Waiting for iPhone 16 Pro? Good news! It will get this massive new feature

iPhone 15 Pro Max is the only iPhone this year to get the new tetraprism lens, which has resulted in long waiting periods for the device. A new report claims that iPhone 16 Pro will likely get it next year.

iPhone 15 Pro Max features a new tetraprism lens that offers up to 5X optical zoom and the same may well come to the iPhone 16 Pro. (Apple)

For months, it was rumored that the new iPhone 15 Pro Max would feature a telephoto lens with 5X zoom. It was one feature that the Samsung flagships had, but the iPhone didn't. So, when Apple took to the stage at its Wonderlust event to unveil its newest iPhone 15 series, the announcement of a new tetraprism lens on the iPhone 15 Pro Max was a welcome move. However, Apple has limited this new lens to only the top-end iPhone this year, which has resulted in huge demand for the device, and it has been sold out till November in nearly all countries.

But things could change next year as Apple could bring the tetraprism lens to another one of its iPhones - the iPhone 16 Pro too.

iPhone 16 Pro - Camera upgrade coming?

The new iPhone 15 Pro Max gets a 120mm tetraprism lens with 5X capability. According to Apple, the new tetraprism design of the telephoto lens combines Optical Image Stabilization with Apple's 3D Autofocus Sensor Shift to create its most advanced stabilization system yet. Users can now switch between three different focal lengths - 24 mm, 28 mm, and 35 mm, and the camera system now captures 48MP HEIF images with 4x more resolution.

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Due to this groundbreaking feature, the iPhone 15 Pro Max has been facing delays, and it is sold out in nearly every location until November. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, in a post on Medium, revealed that the new tetraprism compact camera module (CCM), which is exclusively made by LGIT, has bottlenecked the supply of the iPhone 15 Pro Max. To counter this, Apple has “urgently increased the specifications of the tetraprism lens exclusively supplied by Largan to address the CCM yield issues caused by assembly tolerances”.

However, this has had a downside too as the unit cost of the lens has increased by more than 20 percent, boosting profits for Largan.

Kuo also claimed that both the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max are set to get the tetraprism lens next year, with Apple and Largan working together to improve the yield. The report also mentioned that Largan is likely to stay as the exclusive or the primary supplier of the CCM.