Apple may give the iPhone 15 Pro Max better cameras than the iPhone 15 Pro

The iPhone 15 series might be one of the most anticipated smartphone launches of this year. Apple is expected to bring a number of changes to its flagship product, such as a new design and the implementation of USB-C ports to finally replace its aging Lightning connector. However, one other change might see the iPhone 15 Pro Max become much better than the iPhone 15 Pro.

According to Forbes and industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Cupertino is apparently considering introducing a periscope camera setup with its upcoming lineup. A periscope lens would be something like an addon to the regular telephoto camera, giving it a longer focal length. This puts it on par with the likes of its rivals such as the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra which can do up to 10x optical zoom and 100x digital zoom. Kuo claims that Apple has already tapped up Taiwanese company Largan to supply them with the periscope lens.

What Apple fans perhaps didn’t want to hear though is that they’re seemingly only going to put this new periscope telephoto camera setup on the iPhone 15 Pro Max only. This leaves the iPhone 15 Pro a little bit on the back foot, only offering the regular telephoto camera that’s already on the iPhone 14 Pro and before. Whether or not this means Cupertino would end up rebranding the Pro Max into something else such as the iPhone 15 Ultra though remains to be seen. Of course, this wouldn’t be the first time Apple has done something like this.

Back in 2020, Apple released the iPhone 12 lineup, with the iPhone 12 Pro Max having a better camera system than the one on the iPhone 12 Pro. The telephoto camera on the iPhone 12 Pro Max for instance had a longer focal length of 2.5x compared to the iPhone 12 Pro’s 2x optical zoom.But it was the main camera on the iPhone 12 Pro Max that was noticeably better, with a larger sensor size that allowed for more light along with the debut of Apple’s sensor-shift stabilisation compared to the iPhone 12 Pro’s regular optical image stabilisation.

Incidentally, Apple’s move to only fit a periscope lens on one of their high end smartphones also has some consequences for lens suppliers. Apple had apparently contracted Largan to supply them periscope camera lenses at USD4 per lens, lower than the current market rate for them. Kup says that Largan likely won’t be profiting from this deal anyway. Apple is also expected to switch to another Taiwanese lens supplier Genius for the iPhone 16 series at even lower prices, which will cause ripple effects for lens suppliers as other companies try to follow Apple’s prices.