Apple’s iPhone 15 vary isn’t prone to see the sunshine of day till September 2023, however that hasn’t stopped tipsters from speculating about what to anticipate from the corporate’s iPhone 16 lineup, which can virtually actually observe in 2024. 

In line with a brand new report from Korean outlet The Elec (opens in new tab) (H/T Wccftech (opens in new tab)), Apple’s iPhone 16 Professional fashions will arrive sporting a periscope zoom lens – a characteristic extensively anticipated to be unique to the iPhone 15 Extremely when the subsequent iPhones arrive in 2023. 

In different phrases, prospects holding out till 2024 for his or her subsequent iPhone improve could not have to spend huge on Apple’s top-of-the-range handset to learn from periscope zoom expertise. As a substitute, the iPhone 16 Professional might be the primary ‘mid-level’ iPhone to supply the sought-after images characteristic. 

Periscope cameras – which get their identify from their similarity to the instrument used on submarines and different naval vessels – basically enable the viewer to zoom to excessive lengths whereas sustaining picture high quality. Within the restricted house of a telephone’s digital camera module, a periscope digital camera makes use of mirrors to permit for extra lens parts, and due to this fact an extended zoom size.

Naturally, smartphone-sized iterations of the expertise are costly to provide, and periscope cameras have thus far been reserved for high-end fashions just like the Samsung Galaxy S22 Extremely, Huawei P50 Professional, Honor Magic four Professional and Xiaomi 12S Extremely.

After all, the iPhone 16 Professional (and its inevitable Professional Max sibling) will virtually actually nonetheless sit on the high-end of Apple’s smartphone vary – the iPhone 14 Professional, as an illustration, retails for the not-so-small value of $999 / £1,099 / AU$1,749 – however the rumored existence of an iPhone 15 Extremely suggests Apple may even be releasing an iPhone 16 Extremely, which might relegate the iPhone 16 Professional to mid-tier standing (as Apple units go, no less than).

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Information of the iPhone 16 Professional’s periscope lens comes simply days after different rumors hinted that Apple’s Dynamic Island – the digital notch alternative that debuted as a Professional-exclusive characteristic on final 12 months’s iPhone 14 lineup – will discover its manner onto each iPhone 15 mannequin in 2023. 

It’s clear, then, that Apple is eager to make its newer, high-end options accessible to as many customers as attainable – however solely after these options have loved a 12 months of top-level iPhone exclusivity. 

Different options touted as being unique to the rumored iPhone 15 Extremely embody Apple’s subsequent chip improve – prone to be the A17 Bionic – and a titanium body. If we had been a betting publication, we’d wager that each options might be showing on the iPhone 16 Professional, too.