Sharp AQUOS R7 Equipped with SONY IMX989
In May this year, Sharp released a new high-end phone AQUOS R7, and announced that it will open pre-sale from July to August. As promised, on July 8, AQUOS R7 SoftBank opened for sale in Japan, priced at 189,360 yen.
In terms of key highlights AQUOS R7 is equipped with the latest development of a 1-inch 47MP sensor but did not mention a specific model or brand of the sensor. But now, Japanese media revealed a screenshot of the device showing AQUOS R7 equipped with SONY IMX989, the same CMOS model name as Xiaomi 12S Ultra.
It should be noted that the Sony IMX989 CMOS lens of the Xiaomi 12S Ultra is 50 megapixels, while the AQUOS R7 is 47.2 megapixels, indicating that Sharp is using the cropped sensor. Lei Jun has said that the Xiaomi 12S Ultra uses a custom Sony IMX989, complete with a 1-inch super bottom, and no cropping was done.
Lei Jun revealed that Xiaomi’s camera department was involved in the IMX989 specification definition and part of the design and verification work. 15 million USD was spent on IMX989 development, with Xiaomi and Sony each bearing half of the cost. The Xiaomi 12S Ultra is the first imaging flagship to feature the mass-produced and shipping IMX989.
