A new report about Apple’s upcoming iPhones indicates that the primary lens on the new devices won’t be receiving a significant lens upgrade any time soon.
Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo indicates that the 2021 lens will be a ‘7P.’ Which according to 9to5Mac, means a lens with seven plastic elements, the same as the current iPhone 12. Kuo then says that we shouldn’t expect any lens upgrades between the 2021 and 2022 models, which means that we won’t get a significant update to either base level iPhone for a few years.
However, it’s worth noting that 9to5 indicates that Kuo is likely only referencing the main lens.
Kuo previously indicated that the telephoto lens in 2022 has the possibility of being capable of 10x optical zoom — a feat that Huawei and Samsung have already accomplished.
Additionally, that previous leak suggests we’ll see another improvement to the ultrawide lens for this year’s iPhone models. This isn’t to say that Apple won’t approve a lot in the background. Google has barely done anything with its cameras in a number of years but has managed to come out with a good camera experience because the software can do a lot of the heavy lifting these days.
Apple’s iPhone 12 Pro takes great shots already, and with LIDAR, it takes very detailed photos that offer a pleasing sense of depth. So, while I think improvement is always necessary, I don’t think the iPhone’s picture-taking ability will suffer.