- The iPhone 15 Pro was previously expected to get a new eight-element lens
- It may now get a periscope telephoto zoom lens instead
- The iPhone 15 series may now get an ‘Ultra’ model, instead of ‘Pro Max’
The iPhone 15 Pro lineup, which was so far expected to differentiate its offering further with a new, eight-element lens in its cameras, may not eventually offer this feature. According to a new report by noted Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple may track back on this apparent feature on its upcoming Pro iPhones, which would in turn get a different new feature to stand out from the rest of the lineup. All of this, however, would remain in speculation until early next year, which is when Apple is likely to have conducted its final engineering tests and settled upon the final feature set of the next generation iPhone.
What the iPhone 15 Pro gets, and doesn’t
According to the report by Ming-Chi Kuo, the iPhone 15 Pro will not come with the eight-element lens that initial reports had tipped it to come with. Additional lens elements are often considered better for wide-angle photography, since the same may help reduce distortion in cameras — particularly those with smaller sensors.
They work as a reliable replacement for single element lenses, which are deemed to be the best in terms of pure optical resolution. However, owing to their physical properties of additional weight, coupled with the difficulty of making a single element lens, companies often refrain from using such ‘prime’ lenses since the latter pushes up the overall cost.
Kuo now says that the element-wise differentiation of the iPhone 15 Pro camera lens is entirely out of the picture. Instead, the company may lend a periscope optical zoom lens to its largest Pro iPhone, which next may be called the iPhone 15 Ultra instead of Pro Max. Such a move would help the iPhone offer better optical zoom than what it does so far — which could be important, considered how flagship category rivals Samsung have moved on to much longer focal range with its optical zoom lens on the Galaxy S22 series — offering 10x zoom.
All of this, however, remains speculative, and it will remain to be seen if any of these updates stand true once the iPhone 15 Pro moves further along its production ladder, early next year.
