The iPhone 14 Pro is once again rumored to be equipped with a 48-megapixel camera

Source: cnBeta

According to research institute TrendForce, the iPhone 14 Pro model will be equipped with a 48-megapixel camera. Specifically, this refers to the wide-angle camera located on the back, and the current iPhone 13 Pro model is 12 megapixels. Multiple sources, including analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, have mentioned that the iPhone 14 Pro model will add a 48-megapixel wide-angle camera, and he expects the upgraded camera to also support 8K video recording.

While keeping the image sensor size unchanged, simply increasing the megapixels of the smartphone camera will result in smaller pixels, which will result in less light captured, resulting in low-quality low-light photos. As a solution, Guo has previously said that the iPhone 14 Pro model will support both 48-megapixel and 12-megapixel output, which may be achieved through a practice known as pixel merging.

This technology is already in use on Android phones such as Samsung's Galaxy S21 Ultra, merging data from multiple small pixels on the camera's image sensor into a single "superpixel" to improve low-light sensitivity. The introduction of this similar technology will allow the iPhone 14 Pro model to take high-resolution 48-megapixel photos in bright conditions and 12-megapixel photos in low-light conditions, but the quality is still high.

Given the large file size of the 48-megapixel photo, the iPhone 14 Pro model may take a 12-megapixel photo by default, but Apple's specific implementation remains to be seen.

Apple is expected to announce four new iPhone 14 models in September, including the 6.1-inch iPhone 14, the 6.7-inch iPhone 14 Max, the 6.1-inch iPhone 14 Pro and the 6.7-inch iPhone 14 Pro Max, the latter two of which will come with a 48-megapixel camera.