Apple iPhone 16 is set for a ‘stunning’ camera upgrade

Apple’s iPhone 16 is said to include a “stunning” camera upgrade that would change the way users capture the world around them.

A tech expert has suggested that the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max could support an AI camera with 100x zoom that adds missing details to photos and produces clearer results.

AI capabilities would be possible with Apple Intelligence, but the expert noted that new high-end smartphone hardware would be key to improving photography capabilities.

While the upcoming iPhones will be the first Apple devices to get a 100x zoom AI camera, Samsung and Google have long incorporated the technology into their smartphones.

The upgrade was revealed this week on the “Matt Talks Tech” YouTube channel, where Matt claimed to have found “crumbs” in iOS 18 that prove the new system, which the public is calling “stunning.”

The discovery was likely made in a beta version of the operating system, which developers typically use to test new features for bugs.

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The upgraded zoom is due to Apple adding AI to iOS 18, which will provide editing tools.

However, Matt claimed that the new technology combined with the super telephoto periscope camera, which is also rumored to give Apple the tools for a 100x zoom AI camera for the high-end iPhones.

Periscope’s telephoto lenses use prisms and mirrors, allowing for a longer focal length or higher optical zoom without increasing the phone’s thickness.

The periscope camera is believed to have a focal length of over 300mm, compared to the 120mm focal length of the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, which provides 5x zoom capabilities.

Focal length is the distance in millimeters from the center of the camera lens to the image sensor on the camera.

“A 300mm focal length could equate to about a 12x or 13x zoom, and then we could use some Apple Intelligence for the digital zoom capability, we could get even more zoom capability,” Matt said.

He provided an example of how a 100x zoom AI camera would work using the Samsung Galaxy s24 Ultra.

The smartphone can take photos with up to 100x zoom, which makes the images clearer and users can clean up the images with built-in AI functions.

“They’re not the only ones doing it, Google does it quite a lot,” Matt said.

“For example, Google also has a 5x telephoto lens with its Pixel phones that can achieve up to 30x digital zoom.”

The camera usually gets the biggest overhaul in Apple’s latest smartphones, as the device itself has remained largely the same since the iPhone X launched in 2017 with an edge-to-edge display.

Apple said the lack of changes is to maintain brand loyalty and maintain consistency.

But the camera is the only feature that keeps changing with time.

Tech experts claimed to have found images of iPhone 16 cases that showed a sleeker pill-shaped camera system capable of capturing 3D “spatial video” for playback on Apple’s Vision Pro VR headset.

This change would be a far cry from the current iPhone layout, which features a clunky diagonal camera design.

Until now, only the iPhone 15 Pro has had the capacity to record the kind of mysterious and fully immersive 3D “spatial video” for viewing on the Vision Pro headset.

These vertically stacked cameras on the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus would be the first major switch in alignment since diagonally aligned lenses were first introduced with the debut of the iPhone 13 in September 2021.

The new alignment, according to the report, will allow the phone to capture footage from both the main and ultra-wide cameras at the same time.

The synthesis of these two video channels will allow even lower iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus models to create video with a sense of depth that creates the illusion of watching a real scene unfolding right in front of your eyes.