We just saw the launch of the iPhone 16 series a couple of months back. The camera hardware was slightly upgraded across the line-up, and the camera button was added. Overall, the line-up had the iterative upgrades that Apple usually does.
Right now, with the iPhone 16 Pro, there are three cameras at the back. A 48MP main, 48MP Ultrawide, and a 12MP telephoto.
48MP for the main camera was brought with the iPhone 14 Pro. Following this, 48MP for Ultrawide was brought this year by iPhone 16 Pro. Subsequently, Apple will complete the 48MP transition by bringing it to the telephoto on the iPhone 17 Pro.
iPhone 18 Pro variable aperture
After upgrading all three lenses to 48MP next year, Apple is planning for a big camera upgrade. With the iPhone 18 Pro, Apple is planning to add variable aperture to the camera.
Before this info, the variable aperture was expected to come next year with the iPhone 17 Pro. However, a renowned tipster, Ming-Chi Kuo, has revealed some new info in his Medium post. The post had information on products like the iPhone 17 Slim, M5 MacBook Pro, and the iPhone 18 series supplier.
In the post, Kuo says, “One major upgrade for the 2026 high-end iPhone 18 is the wide-camera lens upgrade to a variable aperture camera, significantly enhancing the user photography experience. My latest industry survey indicates Sunny Optical will be the primary shutter supplier (with Luxshare as secondary) and the second variable aperture lens supplier (after Largan Precision).”
Why is variable aperture required?
An aperture is the opening of a camera sensor that controls the light intake. The iPhone 18 Pro’s variable aperture could mean a better camera experience. Due to this addition, we may see better depth control, low-light performance, and more versatility.
To improve the camera output from tiny smartphone sensors, we need to increase the amount of light. There are some ways of doing this. We can boost the ISO, boost the sensor size, and make the aperture values smaller. However, this has problems.
The larger the sensor and smaller the aperture values, the worse the minimum focus distance gets. It increases the separation between the foreground and the background. Unfortunately, it becomes very difficult to focus with the main sensor, and you have to take many steps back, causing focus fringe, some edges going out of focus, and more.
It’s so bad on the 16 Pro and 15 Pro to the point where it many times resorts to Macro Mode to capture close-up texts and other objects, and that uses the much weaker ultrawide camera.
To solve this problem, which many people have reported, Apple will probably introduce variable aperture. The problem is widespread as many mainstream consumers switching from phones with smaller sensors like the 11 Pro (which have easier focus) have reported problems.
