We still have several months to wait until the reveal of the iPhone 15 lineup (likely in September), in which we expect the iPhone 15 Pro Max to include the first “periscope” telephoto lens. It should allow an optical zoom of around 6x, a considerable increase over the current 3X zoom.
But the rumors about next year The iPhone 16 has already started, and the latest is that the iPhone 16 Pro Max will have an even longer “super-telephoto” camera. The rumor comes from Weibo user Digital Chat Station, which has leaked specific Apple details in the past. Of course, the phone is still over a year away, so even specific information about plans at this point could change before manufacturing begins. Remember the iPhone 15 button saga?
The current iPhone 14 Pro Max and iPhone 14 Pro have a 24mm wide camera and a 77mm telephoto lens, for 3x zoom. This year’s iPhone 15 Pro Max (but not the iPhone 15 Pro) is expected to have a 6x zoom periscope lens, which is said to be in the 150mm range. Generally, ‘ultra’ or ‘super’ telephoto lenses in photography refer to those with a focal length of 300mm or more, so we’re looking at around 12x zoom. In comparison, the Galaxy S23 Ultra has 10X optical zoom and 100X digital zoom.
We previously reported a rumor that the periscope lens is coming to the iPhone 16 Pro after a year of exclusivity on the Pro Max model. Around this time we also reported a new, slightly larger 1/1.14-inch image sensor, which this latest rumor corroborates (or at least repeats).
In other words, next year’s iPhone will have a slightly better camera than this year’s iPhone. Incredible, right?
