A system for, and method of, pixel data compression and a smartphone incorporating the system or the method. In one embodiment, the system includes: (1) a differential pulse code modulation encoder operable differentially to compress the two pixel values losslessly to yield two losslessly compressed pixel values and (2) an entropy encoder coupled to the differential pulse code modulation encoder and configured to receive and entropy-encode the losslessly compressed pixel values using a tiered technique to yield entropy-encoded, losslessly compressed pixel values. values using a tiered technique to yield Huffman-encoded, losslessly compressed pixel values.