iPhone 17 Pro Max tipped for Apple’s most powerful camera setup yet

When the iPhone 16 range launches later this year we're expecting to see some significant camera improvements – and Apple is already working on even bigger things for the iPhone 17. A new report says that the iPhone 17 Pro Max will have the most powerful camera setup we've ever seen in an iPhone.

The report comes from respected industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has published a new note for corporate investors outlining the iPhone future. According to Kuo, the big upgrade in the iPhone 17 Pro Max will be a triple-48MP camera assembly with a 1/2.6" sensor. That's a double upgrade: the sensor size is bigger than the 1/3.1" 12MP sensor predicted for this year's iPhone 16 Pro models, and that means there will be three 48MP cameras compared to the iPhone 16's two.

iPhone 16 and 17 camera specifications: what we know so far

The iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max are both expected to get the same telephoto lenses as the current iPhone 15 Pro Max. That means an increase in optical zoom from 3x to 5x, and the new setup should also deliver digital zoom up to 25x.

The iPhone 17 Pro Max might not be the only iPhone 17 to get the improved triple-48MP setup; Kuo's note says that it's currently unclear whether the iPhone 17 Pro Max will be the only model to get it, or if the iPhone 17 Pro will also get an upgrade. 

As MacRumors reports, one of the key reasons for upgrading the lenses is Vision Pro, Apple's VR headset that's currently rolling out to more countries. iPhone 15 Pro users can record spatial video for the Vision Pro, a feature that uses the main and ultra wide lenses simultaneously to record video with extra depth. At the moment the camera setup on the 15 Pro is 48MP on the main camera and 12MP on both ultra wide and telephoto; by upgrading all three cameras to 48MP the iPhone 17 Pro would be able to take even better quality spatial video.