Forget the iPhone 16! A respected Apple analyst is already leaking possible info about next year's iPhone
(Image credit: Apple)
We may only be weeks away from the iPhone 16 launch, but rumors are already surfacing about the cameras in 2025's iPhone 17. Prolific Apple analyst Jeff Pu has leaked information about the iPhone 17's potential camera specs and what improvements they may offer.
In a research document leaked by Pu to MacRumors, it's alleged that the iPhone 17 line-up will be comprised of four distinct models: iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, and an 'iPhone 17 Slim' - a name which could still be subject to change. All are said to feature a new 24 megapixel front-facing selfie camera with a six-element lens. This would be a marked improvement on the 12MP front-facing camera with its 5-element lens that's in the current iPhone 15.
Though such information has to be treated with a generous helping of salt at this early stage, we'd fully expect Apple to have the iPhone 17's hardware mapped out by now, and potentially signed off. Pu's tip-off also aligns with leaks from other sources. In January this year another reputable Apple analyst, Ming-Chi Kuo, predicted that at least one iPhone 17 model would ship with a 24MP selfie camera fronted by a 6-element lens, with that sixth element supposedly being there to correct optical distortion. This improved lens, combined with the significant bump in sensor resolution, would potentially make for substantially better selfie image quality, with the extra resolution also allowing more scope for cropping.
We'll have to wait for September 2025 to know whether these rumors have any credence. But before then we've got the iPhone 16 to look forward to, and its launch is only around one month away now.
Ben is the Imaging Labs manager, responsible for all the testing on Digital Camera World and across the entire photography portfolio at Future. Whether he's in the lab testing the sharpness of new lenses, the resolution of the latest image sensors, the zoom range of monster bridge cameras or even the latest camera phones, Ben is our go-to guy for technical insight. He's also the team's man-at-arms when it comes to camera bags, filters, memory cards, and all manner of camera accessories – his lab is a bit like the Batcave of photography! With years of experience trialling and testing kit, he's a human encyclopedia of benchmarks when it comes to recommending the best buys.
