iPhone 16 Pro will have 5x zoom camera

According to TF Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max will have the same camera specs as the 15 Pro Max. Currently, on the iPhone 15 series, only the top-end Pro Max model is equipped with a tetraprism, in which light bends four times to simulate a 120mm focal length, increasing the optical zoom to 5x.

In addition, Kuo predicts that in 2024, Apple will increase production of iPhones with tetraprism lenses by 110%, equivalent to 70-80 million units, which will benefit Apple's lens manufacturers Largan, Crystal-Optech, and Lante Optics. Crystal-Optech and Lante Optics are both expected to expand their tetraprism lens production capacity by at least 50% next year. The source said that Crystal-Optech is currently unable to meet Apple's 2023 orders, and Lante is increasing production to make up for the shortfall.

In addition, according to some leaked sources on X, the two iPhone 16 and 16 Plus models may be equipped with a custom-designed A17 chip, manufactured using a different process than the A17 Pro on the iPhone 15 Pro to save costs.

Specifically, the current A17 Pro is manufactured using TSMC's N3B process, while the A17 chip (possibly called the A17 Bionic) will switch to the lower-cost N3E process. This will be the first time Apple has designed its own chip for its standard iPhone models.

N3B is a 3nm chip manufacturing process created by TSMC in partnership with Apple. Meanwhile, N3E is simpler and will be used by most of TSMC's other customers. N3E has a lower transistor density and fewer EUV layers, so it is not as efficient as N3B. However, N3B has lower yields and is not compatible with TSMC's other legacy processes such as N3P, N3X, and N3S, so Apple will have to redesign its future chips to take advantage of TSMC's new process.

Meanwhile, analyst Jeff Pu also said that the two versions of iPhone 16 and 16 Plus will use the A17 chip with the N3E process, and have 8 GB of RAM, up from 6 GB of the current generation.