It is reported that Apple plans to use a four-prism telephoto lens on the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max in 2024. This is consistent with what Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said in September, and which he reiterated recently. Earlier this month, Elec also released a report that gave the same explanation for the availability of prisms, but provided more details.
iPhone15ProMax is equipped with a four-prism telephoto camera. Its internal folded glass structure adopts a four-prism design, which can repeatedly reflect light to achieve up to 5x optical zoom, while the iPhone 14 Pro Max only has 3x.
The iPhone 15 Pro released this year is not equipped with a newly improved four-prism telephoto camera, possibly due to space constraints. The components required for a quad-prism camera would take up much more space than the telephoto camera currently equipped on the iPhone 15 Pro, making it impossible to fit into the smaller 6.1-inch device.
With the launch of iPhone 16 Pro, Apple intends to increase the overall size of the device. The display sizes of iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max are approximately 6.3 inches and 6.9 inches respectively. The increase in device size will provide ample space for a new quad-prism telephoto camera, an internal document confirming the change.
Internal documents detailing the design of the iPhone 16 Pro camera module show that the module is very similar to the one used in the iPhone 15 Pro Max. At a glance, the area containing the prism assembly is easily identifiable.
It’s worth noting that the information provided here is pre-production and may not reflect the hardware on the final production machine. The iPhone 16 Pro is still a few months away and may change at any time.