Xiaomi is planning to break a record with its next phone.
Xiaomi’s president, Lin Bin, has taken to Chinese social media giant Weibo (via Engadget) to post a picture of the company's latest smartphone effort: a phone with what appears to be a 48-megapixel camera. Lin didn’t share much else about the phone. He only revealed it is expected to launch this January, which, if it does, would make the device the first 48-megapixel phone camera in the world.
It'd also break a record once held by Nokia, which offered a phone with a 41-megapixel camera. Rumors suggest Xiaomi's new phone will be part of the Xiaomi Mi phone series. It could even be the Mi 9, which is also rumored to have a 48-megapixel camera. But a render of that device recently leaked out, and it doesn't seem to exactly match up with the close-up shot that Bin posted to Weibo.
The first 48-megapixel smartphone sensors were only announced this year, thanks to Sony and Samsung, but neither has been featured in a smartphone as of yet. A 48-megapixel device would allow for clearer pictures and also let users zoom up to four times with minimal loss in quality.