Nowadays, many users will use the iPhone to record their lives, and the image is also the focus of the iPhone upgrade in the past generations. In the upcoming iPhone 16 series, there are a lot of upgrades to the lens and software algorithms, which are expected to further enhance the imaging capabilities of the iPhone.
As is customary in previous years, the new iPhone 16 will be officially released in September this year. Judging from the recent revelations, the iPhone 16 Pro, which is stronger in the same series, is likely to continue the three-camera combination. In the current smartphone market, "image flagships" have been launched four cameras today, how will the iPhone 16 Pro achieve "3 is greater than 4"?
The ultra-wide-angle lens has been upgraded to 48 million pixels
According to the latest reports, iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max will be equipped with a 48-million-pixel ultra-wide-angle lens, which marks the continuation of the iPhone 11 series from the "12-million-pixel ultra-wide-angle lens", which will finally usher in an increase in pixels this year.
After upgrading from 12 million pixels to 48 million pixels, the ultra-wide lens of the iPhone 16 Pro series may support the pixel quad function. As a result, more detail can be captured in low-light environments. In addition, the 48-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens with a new light engine may also support the same 24-megapixel photos as the iPhone 15 Pro series, bringing more detail.
It is worth mentioning that the iPhone 16 Pro will upgrade the ultra-wide-angle lens to 48 million pixels, which will also enhance the recording ability of spatial video. Until now, recording spatial video with the iPhone relied on a combination of the main camera and an ultra-wide-angle lens, and with this new 48-megapixel lens, the iPhone 16 Pro may be able to support 4K resolution spatial video recording, which will also be a major improvement for the iPhone 16 Pro series.
Spatial video recording
Of course, after the iPhone 16 Pro's main camera and ultra-wide-angle lens are both 48 million pixels, it also puts forward higher requirements for the computing power of the chip, and I believe that the new A18 Pro chip can bring us more surprises.
Main camera sensor upgraded
Following the upgrade to 48 million pixels, the leaks revealed that the main camera of the iPhone 16 Pro series has a new upgrade, that is, through a new stacking technology, to enhance low-light performance.
Previously, OPPO had adopted this technology in the latest generation of folding screen mobile phone N3 and named it "folding pixel sensor". The photodiode and pixel transistors in the single layer of the folded pixel are separated, so that a single pixel can have a larger photosensitive area in a limited pixel space, and thus obtain more light.
The experience is somewhat similar to that of a "house with almost no shared area", which can obtain more light in a limited space by increasing the pixel sensitive area, and in terms of actual shooting experience, a stronger amount of light means a cleaner picture and less noise in a low-light environment.
However, it is unclear whether this new folding pixel sensor will be used in the entire iPhone 16 Pro lineup. Previously, it was revealed that only the iPhone 16 Pro Max will have a new sensor, but this news has not been confirmed.
New anti-reflective coating helps say goodbye to ghosts
When shooting with iPhone, many people have encountered "ghosts", especially at night when the light is complicated, and they often need to constantly find angles to avoid and reduce the user experience. And in the latest generation of the iPhone 16 Pro series, the "ghosting" issue will also be fixed. Apple is rumored to be testing a new "atomic layer deposition" (or ALD) lens coating technology for the iPhone 16 Pro's lenses, which is an anti-reflective coating that minimizes the effects of internal reflections and thus eliminates "ghosting".
In fact, many manufacturers have adopted new coating technology to eliminate the ghost problem when the light is complex as much as possible. For example, in the previous vivo X series flagship, it has the blessing of Zeiss T* coating, which is also the first time that the ALD coating process is used in smartphones, which can greatly reduce the impact of ghosts on the finished film. If the iPhone 16 Pro series uses the same or similar technology, it can also have a higher yield in a difficult lighting environment.
The whole series uses a periscope lens and supports 5X optical zoom
Last year, Apple debuted a periscope lens in the iPhone 15 Pro Max, with a new quadrismatic camera design that enables 5X optical zoom as well as 25x digital zoom. With the arrival of the iPhone 16 series, this new periscope lens is expected to be rolled out to the entire iPhone 16 Pro series.
Equipped with a new 5X periscope lens, it also requires more interior space, which is also a challenge for the iPhone 16 Pro with a small screen. It will be interesting to see how Apple will make the most of every inch of interior space.
Of course, I also very much hope that Apple can optimize the periscope telephoto lens experience in the next year. In the context of the fact that the sensor area is not dominant, the ability of the telephoto is enhanced by software algorithms, especially in the night environment, rather than directly switching to the main camera imaging at night.
Write at the end
At present, there are some "constraints" in the image of the iPhone, because Apple does not allow the design of the iPhone to be drastically changed like other manufacturers. Those huge image modules are impossible to exist on the iPhone. Therefore, for Apple, how to make good use of the limited internal space and continuously improve the imaging performance has become a new problem.
Judging from the current revelations, the image of the iPhone 16 Pro series has been greatly improved compared to last year. In addition to the more powerful hardware, some small upgrades inside and support for video shooting in 4K space will bring more competitiveness to the iPhone. We believe that these new enhancements will enable the iPhone to successfully achieve "3 is greater than 4".