Apple Testing 200MP Telephoto iPhone Lens That Could Ship Next Year

[Unggoy Murderer]

Now that's interesting. Finally, they're trying to compete with Samsung's level of photography (as they're the main competitor here). The Chinese OEM's still have the advantage, however, with emerging technologies, so I hope Apple can get ahead and keep up the momentum, at least for a little bit.

"Samsung's level of photography". The iPhone and Samsung devices have been on-par with each other for quite a while, both handsets have the ability to take great photos with the right tools and / or software.

Increasing megapixel counts doesn't really benefit anything other than pixel-binning photos. Algorithms have more data to work from, and can therefore result in a photo with better detail and accuracy at a reasonable file and photo size.

Unless you have a specific (often professional) requirement for it, photos above 24 megapixels nowadays are wasted for everyday photos. Apple's binning down to 24mp is a superb middle-ground for quality and image size on current sensors.

 

[satchmo]

Hmmmm…from the how to make users pay for more ram department

The new iPhone - Storage Starting at “You’ll Need More” — Because each photo is now the size of a small novel.

And you can bet, free iCloud storage will remain at a paltry 5gb.

 

[Rockanrolero]

Apple should do a partnership with FUJIFILM, Canon or Nikon… a company no one has partnered up with yet 🤔

Those Hasselblad phone cameras are impressive to say the least

 

[EugW]

Just glad they will be increasing the size of the sensor for the first time in 5 years

Well, they increased the size of the tele last last year and upped the resolution, which is one reason I delayed my purchase for the 17 Pro. I was on the 12 Pro Max before. The tele is vastly improved, totally different league.

The timing also hopefully works well for my wife. She's on the 14 Pro Max, and will get the 19 Pro Max next year with its rumoured larger main sensor.

Our previous target for upgrades was around every 4 years, but we've pushed it to 5 years this time mainly because of the camera improvement schedule.

Increasing megapixel counts doesn't really benefit anything other than pixel-binning photos. Algorithms have more data to work from, and can therefore result in a photo with better detail and accuracy at a reasonable file and photo size.

Unless you have a specific (often professional) requirement for it, photos above 24 megapixels nowadays are wasted for everyday photos. Apple's binning down to 24mp is a superb middle-ground for quality and image size on current sensors.

However, as you know, pixel binning + computational photography can work wonders, with a big improvement over native 12 MP even at the same sensor size. Some of that improvement is due to improvements in sensor quality too of course, since not all sensors of the same size are the same quality obviously.

The new iPhone - Storage Starting at “You’ll Need More” — Because each photo is now the size of a small novel.

Not really, since the default will likely still be pixel-binned 24 MP, same as it is now.

 

[citysnaps]

Every day of the year the comments have been (of the form), "Wah... Apple doesn't innovate anymore, TC has to go!"

Today... From a rumor, Apple is apparently evaluating a new hi-res camera sensor that could be introduced in a future iPhone. And it's immediately panned and shot down.

Apple just can't win here. Ever.

As an aside, and as a serious photographer who has been using iPhones a lot over the years making photographs starting with an iPhone 4, I'm genuinely curious to see how this rumor plays out. And would be interested should the sensor be in a future iPhone.

 

[mrmod]

I hate taking pictures with a phone, but I'm all for better quality. The file sizes of these pictures are going to be ridiculous, so I hope there's multiple options for lower res.

 

[Unggoy Murderer]

I hate taking pictures with a phone, but I'm all for better quality. The file sizes of these pictures are going to be ridiculous, so I hope there's multiple options for lower res.

Not going to be the case. Unless you specifically opt-in to the full resolution file size, you get the binned photo.

When we went from 12 to 48 megapixels, Apple did it so that you got the same file size as the 12, because the end result was binned from 48 to 12. The 15 changed it to be down to 24mp at a slight increase in file size, but that resolution is now more than enough for virtually all everyday photography.

 

[AirunJae]

Given the size of the sensor, this seems like the addendum of "In theory" should be added. Don't get me wrong, what companies have been able to achieve on such small sensors is impressive, but it's mostly been due to computational photography and the processing power of the devices.

 

[Rychiar]

why must apple always be so far behind Samsung. I could see if they were simply against a megapixel war and improving the camera in other ways but no, they wind up copying anyway and just doing it way late. the number one reason my Samsung friends won't switch to iPhone is those crazy zoom/megapixel Samsung cameras...

 

[1037]

Sounds like Big Pixels is in bed with Big Ram.
Just wait till the iPhone 21 drops with a $3000 price tag.

 

[lewchenko]

Just goes to show how far ahead the Chinese companies are with their camera tech.
Seen multiple comparisons on YouTube for these phones vs latest iphone & samsung ultra.
From a camera perspective its not even close. Apple needs bigger sensors.
The 200MP aspect is only useful for binning down. Sensor size more important.

 

[pbau]

Ship it this year.

 

[macjaffa]

Hardly anyone taking a photo with their phone in 2026 wishes it had a bigger resolution.
My ancient DSLR with 12Mp still takes better photos, so the challenge is elsewhere.

It's for the Zoom/crop . If I have a 200MP sensor I can in theory do something like a 16x zoom at 12MP . The question is how goo are the optics, because even £10,000 lenses have trouble resolving 200MP, and not to mention the sensor.

 

[pbau]

Things to improve:
night photos
macro photos
documents scanning from cloesup (lens distortion)
lens flare
camera performance on sunny days;
algorithms that sharpen your photo
hdr effects

 

[uacd]

2007: Apple reinvents the phone
2027: Apple reinvents Samsung

 

[Ctrlos]

They could do some interesting stuff with this but the crop zoom will be so far that you'd need a tripod to do anything interesting with it. The S25 Edge has a 200mpx sensor and you can get a decent 4x lossless crop out of it without issue.

 

[OGsallad]

Impressive but I will still pull out ol' reliable Olympus to take a photo if I want to get a great picture. Im the guy who prefers a dedicated device for everything. I still use an iPod classic lol.

 

[winxmac]

The hardware is great, no doubt, but the software sucks, the photo processing sucks.

The iPhone 5c merges three photos when shooting in HDR and you have the option to keep the non-HDR version.

Apple should follow in the footsteps of the Chinese android smartphone manufacturers, partner up with well-known camera/sensor brands and leave the processing to them.

 

[uacd]

Basically I just have no words, but I hardly wanna ask someone at Apple HQ: “Are iPhones already shooting in 48MP?”

Like, I mean real 48MP, no weird options for 12 or 24 in menu. I made many tests on my iPhone 17 Pro, was shooting in daylight and I had not noticed significant difference between 12 vs 24 vs 48. And 48 simply looks upscaled and weird, no additional detail whatsoever. Plus 12MP mode is NOT using pixel binning - detail degradation is visible, but it is not significant enough to all it “good use of all 48 megapixels”. It is like a difference between 16 and 12 MP cameras, very subtle.

iPhone still is an abomination of megapixels and this whole Quad Bayer is lies:

• iPhone can’t shoot 48MP in low light, no matter how hard you try. It is software locked;
• All 48MP photos have no visible detail. All I see is AI upscale. I mean why no one saying it is taking “AI slop” at this point?
• iPhone still shoots photos that barely differ from what I could do on my old 11 Pro. Despite larger sensor, ProRAW, I cannot see significant difference so I can say “WOW, that’s what I paid 1.8k for!!!”
• Even burst images are 12MP JPEG. Not default and “highly praised” dumb HEIF format, “ancient” but sturdy JPEG!! Why?? Why did older iPhones shoot 12 MP JPEG, 8MP JPEG and 5MP JPEG back in the days without issues?
• Camera uses so much AI slop, oh sorry, I mean computational photography (TM), that the new plateau easily overheats in summer. Back in the days I loved that the iPhone was the only phone that doesn’t overheat when shooting photos or videos;
• RAW Bayer shots are capped at 12MP. Camera can’t shoot RAW at 48MP. Not upscaled and overprocessed ProRAW but real noisy RAW.

There was a news story that they are gonna switch to Samsung sensors in iPhone 18 Pro. I knew they would be switching to 200MP ones. They can brag about it being upgrade while most people would not notice anything because none of the latest Samsungs still cannot compete with older DSLRs. Because you can’t fool physics with algorithms. People on the web love bashing AI slop but smh accept it fully in their cameras these days, it is sad actually.

However a weird thing is that Samsungs sometimes generate sharper images and let you do more with them thanks to Camera Assist app. Also Korean company respects their customers and treats them as photographers and doesn’t change design of their Photos app - it is intuitive and fast, not that abomination Apple introduced in iOS 18. I feel disgust each time I need to look at what I had shot on my iPhone

 

[turbineseaplane]

Early image of the new iPhone camera bumps!

 

[UliBaer]

Early image of the new iPhone camera bumps!

You mean the camera table mountain in spe?

 

[ThailandToo]

Hardly anyone taking a photo with their phone in 2026 wishes it had a bigger resolution.
My ancient DSLR with 12Mp still takes better photos, so the challenge is elsewhere.

Actually, a bigger sensor means a much better photo. I would take this in an ultrawide where can zoom in and get 12mp super cropped or 200mp super wide. Great for iPhone Air.

 

[ThailandToo]

Just glad they will be increasing the size of the sensor for the first time in 5 years

Is that true?

 

[kaycrystal626]

Finally catching with the rest of Smart Phone cameras out there!

 

[Digitalweddings]

Now that's interesting. Finally, they're trying to compete with Samsung's level of photography (as they're the main competitor here). The Chinese OEM's still have the advantage, however, with emerging technologies, so I hope Apple can get ahead and keep up the momentum, at least for a little bit.

Lol and Samsung us probably busy with 500MP sensors already