The Inside Camera Remains a Mystery

While the rear cameras are roughly on par with the iPhone 17, both the “front” cameras — the ones on the outer and inner screens — are actually a notch behind.

The primary front camera on the outer display is actually only a 12-megapixel camera. That’s the same resolution as the iPhone 17e and iPhone 16 lineup, although it does benefit from offering Center Stage support to keep everyone in the frame while also taking landscape group shots without the need to turn the iPhone Duo sideways.

The resulting photos are still 12 MP, so this suggests Apple is still using a square sensor to handle both portrait and landscape shots — likely 16 MP based on the aspect ratios. However, the overall resolution is still lower than the iPhone 17, iPhone Air, and iPhone 18 Pro models, all of which offer an 18 MP Center Stage camera with a 24 MP internal sensor (the iPhone 18 Pro lineup was rumored to get a 24 MP selfie camera, but it’s likely analysts were just conflating the physical sensor size with the resulting photos).

More significantly, the under-display FaceTime camera on the inside of the iPhone Duo is a complete mystery. Apple isn’t publishing any specs for that, beyond 1080p video recording at 30 fps or 60 fps. This suggests it could be considerably lower resolution, considering the primary front camera can still do 4K Dolby Vision at up to 60 fps. It does have an f/1.8 aperture, which should allow for better low-light capture, but it might also need that just to punch through the screen, since it’s buried entirely under the display.