This iPhone 16 camera improvement might convince me to buy Apple’s next phone

With each of the latest smartphones, you’ll find that the camera gets an improvement from its predecessor. Apple does this religiously with the iPhone. And the upcoming iPhone 16 is set to be no different, with a camera improvement that might convince you to buy Apple’s next smartphone.

• Read more: Apple iPhone 16: what upgraded features will appear later this year?

The rumour mill, this time fuelled by the ever-so-mysterious source “yeux1122” from the Naver blog, suggests that Apple is experimenting with a new anti-reflective optical coating technology for the iPhone 16’s camera lenses. The magic behind this improvement? A technique called atomic layer deposition, or ALD for those fond of acronyms. This method meticulously deposits materials atom by atom. Why? It allows for unprecedented precision in creating coatings that reduce issues like lens flare and ghosting. This new feature will likely be reserved for the iPhone 16 Pro models.

Lens flare can turn a potentially brilliant photo into a mess of streaks and halos. It’s especially noticeable when you’re shooting against a light source. Some customers who bought the iPhone 15 Pro shared that lens flare is a more common issue on the latest handset. Ghosting, on the other hand, creates faint secondary images in your pictures. It can be a bit spooky unless you’re going for that ghost-hunter vibe.

Apple’s new ALD coating aims to tackle these issues head-on. It should ensure your photos are as crisp and clear as a cold winter’s morning. Beyond just enhancing image quality, this tech is also tipped to beef up the durability of the lenses, protecting them against environmental wear and tear without bogging down their ability to capture light effectively.

Alongside this new camera coating, the iPhone 16 Pro models are expected to strut onto the scene with a tetraprism lens. This is expected to allow the next iPhone up to 5x optical zoom – a feature that currently struts its stuff exclusively on the iPhone 15 Pro Max. We’ll be sure to see plenty of camera improvements when Apple unveils the device later this year. And it looks like they might convince us to buy the next iPhone.

• Related: Next iPhone launch date: when are the 2024 iPhones out?

Connor Jewiss

About

Connor is a writer for Stuff, working across the magazine and the Stuff.tv website. He has been writing for around seven years now, with writing across the web and in print too. Connor has experience on most major platforms, though does hold a place in his heart for macOS, iOS/iPadOS, electric vehicles, and smartphone tech. Just like everyone else around here, he’s a fan of gadgets of all sorts! Aside from writing, Connor is involved in the startup scene. This exciting involvement puts him at the front of new and exciting tech, always on the lookout for innovating products.

Areas of expertise

Mobile, macOS, EVs, smart home