Sony's LYTIA 720 sensor claims half the low-light noise, plus 4K60 HDR

Sony's new LYTIA 720 is a 50-megapixel stacked CMOS phone sensor with about 50% less random noise than the LYTIA 700. It supports 4K60 HDR with all-pixel autofocus.

Sony's Semiconductor Solutions Corporation division has announced the LYTIA 720, an approximately 50-effective-megapixel stacked CMOS image sensor for mobile devices. It is a 1/1.56-type sensor with a 10.24 mm (0.40 in) diagonal, 1.0 μm pixels, and a Quad Bayer color filter. Basically, it inherits technologies developed for Sony's LYTIA high-end series and applies them at a lower price point.

Improved low-light performance

Ultra High Conversion Gain (UHCG) circuit technology raises charge-to-voltage conversion efficiency and reduces random noise by approximately 50% compared with the LYTIA 700. In plain English, Sony is claiming better low-light performance.

There are other gains too. Hybrid Frame-HDR (HF-HDR) combines Dual Conversion Gain-HDR (DCG-HDR), which covers low- to medium-brightness ranges in a single exposure, with a short-exposure frame for the high-brightness range. These are then merged in post-processing. Combined with UHCG, HF-HDR gives a dynamic range of 100 dB, though Sony does not say whether that figure holds in video mode. Either way, that takes us very close to 17 stops, 16.6 to be exact.

Optimized AD conversion circuits reduce conversion time and lower sensor power consumption, enabling 4K60 HDR video recording with all-pixel autofocus.

Which phones will get the LYTIA 720?

Sony names no customers and gives no pricing, so there is no confirmed phone yet that will feature the sensor. Mass-production shipping is planned for early November, though, which suggests the first devices will appear in the first half of 2027.

The 1/1.56-type format is common in mid- to upper-mid-range phones, and the LYTIA 700 it replaces has turned up in Motorola, OnePlus, and OPPO handsets. Those brands are the obvious early candidates. But it’s worth pointing out that just because the chip can perform certain tasks, it does by no means mean that the phone it sits in can as well.

We've seen a clutch of Chinese smartphones with impressive camera capabilities in recent months, including the OPPO Find X10 Pro Max and the OnePlus 16. The LYTIA 720 brings those capabilities within reach of mid-price handsets as the main sensor, though you can also expect to see it behind the telephoto camera in higher-price models.