Apple may have had one of the first modern smartphones with a telephoto lens, but it will be one of the last to adopt a periscope-style cam. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has refined some of the claims about Apple’s first periscope: it will arrive next year, but only on the iPhone 15 Pro Max (in other words, the smaller iPhone 15 Pro will attach to a classic telephoto lens).
Kuo says the periscope will have 6x magnification and a 1/3 “12MP sensor with sensor displacement stabilization. Previous rumors claimed 5x magnification, but it’s possible the final number wasn’t nailed down (the iPhone 15 series is more than a year away.) 6x is twice the magnification of the iPhone 13 Pro duo, which has 3x lenses.
There is precedent for the larger iPhone getting better camera hardware, the latest being the iPhone 12 Pro Max, which was the only one with a 2.5x magnification lens and the only one with a sensor largest in the main chamber.
iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro max use a 77mm telephoto lens (3x magnification compared to the 26mm main lens)
Periscope modules by their nature take up more space than a normal telephoto lens and the small iPhone Pro is not that big: current expectations are that it will stay with a 6.1 ”display. No Android phone in this size class (not that there are many) has a periscope, manufacturers tend to reserve them for their best and biggest phones.
However, Kuo predicts that Apple will make it work and that both iPhone 16 Pro models in 2024 will have a periscope. The company worked on an unusual design with two prisms as seen in patent filings.
Coming later this year is the iPhone 14 series. Pro models – and only Pro – are expected to be upgraded to a 48MP main camera, while vanilla models stick to 12MP. The front camera should also be updated (autofocus).
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