The iPhone 16 could wow us with a surprise camera upgrade

Digital Trends / Nadeem Sarwar

Apple seems to have entered the megapixels race at last. Having stuck with a 12-megapixel camera array on its smartphones for multiple generations, it finally upgraded to a 48MP sensor on its iPhone 14 Pro models. The following year, the same upgrade was applied across the entire iPhone 15 series. As per renowned industry analyst, Ming Chi Kuo, this trend will endure with the iPhone 16 series.

Based on Kuo's latest note for investors, it is anticipated that the iPhone 16 Pro models will feature a fresh 48MP ultrawide angle camera sensor, which is a significant upgrade from the 12MP wide-angle camera on the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro.

The sensor will offer a higher megapixel count and its size will also be larger, which is welcomed news. The pixel size, on the other hand, will be reduced from 1 micron on the 12MP sensor of the iPhone 15 Pro to 0.7 micron on the 48MP ultrawide sensor of the iPhone 16 Pro.

Digital Trends / Joe Maring

Nonetheless, this is not necessarily a negative development. High-resolution camera sensors employ a method known as "pixel binning." This technique fundamentally merges adjacent pixels to formulate a faux superpixel that gathers and processes more light data, thus generating images with more detail.

For 48MP sensors, a 4-in-1 format is followed, where a 2x2 array of nearby pixels is merged to create a large superpixel. This essentially doubles the sensor size to 1.4 microns in the iPhone 16 Pro. The resulting image retains a 12MP resolution, but with less noise and better colors than a basic 12MP sensor can produce. Pixel binning also improves results in low-light scenarios significantly.

The major advantage of upgrading to a 48MP ultrawide camera, aside from the improvement in basic quality, is a reduction in the difference in image quality between the primary and ultrawide cameras on the iPhone 16 Pro. This is a serious upgrade and a significant one for iPhone enthusiasts, especially given Apple's typically cautious approach to hardware innovation. This move also helps Apple to better compete with rivals in the Android market, where many smartphone manufacturers opt for either 48MP or 50MP sensors for ultrawide photography.

Digital Trends / Christine Romero Chan

However, Apple still lags behind in the megapixels competition. Rivals like Samsung and Xiaomi have equipped their devices with 108MP and 200MP cameras that use 9-in-1 pixel binning or double the pixel-combination method for a smaller but superior-quality image.

Looking ahead, Kuo predicts that Apple will switch to a 24MP front camera, beginning with the iPhone 17 series. This would mark another significant change, after years of Apple sticking to a 12MP TrueDepth camera system on its iPhones.