Next year’s Apple iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max are rumored to feature some different camera updates, in part because Apple will further differentiate between Pro and non-Pro models.
A new report today from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says one of these rumored updates won’t materialize. Ming-Chi Kuo tweeted today that he predicts that Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro series will not feature the new “8P” lens, a rear camera with eight plastic lenses.
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The “8P” here refers to the number of elements in the lens, and the iPhone 15 Pro has one more optical element compared to the iPhone 14 Pro. There are pros and cons to adding components to a lens, but when manufacturers take an existing lens design and add components, usually to reduce distortion, this is especially important in wide-angle lenses.
While the iPhone 15 Pro models may not get this new camera upgrade, the iPhone 15 Pro Max is expected to have an even bigger change: support for a new periscope lens. This new periscope lens will reportedly be exclusive to the larger-screen version of the iPhone 15 Pro, and may also be called the iPhone 15 Ultra next year.
Moreover, the periscope lens relies on a prism to reflect light to multiple internal lenses that are 90 degrees from the camera sensor. This allows the lens to be much longer than a telephoto lens, allowing for better optical zoom. The telephoto lens on the iPhone 13 Pro models only offers 3x optical zoom and 15x digital zoom.
For comparison, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra features a periscope lens that enables 10x optical zoom and up to 100x digital zoom. Rumor has it that Apple may opt for 5x optical zoom.
More specifics on Apple’s implementation of the periscope lens on the iPhone 15 Pro Max, or iPhone 15 Ultra, is unclear, but ideally, it will bring the iPhones closer to what Samsung’s flagships already offer.
