Skip to main content

Rumor: iPhone 16 to pack upgraded ‘ultra-long telephoto’ zoom, significantly larger Main camera sensor

The iPhone 15 Pro Max coming in less than two months is expected to be the first iPhone to ever feature a periscope camera lens. A new rumor this week, however, suggests that Apple has even bigger plans for next year’s iPhone 16 Pro, which could feature a new “periscope ultra-long telephoto camera.”

This story is supported by Mosyle, the only Apple Unified Platform. Mosyle is the only solution that fully integrates five different applications on a single Apple-only platform, allowing businesses and schools to easily and automatically deploy, manage, and protect all their Apple devices. Over 38,000 organizations leverage Mosyle solutions to automate the deployment, management, and security of millions of Apple devices daily. Request a FREE account today and discover how you can put your Apple fleet on auto-pilot at a price point that is hard to believe.

“This

iPhone 16 Pro camera upgrades

The rumor comes from “Digital Chat Station,” an account on Weibo that has previously leaked accurate information about Apple’s future iPhone plans (via MacRumors). The report says that next year’s iPhone, likely the iPhone 16 Pro Max, will feature a “periscope ultra-long telephoto combination.”

The report doesn’t specifically say which iPhone 16 model will feature this upgraded camera hardware. Our expectation would be that the changes apply to the iPhone 16 Pro Max (or iPhone 16 Ultra), while the iPhone 16 Pro will get the same camera upgrade’s that are coming to this year’s iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Our friends at B&H Photo have a nice explanation of what it means when a telephoto lens is described as being “super long” or, in this case, “ultra-long.”

What defines an ultra-telephoto lens? Of course, it’s the “ultra” (or at times “super”) prefix that we are concerned with when talking about these lenses, which enable photographers to get a close-up view of something from which we normally remain very distant.

These lenses are used primarily for photographing wildlife, sports, journalism, and perhaps paparazzi or “stake-out” photography. If most readers are not going on a stake-out or stalking stars, let’s say a clear majority of ultra-telephoto lens users are photographing sporting events, airplanes, boats, birds, or wild animals.

More details on what exactly this means for an iPhone camera remains to be seen, but the idea is certainly intriguing. The iPhone 15 Pro Max is expected to use a periscope lens with a 6x optical zoom, which is twice as long as the iPhone 14 Pro Max’s 3x telephoto lens. This rumor suggests the iPhone 16 Pro Max will offer a notable year-over-year increase in camera performance next year.

Finally, the report also says that the iPhone 16 Pro Max will likely feature a larger main camera sensor that comes in at 1/1.14-inches. This would be a notable increase compared to the iPhone 14 Pro Max’s 1/1.28-inches. A larger sensor lets in more light, generally provide higher resolutions, and can improve things like background blur and dynamic range.

As always, it’s important to treat these rumors with a grain of salt. Apple’s plans for an iPhone that are over a year away can change based on things like production rates, supply and parts availability, and pricing.

Follow Chance: ThreadsTwitterInstagram, and Mastodon

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Comments

Author

Avatar for Chance Miller Chance Miller

Chance is an editor for the entire 9to5 network and covers the latest Apple news for 9to5Mac.

Tips, questions, typos to chance@9to5mac.com

Manage push notifications

notification icon
We would like to show you notifications for the latest news and updates.
notification icon
Please wait...processing
notification icon
We would like to show you notifications for the latest news and updates.
notification icon
Please wait...processing