Apple phones are almost always among the best camera phones around, but there could be a big bump in photo quality for the iPhone 15 lineup as the latest leak suggests these phones will feature a new advanced sensor.
The word comes from Nikkei Asia (Opens in a new tab) (via Apple Insider (Opens in a new tab)), in a report that Sony will provide Apple with a "next-generation" camera sensor, which should be used on the iPhone 15 series.
So what makes this sensor so great? Well, apparently it "roughly doubles the saturation signal level at each pixel", allowing it to capture more light, which could be beneficial for low-light scenes.
The real standout benefit is that it can reduce dodge and burn, which can be particularly problematic when there's a large difference in lighting between the foreground and background of an image.
The source gives the example of clearly photographing a person's face, even when standing against a strong backlight.
We'd take that claim with a grain of salt, though, especially since Apple has just upgraded the main sensor on the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max to a new 48MP unit.
It's not Apple's style to make that change two years in a row, so perhaps this new sensor will only be used for the standard iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus, but that would suggest it's not as good as Apple's current snapper features. 48MP on the 14 Pro and Pro Max.
Another option is that if the rumored iPhone 15 Ultra happens, this sensor could be reserved for this phone, to help it stand out from the iPhone 15 Pro.
(Image credit: Future/Lance Ulanoff)
Analytics: Not the only camera update
If any iPhone 15 series phones get this new Sony sensor, it could be a pretty big camera upgrade, but it probably won't be the only one, as previous leaks have also hinted at the addition of a periscope camera.
This would extend the 3x optical zoom distance of current Pro models to probably around 5x but potentially up to 10x, in line with the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra.
On top of that, the iPhone 15 Ultra and possibly the iPhone 15 Pro as well could shoot 8K video, according to a source.
So, in other words, we could see big improvements to the wide and telephoto cameras on some iPhone 15 models, as well as video recording, with perhaps only the ultra-wide camera staying the same.
With these phones probably not until September 2023, we still have a long way to go, but if what we're hearing is correct, the iPhone 15 series is already shaping up to be one of the best phones of 2023.
