Every iPhone 15 is getting a huge camera upgrade

(Image credit: 4RMD)

published 7 September 2023

If you're serious about photography and prefer iPhone to Android, Apple has just the device for you: every single iPhone 15 is getting a bump to its camera specs, and in some cases it's a very big one. Whether you're thinking of the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 15 Pro Max there are improvements across the board – but some improvements are bigger than others.

Thanks to MacRumors' latest source, we've got more information than ever about each iPhone 15 camera. Here's what you need to know.

iPhone 15 Pro Max

This is the biggest camera upgrade in the range: the iPhone 15 Pro Max is getting the new periscope zoom lens system, which will deliver somewhere between 5x and 10x optical zoom. That addresses one of the big drawbacks of iPhones compared to many of the best Android phones: iPhone picture quality is great but its zoom is very limited.

The reason the Max is the only phone to get this new module is apparently because it's just too big for the Pro; that phone is expected to get slightly bigger in the iPhone 16 range, with the periscope lens moving to the Pro as well as the Pro Max.

In terms of the cameras themselves you're looking at a 48MP main with Sony IMX-803 sensor and f/1.78 aperture; a 12.7MP telephoto with periscope lens and f/2.8; and a 13.4MP ultra-wide with f/2.2.

iPhone 15 Pro

The main camera here is the same as in the iPhone 14 Pro, with the same image sensor. But the other two cameras are getting a boost from 12MP to 12.7 and 13.3MP, so there should still be improvements.

The iPhone 15 Pro cameras will be the 48MP, IMX-803 main camera with f/1.78, a 12.7MP telephoto without the new periscope lens and with an f/2.8 aperture; and a 13.4MP ultra-wide with f/2.2.

iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus

The main cameras here are getting a big boost, with a reported shift from the current 12MP to a new 48MP Sony sensor. That's a massive upgrade, and it'll be accompanied by a 12MP f/2.2 ultra wide camera. MacRumors says the Sony sensor here isn't the same one as the Pro, and it's currently unclear whether the model that's actually shipping will contain the previously reported stacked camera sensor. If so, you can expect significantly better low light. The ultra-wide camera remains unchanged.

As an iPhone 14 Pro user there's not a huge amount of good news for my favoured iPhone, but that Periscope zoom is going to be pretty tasty in the Pro Max – if a bit beyond what I can afford to spend. But I think the big winners here are buyers of the standard iPhone 15 and the iPhone 15 Plus: moving up to 48MP is a massive upgrade and well worth having.

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Writer, musician and broadcaster Carrie Marshall has been covering technology since 1998 and is particularly interested in how tech can help us live our best lives. Her CV is a who’s who of magazines, newspapers, websites and radio programmes ranging from T3, Techradar and MacFormat to the BBC, Sunday Post and People’s Friend. Carrie has written more than a dozen books, ghost-wrote two more and co-wrote seven more books and a Radio 2 documentary series; her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, was shortlisted for the British Book Awards. When she’s not scribbling, Carrie is the singer in Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind (unquietmindmusic).