Apple iPhone 18 rumored to get variable aperture lens on main camera — why that matters

2 weeks ago 3

Next year's iPhone 17 series is supposed to bring some interesting changes to the flagship phones from Apple, but maybe you'll want to wait until 2026 and the iPhone 18, which is expected to feature a massively upgraded primary camera.

According to supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the Pro models of the iPhone 18 lineup will be the first Apple phone to feature a variable aperture lens.

To be fair to Apple, recent iPhones have seen impressive upgrades, including 48MP sensors (slightly less than the 50MP that sits in Android rivals), the tetraprism 5x telephoto camera from the iPhone 15 Pro models and the iPhone 16 lineup, and this year's Camera Control button. The iPhone 17 is expected to receive a 48MP telephoto sensor and a 24MP front-facing camera.

Kuo's latest rumor comes courtesy of a post on his Medium blog. That post outlines his thoughts on the cameras of several future Apple products, including the much-rumored iPhone 17 Slim, an M5-powered MacBook Pro and the iPhone 18

In a business sense, Apple is expected to lean heavily on its supplier Sunny Optical starting in 2025. Kuo expects Sunny Optical to be the main supplier of a new variable aperture lens that will feature on the iPhone 18.

Since at least the iPhone 14 Pro, Apple's Pro model iPhones have featured a fixed aperture lens of f/1.78 on the main camera. A variable aperture enables the camera to control the amount of light entering the lens, which would be helpful in a variety of lighting situations and may bring huge improvements to low-light shooting.

A variable aperture also offers more control over the depth of field, which would create sharper focus.

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Kuo writes, "Sunny Optical's advantage in this order is that it already has experience in designing and manufacturing variable aperture cameras (for Android customers), and its shutter order advantage will help lens orders."

Kuo previously reported that Sunny Optical would bring a new compact camera module to the MacBook Pro, which could lead to thinner devices.

Assuming Apple keeps its regular release schedule, we should see the iPhone 18 Pro models launch around September 2026.