Apple plans a major upgrade of the iPhone’s camera in 2022, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, with that year’s flagship phones expected to have a massive 48-megapixel lens.
In a note to investors on Wednesday, Kuo predicts that Apple’s top “iPhone 14” models will adopt a 48MP 1 / 1.3 “CMOS image sensor for wide-angle camera module functions. telephoto and ultra-wide angle systems in the coming years.
Interestingly, the sensor could support hybrid operating modes to maximize pixel size and capitalize on light-collecting hardware capabilities.
“We believe the new iPhone 2H22 could support 48MP and 12MP direct output (four-cell fused output mode) simultaneously,” says Kuo. “With 12MP output, the CIS pixel size of the new iPhone 2H22 increases to about 2.5um, which is significantly larger than the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 and larger than existing Android phones and close to the DSC level.”
The pixel size at 48MP native resolutions comes to about 1.25um, says Kuo. For reference, the iPhone 12 pixels appear at 1.7um, while Kuo predicts this year’s “iPhone 13” to have a sensor with 2um pixels.
The high-resolution sensor is expected to support 8K video recording, a substantial increase over the iPhone’s current 4K limit. Although frame rates were not mentioned in today’s report, Kuo believes the addition will benefit recordings for augmented reality devices, a sector that Apple is said to enter in the near future.
Existing vendor Sony will produce the future sensor, with LG working on the compact camera module (CCM), says Kuo.
Apple is expected to pay more on camera mode with the switch to 48MP. In addition to tilt control, CCM calibration will be more complicated than current iPhone models due to the increased sensor area. The iPhone 12 Pro was the first to implement sensor change stabilization on the wide angle module.
Finally, Kuo suggests that Apple will discontinue the iPhone mini line in 2022, offering only 6.1 and 6.7-inch variants of the base model and the “Pro” series.