The iPhone 16 and 16 Pro likely won’t arrive until September but there’s already a whole casserole of rumors flying around about Apple’s next superphones. From larger display sizes to new processors, the next iPhones could pack a suite of upgrades. But I’m a photographer, so it’s the cameras I’m most excited about.
Apple has always packed the iPhone with some of the best cameras you can get in a smartphone and the iPhone 15 Pro Max, with its 5x optical zoom, remains one of the best camera phones money can buy right now.
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But competition is fierce, particularly in the photography arena, so Apple will be looking for ways to keep the phone’s photo-taking skills top notch. So let’s dive into what the rumor mill has been saying about the cameras on the iPhone 16 range.
A new physical camera button
The iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max brought a new “Action” button to the outer edge of the phone which allows you to customize it to perform various actions like launching the camera or taking a voice memo.
The S23 and S24 Ultra’s 10x zoom may get some competition.
But it’s possible that both phones will get an upgrade, with some earlier rumors suggesting the iPhone 16 Pro Max will get a “super telephoto” lens offering zoom levels beyond the current 5x range. While this would be a welcome addition to sports or wildlife photographers who rely on long zoom levels, these rumors circulated in summer of last year — before we even saw the launch of the iPhone 15. So take them with a hefty pinch of salt.
A larger image sensor
According to a MacRumors story, covering claims from Weibo user Digital Chat Station, the iPhone 16 Pro’s main camera could have a larger image sensor. This would apparently be 1/1.14 inches in size, making it bigger than the 1/1.28-inch sensor found on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max.
A larger sensor captures more light and image information allowing for better details, dynamic range and improved low light performance so it’d be great to see such a large size increase. And it’d be smart for Apple to up its game here as phones like the Xiaomi 14 Ultra are already using even larger image sensors of 1/0.98-inches (known as 1-inch type) for their main cameras.
Spatial videos could be viewed properly on the Apple Vision Pro headset.
While spatial videos look just like regular 2D videos when played on your iPhone, they’re designed to give a 3D effect when viewed on Apple’s Vision Pro headset.
Other things we want to see
Apple’s WWDC event takes place June 10 where the company is expected to take the wraps off iOS 18. AI is predicted to be a big part of the new software and it’s highly likely that AI skills will extend to the camera. The iPhone’s camera already uses AI to varying degrees in its computational photography, skin tone reproduction, depth mapping and even down to the auto settings it uses when taking an image.
But deeper AI would allow for better scene recognition — and therefore better use of settings and processing to take nicer-looking images. I’ve also been impressed at the AI object removal seen on the Google Pixel range and it’s possible we’ll see similar AI-based editing tools on the next iPhone.
Speaking of editing, it’s possible Apple may introduce more ways to edit video on the phone, in particular when shooting using Log on the 15 Pro and Pro Max. Log video is designed to look flat and gray when shot as it gives a better base for editing and adding color and contrast back in later.
