iPhone 15 to feature a big camera upgrade, but not as good as Pro models

Apple is rumored to significantly improve the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus main cameras, but they still won’t be as good as the ones available for the Pro models. At least, this is what Weibo user Digital Chat Station (via MacRumors) says. They are responsible for several other reports regarding upcoming changes to the iPhone camera.

While all iPhone 15 models are expected to feature a 48MP primary lens – which is a huge improvement for the current iPhone 14 with a 12MP sensor – they won’t have the same physical size.

The upcoming Pro models will have the same 1/1.28-inch 48MP sensor as the iPhone 14 Pro versions, while the regular models will have a smaller stacked CMOS image sensor at 1/1.5-inch. MacRumors notes that the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus have a 12MP sensor with a 1/1.9-inch in size, which means that the iPhone 15 will get a 27% larger sensor. This can significantly improve shots in low-light conditions.

Yesterday, another leaker, Twitter user RGLoudS, said the iPhone 15 would be the first global phone with a hybrid lens. That means the iPhone 15 will have a single glass element and six plastic elements on the main camera. With an ƒ/1.7 aperture, an improvement over the iPhone 14 Pro models, the primary lens will absorb up to 20% more light, making capturing images in low light less challenging.

This change is potentially a teaser of what Apple plans to do with the iPhone 16 Pro Max camera next year, which will use an eight-part hybrid lens design with two glass and six plastic elements while also introducing hybrid lenses on the telephoto and ultra-wide cameras. These changes were first rumored to come to this year’s iPhone 15 Pro Max, but analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said Apple scrapped these plans.

Analyst Jeff Pu recently said Apple decided to make these changes with the base models as it learned from the poor sales of the iPhone 14: “Both iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus are now expected to have a three-stacked sensor with a 48-megapixel wide lens. Currently, the 48-megapixel camera is exclusive to the iPhone 14 Pro models. However, the midrange iPhone 15 models still won’t have a telephoto lens for optical zoom or a LiDAR scanner.”

BGR will keep following the latest iPhone 15 rumors, and we’ll report back once we learn more about the new series. Below, you can find everything we know about these new phones.