Like a cashier at Burger King asking if you want to upgrade to large fries, Apple seems intent on pushing its fans to the iPhone 14 Pro this year. Only unlike the aforementioned cashier, Apple’s upsell will set you back at least NZ$350, making it slightly less of an impulse purchase than the dietarily ill-advised NZ$1 fries upgrade.
We’ve already heard all kinds of ways that the iPhone 14 Pro is increasing the divide this year, from the end of the notch to it being the only model to get a new chipset, but now analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has predicted a second big camera improvement.
Kuo made the announcement in a bi-lingual set of tweets, first delivering the prediction in Chinese before following up in English, sparing us all from the inevitable Google Translate butchering.
In the tweets, he predicts an upgrade to the two iPhone 14 Pros’ ultra-wide camera sensors, with an increase to larger 1.4µm pixels (the current model has 1.0µm pixels). This would allow more light in, thus reducing noise in darker photographic conditions.
“Excellent,” you may be thinking, but there’s a downside. Three components required for this improvement — the CMOS image sensor, the voice coil motor and the compact camera module — will all have a “significant unit price increase” with Kuo predicting the components costing up to 70% more. Sony, Minebea, VCM, Largan and LG innotek will be the beneficiaries of this spending spree, he writes.
It’s not just the ultra-wide camera that’ll be getting upgraded if the rumour mill is to be believed. The main sensor is apparently getting an upgrade to 48 megapixels, which will be the first time that particular number has been increased since the iPhone 6S embraced the brave new world of 12MP sensors back in 2015.
Considering the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra has a 108MP sensor, and next year’s model is tipped to up things to 200MP, some would consider this upgrade a touch on the late side. Especially when one tester has reportedly found Apple’s new sensor to be a bit of a let down.
We’ll find out exactly how many of these rumours are bang on the banana next week, with Apple hosting its Far Out event on Wednesday 7 September. As per usual, it’s at Stupid O’Clock NZST — or 5 AM to be precise — so best set an alarm if you’re keen to find out what Cook & Co has planned.
