

The South Korean electronics giant’s sensor can gather light more effectively in the first place, boost high dynamic range (HDR) photos to cope better with scenes with dark and bright elements, the company said. And when shooting at the full 200-megapixel resolution, Samsung uses AI technology to help render the finest details.

It’s not yet clear how well the sensor will perform in real-world testing. But it’s no surprise Samsung is focusing on the technology. Camera improvements are a prime reason to upgrade phones, with better photos and videos more noticeable than marginally better processors, battery life and network technology.

«The full 200MP resolution especially shines when shooting at concerts or outdoors where there’s lots of detail to be captured,» said JoonSeo Yim, executive vice president of Samsung Electronics’ sensor business. «It may not be the predominant setting for most consumers, but we definitely see the need for highly detailed images.»

Apple, Samsung’s top smartphone rival, is likewise investing heavily in its cameras. Comparatively large lens elements protrude from the back of iPhone 14 Pro models to show off camera performance, and Apple has upgraded its sensors for better high-resolution and low-light shooting.

Better pixel binning options

One of the headline techniques for improving smartphone photos is called pixel binning. With it, groups of physical pixels can be combined into larger virtual pixels that gather more light when it’s dim, trading off resolution for lower noise and better color.

Samsung isn’t alone in using pixel binning. You’ll see it in the Apple iPhone 14 Pro, Google Pixel 7, Xiaomi 12T Pro and other phones, but the HP2 sensor is one of the most advanced. Apple and Google, for example, use 2×2 pixel binning that turn four physical pixels into one virtual pixel. Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S22 phones have offered 3×3 pixel binning since 2019, offering 108 megapixel photos in good light and 12-megapixel photos when it’s dim.

Samsung’s HP2 can take 200-megapixel photos under good conditions. When it’s dimmer, pixel binning groups pixels into 2×2 chunks for a 50-megapixel image. And when dimmer yet, Samsung’s 4×4 «Tetra2pixel» chunks take a 12.5-megapixel photo.

The two levels of pixel binning were available on the 200-megapixel HP3, announced in 2022. However, the HP3 uses smaller pixels that, while minimizing camera bulk, aren’t as good at capturing light in the first place. The HP1, announced in 2021, also had it. But the HP2 adds some other tricks the HP1 lacks.

Pixel binning ups and downs

Pixel binning has some other advantages. Cameras can crop in on the central portion of the image to zoom into more distant subjects. It’s a key foundation to the effort to give smartphones zoom abilities like traditional camera lenses. Pixel binning also opens up new options for high resolution 4K and 8K video.

Pixel binning has downsides, though. It takes a lot of battery power to process all those pixels, and storing high-resolution photos gobbles up a lot of storage space. And high-resolution sensors, while nice in principle, don’t achieve top image quality unless they’re paired with high-quality lenses.

«The full 200MP mode does require more RAM and power,» Yim said, which is why such high resolution sensors are only found on high-end smartphones.

One complication with the HP2 is figuring out color when shooting 200 megapixel photos. Digital cameras capture either red, green or blue light for each pixel, but the Tetra2pixel design means each 4×4 pixel group captures only one of those colors. To help fill in the color detail needed within those 16-pixel groups, Samsung uses an artificial intelligence algorithm, the company said.

Samsung HP2’s image quality improvements

The sensor has other tricks to boost image quality, particularly with high dynamic range scenes with both bright and dark details. Here are a few:

A technology called Dual Voltage Transfer Gate (D-VTG) gives each pixel a 33% better ability to gather light, which should improve image quality in dim scenes and cut back on washed-out white patches in bright skies.
Samsung’s Dual Slope Gain (DSG) feature improves HDR photos by digitizing each pixel’s exposure data at two different scales to gather bright and dark data when shooting in 50-megapixel mode. The abundant pixels on the sensor mean some pixel quartets are tuned for bright light and others for dimmer light.
A related feature called Smart-ISO Pro is a separate HDR technology that adapts to different scenes, employing different combinations of sensitivity settings appropriate for the different frames used to build the HDR photo.

Another new feature in the HP2 is an improved autofocus with a technology called Super QPD. It can spot either horizontal and vertical lines across 2×2 pixel groups, helping the camera lock onto details like horizons or tree trunks even when it’s dim, Samsung said.

Each HP2 pixel is 0.6 microns, or 6 millionths of a meter, wide. That’s a shade narrower than the 0.62 microns of the HP1. For comparison, a human hair is something like 75 microns across. Combined into a 2×2 array for 50-megapixel photos, the pixel width increases to 1.2 microns, and in 4×4, to 2.4 microns.

«We expect that high-resolution image sensors will become a standard feature in future flagship smartphones,» Yim said. «Because of that, we think it’s important to continue our efforts, from advanced pixel processes below 0.5 microns to pixel performance and algorithms.»

Larger sizes are better at gathering light. The Samsung pixel sizes are pretty similar to the iPhone 14 Pro’s main camera sensor, which uses 2.44 micron pixels in 12-megapixel mode and 1.22 microns in 48-megapixel mode.

When it comes to video, the HP2 has many options. It can shoot 8K video at 30 frames per second by using the sensor in its 50-megapixel mode. It can shoot 4K video at 120fps, or, if Smart-ISO is engaged, at 60fps. For 1080p video, the sensor will shoot at 480fps without autofocus and 240fps with autofocus.

Technologies

Gemini Expands to Live Camera Feeds: What It Means for Your Privacy

Gemini for Home’s AI is getting a significant upgrade — if you don’t mind it peering through your security cam.

Google’s Gemini for Home AI originally could only access stored video clips from compatible security cameras. It could answer questions about object locations, notify you when a UPS van arrived and provide daily summaries of motion-detected activity captured by the cameras. Now, that AI analysis is getting a significant live viewing boost.

According to Anish Kattukaran, chief product officer for Google Home, and his latest X posts on the changes, Google Home is introducing the ability to ask Gemini for Home Live Search questions, letting the AI look at what the camera currently sees, analyze that footage and explain it.

«You can now ask Gemini to understand the current state of your home,» Kattukaran wrote. «(For example), Hey Google, is there a car in the driveway?'»

These options will be available only to Google Home Premium Advanced subscribers, with plans starting at $20.

A Google representative didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Other upgrades to Google Home include the full rollout of Yale Smart Lock integration and improved casual conversation with Gemini for Home.

How invasive are these Gemini live viewing features?

Concerns about Gemini AI accessing security cameras on demand are understandable. Similar privacy questions have arisen with features like Ring’s pet-finding Search Party and the extent of law enforcement access to Flock Safety surveillance.

Unlike Ring’s cut-short partnership, Google Nest has never had any contracts with surveillance companies like Flock. However, the company has shared footage with police in the past, most notably when Nest recovered cloud footage, first assumed deleted, from a Nest camera, to help in the case of Nancy Guthrie, the missing mother of Today Show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie.

It is unclear whether the new Live Search feature will allow Gemini for Home to access cameras on demand in cases involving law enforcement requests. According to Google’s description, Gemini for Home can use Live Search whenever questions pertain to a home’s current state, giving the AI broad access. Google has not yet clarified whether Live Search can be disabled or how live camera feeds might be handled in relation to police or other privacy concerns.

Whenever Gemini for Home accesses a Nest camera, the footage may be used for AI training purposes. Details about how Live Search is activated and managed have not been fully disclosed. By default, the latest Nest cameras provide 6 hours of free cloud video storage, but Gemini for Home can only access stored or live footage if people have the appropriate subscription plan and have enabled the feature.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for March 5, #528

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for March 5, No. 528.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition offers some tricky red herrings. Arsenal is a famous soccer/football team, of course, but that’s not how it is used here. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Useful things.

Green group hint: Baseballers hang out here.

Blue group hint: March Madness.

Purple group hint: George R.R. of Game of Thrones fame.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Tools.

Green group: Found in a dugout.

Blue group: Last year’s men’s NCAA tournament Final Four.

Purple group: ____ Martin.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is tools. The four answers are arsenal, bag, repertoire and skill set.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is found in a dugout. The four answers are bubble gum, Gatorade, sunflower seeds and water.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is last year’s men’s NCAA tournament Final Four. The four answers are Auburn, Duke, Florida and Houston.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is ____ Martin. The four answers are Aston, Curtis, Kate and Kenyon.

Technologies

RAM Shortage Could Kill Budget Phones: The Latest Predictions at MWC 2026

Skyrocketing memory costs mean bleaker projections than even the worst predictions analysts made before.

The race to build AI infrastructure has gobbled up so much memory that prices have skyrocketed, with analysts predicting that product costs will rise as a result. But the outlook is far worse than anticipated. New reports and forecasts suggest that the RAM shortage could prompt manufacturers of cheaper devices to reduce or even stop production for some time.

Smartphone shipments are expected to drop by 13% through 2026 compared with last year, according to the International Data Corporation. This won’t just be a temporary crisis, but «a tsunami-like shock originating in the memory supply chain, with ripple effects spreading across the entire consumer electronics industry,» Francisco Jeronimo, vice president for Worldwide Client Devices at IDC, had previously said in a statement.

When reached at MWC 2026, Jeronimo predicted that this impact won’t happen immediately. Phone sales will stay pretty static over the first quarter of the year (which is almost over) as distributors buy as much stock as they can, but the shortage will start affecting phone production around the second quarter, between April and June.

Phones are already getting more expensive, as analysts predicted. The Samsung Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus, which both launched with a $100 price hike over their predecessors — though they also bumped the minimum storage to 256GB from 128GB. But the premium segment likely won’t be as affected as lower-cost, higher-volume phones, said Anshel Sag, principal analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy.

«That’s why you’re already seeing the Chinese [phone manufacturers] have to jack up prices already,» Sag said.

With the shortage, RAM prices are spiking, reaching three times last year’s levels, according to a Counterpoint Research report released at the end of February. The cheapest devices, already on thin margins, will likely see their profits evaporate. At that point, it’s not worth selling those phones.

«Some vendors are telling us that they are considering leaving that [budget] segment entirely, because if you sell a phone for $150, and half the cost is memory, where will you make money? There’s no point in selling products, right?» Jeronimo said.

If the cheapest budget segment drops out of the phone industry over the next year, that’s 10% of the global market that will be gone, Jeronimo noted.

The shortage is already affecting plans for the prices of phones set to launch. At MWC 2026, several phones were shown off without finalized prices, like the Unihertz Titan 2 Elite shown off at MWC that is soon being sold on Kickstarter. Before the RAM shortage, the price of an upcoming phone would be set weeks or months in advance of its release to store shelves. Now, it’s too risky to name a price until just before it’s sold. They just might not have enough memory to even supply the first batch of products at the preset price, Jeronimo said, and potentially raise prices thereafter.

As an example, the base Xiaomi 17 recently launched at 999 euros, but Jeronimo predicted that «the price they announced on stage is not the price they [will] see [the phone at]. The price in the store, in many operations, will be 100 euros more than what they said on stage,» he said.

When will the RAM crisis end?

Unlike last year’s tariffs and the financial fluctuations that phone-makers largely absorbed, the RAM shortage is unavoidable — there’s simply a lot less of these components to go around.

«This is not a short-term thing,» Jeronimo said. «You cannot build 1,000 factories in three or four months. [That would] take two to three years.»

At IDC’s current predictions, the crisis won’t last quite that long — only one and a half to two years, Jeronimo clarified. That could be shortened if other, smaller-tier suppliers start producing memory and alleviating the shortage, but the conditions he reported are dire, with RAM manufacturers requiring payment up-front for periodic shipments with the anticipation that the next slew of units could cost more.

But IDC’s analyst also put to bed another potential mitigation that had been floated late last year — that manufacturers would reverse their previous course of increasing RAM with each generation and actually trim it in the next. Even if it were cheaper to use less memory in phones, it would diminish the experience too much, causing too many retailers to return their phones for poor performance, Jeronimo explained. RAM isn’t just used to run AI models — it also lets people keep multiple apps open and operating at once.

On the component side, major companies aren’t commenting on the shortage and have even announced they won’t take questions on the matter at the start of press briefings.

Understandably, higher phone prices will likely lead people to hold off on upgrading, extending the time they keep their current handsets, said Dipanjan Chatterjee, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester. The onus is on the brands to counteract this upgrade lethargy in two ways, he said: diversify revenue streams to lean harder on non-phone sales, like Apple is doing with its services, and second, add more bells and whistles to make price increases more palatable.

Hence, Samsung is increasing the Galaxy S26 storage alongside its price hike. And Samsung itself is better positioned to capture sales with its tradition of strong deals and incentives during a product launch. When the Galaxy S26 lineup launched, it also offered trade-in and promotional deals to offset the $100 price increase, including pairing other gadgets with its phones.

While the RAM shortage is the biggest factor driving these price increases, other factors are at play as well. Global instability, including the recent war in the Middle East, is forcing transportation to be rerouted outside no-fly zones, raising the price of transporting products. Components across the board are getting pricier, too.

The good news is that this price spike won’t last forever. Eventually, the race to build more AI data centers will slow, and in addition to more memory fabrication spinning up, the prices will stabilize. But like every other consumer good that saw a price spike, they likely won’t drop in affordability to where they were before.

«I don’t think the price of memory will go down to the same levels as last year,» Jeronimo said.