Using a series of lenses folded up inside a smartphone, sensors, and prisms that allow light to enter from a camera and then bounce off the prisms to hit the sensors, a periscope camera can deliver better optical zoom on a handset. Already available on several Android flagships, the first Apple iPhone to carry such a technology should be this year’s iPhone 15 Pro Max if the rumor mill has this called right. Reportedly, the optical zoom will increase from 3x to as much as 6x on the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
According to tipster Digital Chat Station (via AndroidAuthority), when it comes to the iPhone 16 Pro Max due in 2024, get ready for a huge improvement. His post on Weibo, when translated, says that the iPhone 16 Pro Max will sport a “periscope ultra-telephoto” which probably means something like a “super-periscope telephoto” lens. The technology would give the iPhone 16 Pro Max camera a huge focal length of as much as 300mm compared to 77mm on current iPhone models.
Arrow points to the periscope lens on this render of the iPhone 15 Pro Max
A 300mm focal length, while just speculation at this point, would top the 230mm focal length of the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and the 120mm focal length of the Pixel 7 Pro. But things won’t remain static until the iPhone 16 Pro Max is unveiled in 2024. In the meantime, we could see certain Android phones, surely the Galaxy S24 Ultra for one, exceed a 300mm focal length with its periscope camera.
Before you start putting off your plans to buy the iPhone 15 Pro Max and wait for 2024’s top-of-the-line iPhone, there is also the possibility that Digital Chat Station has this wrong. So you might want to keep your upgrade plans unchanged for now. Another rumor calls for the display on the iPhone 16 Pro Max to hit 6.9 inches. Keep in mind that we feel confident with our knowledge of the iPhone 15 line, but the iPhone 16 series is still approximately 14 months away from being released and anything can change.
