The miniaturization of pixelsize impacts performance of light sensitivity and signal to noise ratio (SNR) in today's 1.12 micrometer pixel image sensors.
Consider this: at 1.4 microns this sensor's pixelsize is identical to that of the iPhone 4S. This means that pixel for pixel, this shooter matches the competition -- it just uses five times more pixels per image than an 8-megapixel camera.