If you listen really closely to this leaked ad for an HTC Windows Phone 7 handset with a 16-megapixel camera, you can hear the sound of compact digital cameras dying a sad, slow death.
HTC’s yet-unnamed Windows Phone 7 would top the Altek Leo’s 14-megapixel camera for the highest pixel count in a smartphone. HTC’s handset will also reportedly have two LED flashes for superior lighting.
Other details on the phone itself are unknown. CNet speculates that the phone could have a front-facing camera based on the device rendering in the video, but so far Windows Phone 7 doesn’t support front-facing cameras. And as PocketNow points out, the rendering looks nearly the same as HTC’s Desire S, a recently-released Android phone, so the product image could be just a placeholder.
Megapixels aren’t everything, of course. The size of the pixels and the quality of the lens are just as important, as are user-friendly features such as face recognition and scene selection. But a pixel count of 16 million still makes a bold statement about the phone’s ability to take good pictures. If HTC’s phone can live up to the promise of this video, digicam makers will have good reason to worry.