In mid-2017, Samsung launched the ISOCELL lineup of camera sensors to suggest that it would be using more in-house image sensors and cut on costs of buying from third-party vendors, however, the 2018 Galaxy S9 and Note 9 still have main camera sensors from Sony on a good number of units in addition to the company’s ISOCELL.
This difference in image sensors used in the same phones has on numerous occasions been subject of debate whenever camera issues start popping up here and there. And apparently, this debate might just be about to get even more interesting as reports coming from Korea suggest Samsung is looking into using camera modules sourced from Chinese vendors for the Galaxy S10.
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This would make it the first time Samsung sources main camera parts from China, but it won’t be the last time the company goes to China for the S10 components. Apparently, Samsung will also go to China for antenna parts of the same S10 handsets and the reason behind this move is to cut costs that are largely associated with the prolonged smartphone replacement cycle.
The company already turned to a Chinese vendor, Sunny Optical, earlier this year for the front camera lenses used on the Galaxy Note 9 and S9, so it won’t come as a surprise that some parts of the main Galaxy S10 camera will be coming from China.
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Of course, this information isn’t coming from Samsung itself, so take it with a grain of salt. But of course, it will be interesting to see how such a move would affect business for local Korean partners that Samsung usually works with as far as supplying these components is concerned, among them Samsung Elecro-Mechanics, Koran, and Amotech.
