If you’ve ever felt like your iPhone camera isn’t quite up to snuff, you’re not alone. I recently wrote about how picking the right iPhone Pro model to buy is so difficult, and one of the reasons is due to the way Apple handles its Smart HDR technology. While this technology isn’t solely responsible for photos not looking as natural as they should, we live in a world of computational photography, which is an algorithm that decides what’s important to focus on when capturing a photo.
While Apple can mitigate some of the issues with better processors, high-end lenses, and new algorithms, there’s a key component that could make a future iPhone camera better than professional cinema cameras: a custom image sensor.
What’s more interesting is that a patent filed last month titled “Image Sensor With Stacked Pixels Having High Dynamic Range and Low Noise” could already be in development, and unlike some of the company’s most controversial creations, this one is actually expected to see the light of the day.
How a custom image sensor could improve your next iPhone camera
MacRumors does a great job of breaking down the highly technical patent, explaining that the image sensor Apple is proposing could “outperform many professional cinema cameras,” if it’s as effective as the patent suggests.
Specs aside, the Weibo leaker Fixed Focus Digital (via MacRumors) says Apple has already developed the sensor, and it’s now ready to be tested, which means it could come to a future iPhone sooner rather than later. While the technology has yet to debut, Apple seems to be preparing to move away from its reliance on Sony, or at least diversify beyond the partnership.
The Financial Times went a little deeper following Apple’s $600 billion investment in U.S. manufacturing. Apple said it would launch an innovative new technology for making chips, but didn’t specify which chips would be made. According to FT, it’s readying three-layer stacked image sensors, which haven’t been manufactured at commercial scale so far. More interestingly, Apple might use Samsung’s System LSI — which designs and develops semiconductor components – to help with that.
Apple’s own image sensors are just around the corner
The FT report also notes that Samsung is already working on image sensors for the iPhone 18 lineup at its semiconductor plant in Texas. The initial production test might start soon, and if Samsung succeeds in mass-producing these image sensors for Apple, it could spark a camera revolution for the iPhone, and help the company meet the U.S. government’s demands to manufacture more key components domestically.
At the end of the day, Apple continues to work on proprietary chips as it wants to have a tighten control of its technologies, from its main processors to its 5G modem in the iPhone 16e, and later this year, with its Wi-Fi modem on the iPhone 17 series. That said, producing the image sensor is yet another step towards a more efficient and independent iPhone.
