Samsung is reportedly developing a new camera sensor featuring global shutter technology for its upcoming Galaxy S27 series. This advancement could revolutionize how smartphones capture fast-moving objects by eliminating common distortions seen in current mobile photography.
Traditional smartphone cameras use rolling shutter technology, which scans image pixels line by line. This method often produces visual distortions such as tilted or wobbly effects when photographing moving subjects. By contrast, global shutter sensors capture the entire frame simultaneously, preventing these artifacts and delivering more accurate motion capture.
Understanding Global Shutter vs. Rolling Shutter
Most smartphone cameras rely on rolling shutter, which reads image data sequentially from top to bottom. While fast, this approach records each line at slightly different times, creating distortions during rapid motion or camera shake. Global shutter captures all pixels at once, similar to how film cameras operate, making it the preferred method for professional video, drones, and robotics.
This analogy explains the difference clearly:
- Rolling shutter is like scanning a document line by line.
- Global shutter photographs the entire document in one shot.
Because of this, global shutter sensors excel at preserving straight lines and eliminating the so-called "jello effect" common in fast-motion videos.
Challenges in Mobile Adoption
Despite its benefits, global shutter is rarely used in smartphones due to certain drawbacks. Each pixel in such sensors requires an internal buffer to hold light data before processing, making the design more complex. This complexity reduces the light-sensitive area per pixel and demands higher power consumption, which is challenging for battery-operated devices like phones.
Additionally, manufacturing sensors with global shutter technology is costlier—estimated to be two to three times more expensive than rolling shutter sensors with similar specs. Smaller pixel sizes to accommodate circuitry can also decrease performance in low-light conditions.
Recent advances in semiconductor tech, such as embedded Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADC) and stacked sensor architectures, are helping to overcome these hurdles. Samsung’s development seems to leverage these innovations for practical smartphone use.
Samsung’s Sensor Specifications
Leaked details reveal the new Samsung global shutter sensor has the following specifications:
- Resolution: 12 megapixels
- Pixel size: 1.5 microns (µm)
- Embedded ADC for faster, more accurate signal conversion
- Likely deployment in telephoto or ultrawide modules
The embedded ADC is significant. By integrating the converter on the sensor chip itself, Samsung can reduce data noise, speed up readout times, and improve color accuracy and dynamic range.
Although 12MP may seem modest compared to recent cameras boasting over 100MP, this resolution and larger pixel size balance light sensitivity and high-speed capture ideal for global shutter performance.
User Benefits and Real-World Impact
If launched in the Galaxy S27 (expected in early 2026), users can expect several advantages:
- More stable videos of fast-moving subjects such as cars and drones
- Sharper sports and action shots free from distortion in faces or limbs
- Clearer scans of QR codes and digital screens without line artifacts
- Enhanced augmented reality (AR) and computational photography with precise motion tracking
This hardware breakthrough could give Samsung a technical edge over competitors like Apple and Google, which still rely heavily on software corrections to counter rolling shutter effects.
Competitive Landscape
Apple reportedly explores similar sensor technologies but seems to focus initially on neural processing and software algorithms. Samsung’s aggressive hardware-first strategy might allow it to claim the first mainstream global shutter smartphone camera.
Such a move could set a new standard in mobile photography, especially for videographers and enthusiasts demanding accurate motion capture without compromise.
Samsung’s push to incorporate a global shutter sensor signifies a bold leap toward more precise and realistic mobile imaging. While initial use may start on secondary camera modules, this technology paves the way for future widespread adoption as production costs decrease.
For smartphone users, it means the era of distorted moving images may soon become a thing of the past. The Galaxy S27 could hence mark the official end of the notorious “jello effect” that has long challenged mobile photographers worldwide.
