Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max comes with three 48 MP cameras
In his recent investor note, well-known Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo commented on the camera setup of the Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max. According to Kuo, the most important change will be a new 1/2.6-inch 48-megapixel CIS sensor for the telephoto cameras. This would be a significant upgrade over the 1/3.1-inch 12-megapixel chip that is expected to be used in this year’s iPhone 16 Pro models.
Both the Apple iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max are expected to receive Tetraprism telephoto lenses in 2024. For the iPhone 15 series, the technology is still limited to the larger iPhone 15 Pro Max. The iPhone 15 Pro instead has a 12-megapixel telephoto camera with 3x zoom, while the iPhone 15 Pro Max has 5x zoom. This means that both iPhone 16 Pro models will manage at least five times optical zoom and 25 times digital zoom.
Kuo said he is currently unsure whether only the Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max will have the improved tetraprism camera. But if the technology is exclusive to the iPhone 17 Pro Max next year, then both iPhone 18 Pro models will get it in 2026. The improved tetraprism camera requires completely newly designed prisms. These use a shorter form factor to reduce the height of the camera, Kuo said.
The analyst’s report also confirms a statement made by Jeff Pu of Haitong International Securities last year. Pu said in December that the iPhone 17 Pro Max’s improved 48-megapixel telephoto lens will be optimized for use with the Apple Vision Pro. Current iPhone 15 Pro models can record spatial videos with 3D depth data for playback on the Vision Pro. When shooting video in landscape mode, the main and ultra-wide lenses generate the appropriate data to capture spatial video with additional depth.
iPhone 17 Pro Max first iPhone with 3x 48 megapixels
Pu previously said that both iPhone 16 Pro models will feature a 48 megapixel ultra-wide lens. This would make the Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max the first iPhone model to have a camera system made up entirely of 48 megapixel lenses. To put that in perspective, the current iPhone 15 Pro models have a 48 megapixel main camera, a 12 megapixel ultra-wide lens, and a 12 megapixel telephoto lens.
Looking ahead, Kuo said that the 2027 iPhones will have a significantly improved tetraprism camera with better optical zoom. This will likely be achieved by increasing the number of prisms to lengthen the light path. In that case, it would no longer be called a “tetraprism lens.” As the number of prisms increases, the prism size may need to be reduced, increasing the complexity of the prism design, the analyst said.
