Apple may finally be ready to update a key specification for the iPhone that has remained untouched since 2014.
Big updates are reserved for iPhone cameras
NurPhoto by Getty Images
Despite the strong emphasis that Apple continues to place on the iPhone’s main camera, its hardware specifications remain significant compared to the competition. All of this could be about to change.
The latest information from analyst and perennial, Ming-Chi Kuo, states that the iPhone 2022 flagships will come with a new 48-megapixel main camera set to take iPhone photography to “a new level”.
Conformable MacRumors, Kuo claims:
“In terms of pixel size, iPhone 12, iPhone 13 and the new 2H22 iPhone are about 1.7um, 2um and 1.25um, respectively. We believe that the new 2H22 iPhone can support 48MP direct output and 12MP output (four-cell fused output mode) simultaneously. With 12MP output, the CIS pixel size of the new 2iPhone 2H22 increases to about 2.5um, which is significantly larger than iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 and larger than existing Android phones and close to the DSC level. We believe that the camera quality of the new HiPhone 2H22 will take the picture of the mobile phone camera to a new level. ”
This suggests that the 2022 iPhone will soon use larger, high-megapixel sensors with “pixel binning” technology, a long-standing trend with proven results in current Android flagships. Kuo claims that the expected pixel size of the future 1.25 micron camera is larger than that of existing Android phones, but that would not put the future iPhone at the very top of the pile. The current champion with large sensors, Xiaomi’s Mi 11 Ultra, already has pixels even larger than 1.4 microns and is currently in first place in the Dxomark camera ranking.
However, if Xiaomi’s results are anything to go by, this major change in iPhone sensor technology is likely to cause a generational change in photo performance for Apple. In addition to the improved low light performance that can come from a larger sensor, its higher resolution will bring a significant boost to zoom performance, which remains a serious area of weakness for today’s iPhones.
The 48-megapixel capture also paves the way for 8K video capture, which requires frames of about 33 megapixels each, well above the current 12-megapixel limit of the iPhone.
With the addition of this new camera, it is possible to finally see the iPhone camera ready to take the best of the Chinese flagships in terms of raw image quality.
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