Apple thinks a titanium frame and a blazing fast chip are the makings of a “Pro” iPhone. Except it’s not. It’s actually supremely disappointing.
When Apple introduced the first “Pro” iPhone in 2019, it stood with an additional telephoto camera at the back. To this day, the third lens serves as a proud marker of the Pro moniker. The camera chops are what predominantly separated these pricey trims from the non-Pro variants.
As Apple’s fall launch event unfolded last week, I was hoping to see some big camera upgrades fitting for the new Pro models. Yet, the only meaningful camera upgrade we got was kept exclusive to the iPhone 15 Pro Max. Instead of the iPhone 14 Pro’s 3x zoom camera, the iPhone 15 Pro Max makes the jump to a 5x telephoto camera.
I appreciate the upgrade, but then, it also comes at a cost. The latest and greatest iPhone Pro Max now starts at $1,200 — a $100 mark-up compared to its predecessor, even though the default storage capacity is now 256GB. In hindsight, it’s almost as if Apple is saying that it kept the iPhone 15 Pro’s asking price locked at $999 at the cost of skipping the much-deserved zoom camera upgrade.It’s not the zoom camera we deserved
Let’s talk about whatever telephoto camera upgrade we are getting here. It’s not the best out there — not even close. Rumors had hyped up a periscope-style telephoto camera that would offer a dramatic increase in the zoom range, similar to what you see on the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. But that shift didn’t happen. Apple has also locked the “tetraprism design,” which combines the autofocus and stabilization modules, to the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
You still get the usual telephoto array where the lens elements are stacked atop the camera sensor; no fancy folded lens light tunnel system is to be seen here. Apple claims that the “iPhone 15 Pro Max provides the longest optical zoom ever on iPhone: 5x at 120 mm.” That may be true, but it’s far from the 10x optical zoom trick that its Samsung rival can pull off. That zoom range leg-up really makes a difference, and I have repeatedly reveled in the benefits of a powerful long-range telephoto camera on every single vacation.
The situation with the other two camera sensors is also grim.
