Check Galaxy S6 Camera Sensor Manufacturer (Sony & Samsung ISOCELL)

When it comes to smartphones, a major selling point is the camera. Nowadays, it is more than normal seeing a mobile phone with a 16 MP camera sensor which can take high quality pictures, record 4K UHD videos and capture slow motion videos.

The Samsung Galaxy S6 has a 16 MP shooter which is considered as the best camera sensor on the market, beating the former king, the Samsung Galaxy Note 4. After a huge success with the Samsung Galaxy S5 having an ISOCELL camera sensor, this time around Samsung decided to change things, replacing its own sensor technology with Sony’s camera sensor.

Based on benchmarks, the Sony sensor on the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge has performed better than any other camera on the market. However, there is something that users have found out about the Galaxy S6. While Samsung says that the phone comes with a Sony sensor, turns out a few units have Samsung’s own ISOCELL sensor.

Samsung responded to this issue and told everyone that this was not a big issue. Both sensors are almost identical and there is no difference when it comes to image and video quality. In fact, the sensors are interchangeable, so both can be used on the same motherboard.

However, after comparing pictures taken with a Galaxy S6 with a Sony sensor with pictures taken with a device with an ISOCELL sensor, there is a difference. Pictures taken with the Sony sensor appear sharper and colors are brighter. The difference is very small and most of the users will not tell the difference.

There is a simple way of checking your phone and see if it has the Sony or ISOCELL sensor.

1. Unlock your phone and launch the dialer.
2. Enter the following code: *#34971539#.
3. This will open the “CameraFirmware Standard”.
4. Tap on “ISP VER CHECK”. This will display the manufacturer of the main and front camera.
5. If you have the Sony sensor, the rear camera will be “SONY_IMX240_FIMC_IS” while the ISOCELL camera will be “SLSI_S5K2P2_FIMC_IS”.

The difference between these two sensors is so small that even a trained eye will have a hard time noticing the difference.