iPhone 14 Pro just tipped for 48MP camera — and that's a big deal

iPhone 14 Pro just tipped for 48MP photographic camera — and that's a big deal

a render of an iPhone 14 concept rear camera array

(Image credit: ConceptsiPhone/YouTube)

Another rumor one time once more tips the Pro models of the iPhone 14 to feature a 48MP camera when they arrive this fall. And that suggests that megapixel counts really matter once again.

This tidbit of data about Apple'due south iPhone 14 plans comes from Taiwanese analyst outfit TrendForce, which has the iPhone 14 Pro slated to go a megapixel boost for its main rear camera. And TrendForce is only the latest to brand this claim, every bit similar rumors date back to final Apr.

Since 2015, every main photographic camera on the iPhone has been equipped with a 12MP camera, and then if this rumor is legitimate, we could run across a notable sensor upgrade.

Smart snapping

iPhone 14 — (Image credit: Front Page Tech | Renders past Ian)

You might raise an countenance here, every bit for some time now, megapixels oasis't been a firm indicator of smartphone camera performance. After all, the 12MP camera on the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max features on the superlative spots of our best camera phones list, beating the likes of the 108MP camera on the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra.

A lot of this comes down to computational photography and image signal processing, which add a layer of smart photo construction backside telephone cameras and deliver impressive shots past stitching together multiple photos into 1.

Apple also has its Semantic Rendering, a characteristic that first debuted in the iPhone 11, to go i step farther. Through the use of the Deep Fusion AI tech on Apple'due south more than contempo A-series Bionic chips, this approach can place unlike segments of a photo — say someone's hair, skin or eyebrows — and apply individual photograph settings to each of them rather than to the photo equally a whole. You can recall of this almost every bit if a photo editor is tweaking your shots in real time, with the results being very impressive.

Simply the iPhones are non solitary in using powerful computational photography. Google's Pixel phones also set a loftier watermark for what smart image processing can deliver. As such, raw megapixel counts don't always lead to better photos.

More megapixels

iPhone 14 renders by Front Page Tech and Ian Zelbo — (Image credit: Ian Zelbo | Front end Page Tech)

However, there's a wind of alter here. Samsung has the same 108MP chief camera in the Milky way S21 Ultra, with the Milky way S22 tipped to use 50MP principal camera for both its standard and Plus models when those phones go far in the next month or so. And Google has finally upped the megapixel count on its phones, with the Pixel six sporting a 50MP primary camera.

Ultimately, while computational photography tin fine tune a camera'southward performance to impressive levels, at that place's only so much that can be extracted from a 12MP sensor. So upping the megapixel count then gives telephone makers more to play with. In particular, the Google Pixel 6 Pro's photos make a compelling statement for finally moving on from 12MP lenses.

As such, information technology would seem logical that Apple would also follow arrange. But Cupertino is probable to use the add-on of a college megapixel count as a ways to lean in on the professional side of its side by side-gen Pro iPhones.

Moving to 48MP means the iPhone 14 Pro could offer a true pro mode for photos, rather than just ProRAW. A lot of phones with large megapixel-count cameras tend to employ a process chosen pixel binning to resolve these high-megapixel photos into 12MP shots that are more easily handled and shared.

Only if Apple were to focus on the pro side of its next-gen phones, then nosotros could see it provide photos in their native 48MP form for photograph editors to manipulate. And that'southward down to more megapixels translating into more resolution and thus more than information, such as detail, to work with when editing.

Opting for a 48MP master camera would also mean the iPhone 14 Pro could offer 8K resolution video capture, drawing information technology level to Apple tree's would-exist rivals. Current iPhones summit out at 4K video capture.

In short, it looks like the number of megapixels in a camera could kickoff to matter again when information technology comes to phone photography, peculiarly if Apple adopts the 48MP principal camera as has been rumored.

Putting this aside, nosotros're nevertheless expecting to see upgraded photographic camera sensors in the iPhone 14, and a new design is set to see the end of the notch in favor of that could be a pill-shaped selfie camera cut-out and under-display Face ID on the Pro phones at to the lowest degree. Speaking of biometrics, we're expecting to see some grade of under-display fingerprint scanner, equally at a time where mask wearing is prolific, Face up ID tin struggle with identifying users.

Improved bombardment life, USB-C charging, and a 4-nanometer A-series chip have as well been tipped for the iPhone 14.

Simply we're still some style off from September, which is when we'd look to see the iPhone 14 range make its debut. That ways a wait before we get a clear idea of what rumors bear fruit and which withered on the vine.

Roland Moore-Colyer is U.K. Editor at Tom's Guide with a focus on news, features and opinion articles. He oftentimes writes about gaming, phones, laptops and other bits of hardware; he's also got an interest in cars. When not at his desk Roland can be found wandering around London, oftentimes with a look of curiosity on his face.