According to the official documentation which contains information about contact's photo handling (Android 4.0):
Large photos
Android now supports high resolution photos for contacts. Now, when you push a photo into a contact record, the system processes it into both a 96x96 thumbnail (as it has previously) and a 256x256 "display photo" that's stored in a new file-based photo store (the exact dimensions that the system chooses may vary in the future). You can add a large photo to a contact by putting a large photo in the usual PHOTO column of a data row, which the system will then process into the appropriate thumbnail and display photo records.
So, I would like to know if I store a photo with the size of 400x400 px
, is there any possibility to retrieve this photo with it's original size, or I have to be glad only having a photo with decreased size?