We’ve just reached the peak of the ‘megapixel war’ – the Xiaomi 18 Pro is expected to have two 200MP cameras for the first time, and they might actually come in handy

The Xiaomi 18 Pro will reportedly have two 200MP cameras
Previous leaks suggest that upcoming phones from Oppo, Vivo and Honor could too
Megapixels aren’t everything, but they can make a real difference to zoom photos

You might have thought the megapixel wars were largely over, with phones no longer competing to out-megapixel each other as things like battery life and AI have become a bigger focus. But it seems, at least among Chinese brands, that the megapixel war may be back – but in a slightly different form.

Instead of trying to pack a single sensor with more megapixels than we’ve seen before, several brands are now rumored to equip upcoming phones with multiple 200MP cameras.

For reference, some phones like the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra already have a 200MP sensor, but only one – we’ve yet to see one with two.

However, according to a new claim from Digital Chat Station (via GSMArena ), an upcoming phone – believed to be the Xiaomi 18 Pro – will have two 200MP cameras and a 6.3-inch display. In comparison, the Xiaomi 17 Pro also has a 6.3-inch screen, but all three of its rear cameras are 50MP.

Just one of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra’s cameras is 200MP (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

Several models with many megapixels

And it’s not the first we’ve heard of a phone with two 200MP cameras, as the same source (via GizmoChina) previously said that both the Oppo Find X9 Ultra and Vivo X300 Ultra will have two 200MP snappers. Leaker Fixed Focus Digital has also suggested (again via GizmoChina) that the upcoming Honor Magic 8 Ultra could also have two 200MP cameras.

So it looks like 2026 could be the year of the dual 200MP phone. But this may be more than just a gimmick or a spec for the box, as more megapixels can allow for more detailed, sharper images.

200 MP is definitely more than you need, especially if you mostly need to view the image on your phone. But all those megapixels also allow images to be cropped without losing too much detail, which in turn means you can get something approaching an optical-quality zoom just by cropping the sensor – much like newer iPhones do with their 2x zoom mode.

It is likely that one of these 200 MP sensors will be used for the main camera, and if the other is used for telephoto, it could allow for quite a few different zoom levels. For example, it can offer a 3x optical zoom and then a 5x sensor crop zoom and can go even further with multiple levels of crop.

Of course, this is only speculation as it remains to be seen what approach Xiaomi and these other brands will take – if they even have multiple 200MP cameras, but there is certainly potential in this rumored upgrade.

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