The iPhone 17 Pro could get a 48MP telephoto camera, which is way more exciting than it sounds let me explain

Date:
Wed, 03 Sep 2025 20:31:00 +0000

Description:
The iPhone 17 Pro is tipped to get a higher-res telephoto camera, which could make the entire camera system feel more powerful and consistent.

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The iPhone 17 series is nearly here Apple has announced that its annual September event will take place on September 9 , which is less than a week away at the time of writing. Were expecting full reveals for the iPhone 17 , iPhone 17 Air, iPhone 17 Pro , and iPhone 17 Pro Max.

Naturally, were expecting the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max to bring
the most advanced upgrades one such rumored upgrade concerns the 5x
telephoto camera, which has been tipped to get a resolution bump from 12MP up to 48MP.

Thats four times as many pixels total twice as many on both the vertical and horizontal axes a 48MP sensor would make the iPhone 17 Pros telephoto camera better at picking up fine detail, so long as the sensor is of an equivalent
or larger size to its predecessor. Android inspiration The Xiaomi 15 sports three cameras of identical resolution, which lends well to a consistent photo experience. (Image credit: Jamie Richards / Future)

The move to a 48MP telephoto camera would see all three iPhone cameras sporting the same resolution for the first time since the iPhone 13 Pro launched in 2021 with three 12MP cameras. That symmetry could have positive impacts beyond looking good on the spec sheet.

Back in March, I tested the Xiaomi 15, which sports a camera system with
three 50MP sensors. The phone comes with a wide-angle main camera, secondary ultra-wide camera, and 2.6x telephoto camera. As I wrote in our Xiaomi 15 review , this lends itself to an exceptionally consistent photography experience.

Using the Xiaomi 15, I never noticed much of a difference in image quality between the main, ultra-wide, and telephoto cameras, and while a lot of this is down to Xiaomis great image processing, theres something to be said for keeping the hardware as consistent as possible.

The goal for any phone maker looking to produce one of the best camera phones is to create a seamless experience, which is no mean feat when youre working with three different cameras. If any of the cameras stands out as weaker in some way, it could end up disregarded in favor of the other options ( see my previous rant about ultra-wide cameras ). Fusion zoom? Apple supposes that
the 48MP main camera on the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro can offer 2x
"optical" zoom, which isn't really true. (Image credit: Future)

Upping the iPhones telephoto camera resolution to 48MP would probably see Apple use the same logic that leads it to say that the 48MP Fusion Camera (read: main camera) comes with 2x optical zoom.

What I mean by this is that a 2x crop of a 48MP image leaves you with a 12MP image. If the image produced by the iPhones 48MP telephoto camera has 5x optical zoom, then doubling this produces a 12MP image at 10x digital zoom. Apple might call this optical quality zoom because the telephoto camera on
the iPhone 16 offered a 12MP image at native resolution.

You might have worked out that this is mostly a marketing term that has
little to do with actual optical zoom. But there's a half-truth in there if the iPhone 17 Pro can produce a good-looking 12MP image at 10x zoom, itll
have a shot at offering the best 10x zoom on the market.

Thats a lot of impact from one relatively minor change but just keep in mind that the above is based on rumors. Well get official information about the iPhone 17 series at the Apple event on September 9 until then, let us know what you want to see from the iPhone 17 Pro in the comments below. You might also like If the iPhone 17 gets this rumored upgrade, I'll recommend it over the iPhone 17 Pro The iOS 26 rollout is closer than ever, and Apple has just released the final developer beta heres whats new When can we expect the iPhone 17 to be released? Here are my expert predictions



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/phones/iphone/the-iphone-17-pro-could-get-a-48mp-tel ephoto-camera-which-is-way-more-exciting-than-it-sounds-let-me-explain


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