Apple’s digicam lens placement for its iPhone Professional fashions has been constant for the reason that three-lens digicam system got here to the iPhone 11 Professional Max in 2019. Nonetheless, which may be set to vary as the corporate prepares so as to add a brand new periscope lens system to its bigger iPhone 15 Professional Max mannequin this 12 months.
Though it’s not obvious until you begin protecting the person lenses, the iPhone 14 Professional places its 3X telephoto lens within the prime nook, with the first digicam lens under it and the ultra-wide lens off to 1 aspect. Whereas the iPhone 13 modified up the design of the two-lens system for the non-pro fashions, the triple-lens structure has remained unchanged for almost 4 years aside from including the LiDAR Scanner with the iPhone 12 lineup.
Nonetheless, based on a tweet from a leaker who goes by the deal with of Unknownz21, Apple is planning to flip the positions of two of the lenses on this 12 months’s iPhone 15 Professional Max, inserting the telephoto lens off to the aspect, within the place at present occupied by the ultra-wide lens.
Such a change could also be crucial because of the transfer to a periscope digicam system on this 12 months’s iPhone 15 Professional Max. Since this employs a number of lenses and mirrors alongside an extended imaging chamber that’s positioned perpendicular to the seen, outward-facing lens, it’s not onerous to see how the present digicam placement wouldn’t provide a lot room for this new element if it needed to be positioned behind the first digicam sensor or LED flash.
Transferring the telephoto lens to a brand new place would enable Apple to both prolong the periscope system sideways, towards the situation of the mute/silent swap, and even probably downwards beneath the LiDAR sensor, which takes up significantly much less inside house than the first digicam lens and sensor system.
What’s much less clear is whether or not Apple will make this variation solely on the bigger iPhone 15 Professional Max — the one mannequin anticipated to get the periscope lens system this 12 months — or convey the brand new structure to each of its Professional fashions for consistency. Current studies have advised that Apple plans to develop the periscope system to incorporate the iPhone 16 Professional subsequent 12 months; that mannequin can also be anticipated to extend to a 6.3-inch display screen, which can be wanted to accommodate the brand new digicam system.
Even when this report seems to be correct, it’s unlikely the iPhone 15 Professional digicam array will look any totally different on the floor. Whereas the telephoto lens requires an extended focal size for its elevated zoom issue, Apple has all the time designed the iPhone to that every lens protrudes the identical distance. Most iPhone customers aren’t even consciously conscious of which lens is which, so swapping two of them ought to go unnoticed until Apple intentionally chooses to vary issues as much as spotlight the digicam capabilities with a brand new design.
It’s additionally not clear but precisely how a lot a periscope lens will improve the optical zoom capabilities of the iPhone 15 Professional Max. Whereas Apple managed to push the telephoto lens to 3X with the 2021 iPhone 13 Professional fashions, it’s hit the restrict of how a lot farther it might probably go with out both adopting a periscope system or an excellent longer lens on the again. Different smartphone makers, lots of which have been utilizing periscope lenses for years, provide 5X, 6X, or 10X optical zoom ranges. Nonetheless, since increased zoom ranges require extra inside house, 5X is the most typical, and most studies recommend that Apple will keep on with one thing within the 5X-6X vary.