Xiaomi 16 Pro Max to Feature the Company’s Self-Made SmartSens 590 Image Sensor

Xiaomi 16 Pro Max could use the company’s first homegrown SmartSens 590 camera sensor. The newcomer is inching closer to launch by the second, and the leaks are becoming more frequent as the days go by. We hear the company is moving away from Sony’s IMX technology, and the Pro Max will be one of their first devices with a proprietary 50MP sensor.

Xiaomi wants to cut ties with third-party component manufacturers, and their strategy couldn’t be more obvious. Just as the Xring chips, the company no longer wishes to rely on Sony for their smartphone cameras. It will rather move on to a custom SmartSens 590 camera sensor, which will have much better low-light performance.

XiaomiTime had plenty of details to share about this new sensor. It seems that this new SmartSens shooter has a 1/1.28” sensor that could, in theory, provide more surface area to capture light. Of course, this will make shots brighter, and the resulting images will be sharper as well.

The new flagship Xiaomi mobile will also have a familiar 50MP resolution, a sweet spot as far as the flagship cameras go. Another thing we learned about this Xiaomi camera is that it has a 22nm process node. That means it’s also quite power-efficient and doesn’t produce as much heat during use. 

You must’ve heard of Dual-Pixel autofocus before, which is usually present on mirrorless cameras and some flagship phones. Well, the Xiaomi SmartSens camera doubles down on it with a QPD (Quad Pixel Detection system) that’s faster with focus and much sharper. 

There are reports of another important technology used in this sensor, which is LOFIC 2.0. From what we know, this has the potential to scale up the Dynamic range and possibly allow smoother exposure transitions on this sensor. Xiaomi will partner up with Leica again, so expect Leica-tuned optics on top of this SmartSens 590.

There is still a lot that we don’t know about the Xiaomi 16 Pro Max. But if the leaks continue to emerge at this pace, it shouldn’t take long for more specs to come out. Stick around if you want to stay in the loop.