As always, Apple fans will be expecting another major hardware upgrade or two as new iPhones arrive over the next two years, and recent reports seem to suggest that the Cupertino company will offer up exactly that. Citing a research note from Deutsche Securities analyst Jialin Lu, Economic Daily News claims that the 2019 flagship iPhone will be the first from Apple to feature a triple-lens camera, similar to the well-reviewed Huawei P20 Pro.
According to a translation of the report from MacRumors, Lu suggests the triple-lens camera will enable advanced 3D sensing on the 2019 iPhone with stereoscopic vision. Two sensors will capture images of an object from two different angles. Then, using triangulation, the distance between the phone and the object can be determined.
The report also indicates that the 2019 iPhone will feature a 3D sensing apparatus on the rear (like the TrueDepth sensor on the front of the iPhone X) that will be used for augmented reality. This mirrors a report from Bloomberg late last year, in which Alex Webb made the same claim regarding next year’s flagship phone.
Finally, Lu also expects the third lens to have a longer focal length, which would enable enhanced zoom capabilities on the rear camera. With a long-focus lens, the 2019 model could be the first iPhone with 3x optical zoom. This would allow iPhone owners to zoom up to 3 times without any significant reduction in image quality. For comparison’s sake, the iPhone X and iPhone 8 Plus max out at 2x optical zoom, so this would be a significant upgrade.
