This year's forthcoming iPhone 6S and next year's iPhone 7 are set to receive major camera upgrades, sources say.
According to Business Insider, Apple is currently ordering mass quantities of five-element lenses that will work with 12 megapixel camera sensors for the iPhone 6S, as well as six element lenses for the iPhone 7.
That means that the standard iPhone will finally break out of the 8 megapixel range it's been operating in ever since the launch of the iPhone 4S in 2011. While other components of the iPhone camera have improved with each new release, making for a better photo experience, the iPhone hasn't upped its megapixels in quite some time,
Tech Times reported.
So just what is a five-element lens? According to tech experts, because cameras in smartphones are so small, it's much cheaper to make the lens out of plastic than glass. While many may have heard about Apple using sapphire glass to protect the camera unit from scratches, it's actually the elements inside that do most of the complex focusing work.
That means that a five-element lens is made out of five layers of high-quality plastic. In a sense, it's five lenses packed into one.
These days, each layer costs about $1 to produce.
While the iPhone's expected camera improvements are exciting, Business Insider explained that competitors have already engineered better cameras.
"The OnePlus 2's camera, for example, packs a six-element lens with a 13-megapixel sensor. The Samsung Galaxy S5, which was released last year, is said to have a six-element lens as well," it reported.
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