According to TechInsights dismantling the Samsung Galaxy S9 camera, it has been found that in some markets Samsung S9 and S9+ use Sony's IMX series of image sensors instead of Samsung's own ISOCELL sensors. These two sensors are somewhat different in design, but in terms of imaging quality. There is no difference.
It is reported that the Samsung sensor used by Samsung is IMX 345 and its own sensor is S5K2L3 ISOCELL Fast. S5K2L3 is an upgraded version of S5K2L2. The latter is a sensor used by Samsung S8, S8+ and Note 8 main cameras. Similar to IMX 345 IMX 400, The latter went first in the Xperia XZs debut last year.
It is understood that both Sony and Samsung's sensors use a 3-layer design, including CMOS image sensors, ISP, and DRAM for shooting 960fps super slow-motion video. The main difference is that IMX places DRAM between ISP and CMOS sensors. The ISOCELL sensor CMOS close to the ISP, DRAM on the back of the ISP.
It is unclear whether these two models are well-marked, but there should be no difference in image quality. In the DxOMark mobile phone camera ranking, S9 Plus ranked third.
