According to the latest MacRumors report, Apple will launch a new generation of iPhone 15 series phones this year, of which the highest-end iPhone 15 Pro Max will be equipped with a technology called a “periscope lens” that can achieve 5 -6x optical zoom. This would be a major upgrade for the iPhone’s camera, which currently only tops out at 3x optical zoom.
Periscope lenses are a technology that uses light refraction or “folding” to allow camera elements to have greater distances in the compact design of mobile phones, thereby increasing the ability of optical zoom. This technology is already used by some Android brands such as Samsung, Google, and Huawei, and phones such as the Pixel 7 Pro and Galaxy S23 Ultra offer 5x to 10x optical zoom.
According to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo in July 2022, the periscope lens will be dedicated to the iPhone 15 Pro Max and built into the telephoto lens, which can achieve a 6x zoom when taking photos without compromising quality or clarity. Guo Mingchi also said that the periscope lens will only appear on the highest-end models in at least the next two generations of iPhones, which means that only the iPhone 16 Pro Max will have this technology next year.
