We’ve just hit peak ‘megapixel war’ – the Xiaomi 18 Pro is expected to have two 200MP cameras for the first time, and they might actually be useful

• The Xiaomi 18 Pro will reportedly have two 200MP cameras
• Previous leaks suggest upcoming phones from Oppo, Vivo, and Honor could as well
• Megapixels aren't everything, but they could make a real difference to zoom shots

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 bigger focuses. But it seems among Chinese brands at least, the megapixel war might be back – but in a slightly different form.

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

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

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

Multiple models with many megapixels

And this isn’t the first we’ve heard of a phone with dual 200MP cameras, as the same source (via GizmoChina) has previously said that both the Oppo Find X9 Ultra and the 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 have two 200MP cameras as well.

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

Arguably, 200MP is more than you need, especially if you’re mostly going to view the photo 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 recent iPhones do with their 2x zoom mode.

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

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

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