Don’t Expect a True Telephoto Lens on Next Year’s ‘iPhone 17 Air’
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If you’ve been hoping that Apple will bring new lens capabilities to its non-pro iPhone lineup next year, you may want to manage your expectations. A new supply chain report confirms that Apple’s advanced tetraprism lenses will remain exclusive to the flagship iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max.
That shouldn’t come as a big surprise for the standard iPhone 17, as it will likely continue the tradition of the dual-lens array that combines wide and ultrawide lenses. However, the so-called “iPhone 17 Air” remains something of a mystery as Apple is entering into uncharted waters with a new model that’s rumored to be both ultra-slim and possibly premium-priced.
This latest news comes from South Korea’s The Elec, which notes that LG Innotech, the main supplier of Apple’s camera modules, is in the process of upgrading its production facilities for next year’s iPhone 17 Pro lineup.
Since LG Innotech isn’t exactly a new supplier for Apple, the fact that it needs to upgrade its facilities bodes well for a nice spec upgrade on next year’s iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max. According to The Elec, this is being done due to higher specifications for next year’s cameras.
The standard iPhone 17 will almost certainly retain the standard two-lens configuration that’s been the norm since the iPhone 11. While it will likely get some iterative year-over-year sensor improvements, the jury is still out on whether it’s going to be another big leap. The iPhone 15 moved to a 48-megapixel (MP) main camera that allowed Apple to offer a virtual 2x zoom for the first time by using the 12 million pixels in the center of the sensor. This effectively gave Apple’s standard iPhone a third lens for the first time, and while 2x photos are limited to 12 megapixels, it’s still an optical quality zoom.
Apple leaned into that even more heavily this year by dubbing the primary shooter the ”Fusion” camera to highlight its new capabilities, and there’s a good chance we’ll see the same technology in next year’s iPhone SE 4 when it arrives in March. This will help Apple justify putting a single lens into a $500 smartphone at a time when many of the most affordable Android alternatives have two or more cameras.
That could also be where the “iPhone 17 Air” or “iPhone 17 Slim” comes in. With Apple planning to make this the slimmest iPhone ever — possibly beating the 5.1mm record set by this year’s 13-inch M4 iPad Pro — it’s going to have to cut some corners. Rumor has it that one of those cuts will be in the camera system, which will drop it to a single lens. This means that the “iPhone 17 Air” will not only lack a telephoto lens; it may not even get a wide angle. Instead, the Fusion camera will have to pull triple duty.
Apple may have a trick or two up its sleeve to make it the best single-camera system ever, but we’ll have to wait and see what it comes up with. There are mixed opinions right now on how Apple is going to price its new ultra-slim iPhone 17; most analysts and pundits believe it will carry a premium price tag, but some are suggesting it could be more expensive than the iPhone 17 Pro Max. While that seems a bit hard to believe, it’s not implausible if Apple decides to focus on the luxury aspect of an “impossibly thin” iPhone.
The emphasis will likely be on design and style rather than specs and performance, although the expected A19 chip won’t be a slouch, and the rumored 6.6-inch edge-to-edge OLED screen might end up being a very compelling upgrade over the smaller iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro, although it will still fall short of the iPhone 17 Pro Max, which is expected to stick with the 6.9-inch display introduced in this year’s iPhone 16 Pro Max.
[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]
