Rumors abound that the new iPhone 6s and the iPhone 6s Plus will be sporting new 12-megapixel cameras.
If the rumors are true, Apple is finally succumbing to industry pressure to bump up the pixel number on its iPhones, despite the fact that the smartphones, never having upgraded from its eight-megapixel count since 2011, continue to have one of the best cameras despite plenty of other manufacturers pushing up the pixel count to as high as 41 megapixels on their devices.
The latest to stir up the 12-megapixel rumor is Kevin Wang, technology research director at IHS China, who said on his Weibo account that "Apple is getting with the flow of it" by upgrading its iPhones' cameras to 12 megapixels.
Wang's post confirms an earlier report of a research note by KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who also said that the iPhone 6s will have 12MP camera, Force Touch, and an upgraded A9 processor.
The jump to 12 megapixels is not all good news, however. Wong says Apple will be making the pixels smaller to accommodate the rise in pixel number. What this could possibly mean, if we only take into account the size of pixels, is lower-quality pictures in low-light conditions. Not all pixels are equal, and smaller pixels are less sensitive to light, resulting in pictures with more noise especially in low light.
However, many factors come into play when it comes to producing high-quality photos. Just like the number of pixels is not the only factor that determines what makes a good picture, pixel size is also but one of many things to consider. Improved optical image stabilization, a feature that Apple has put a lot of focus on in the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, could help address the low light problem, while new signal processing chips could further reduce noise.
It is also likely that Apple is planning to incorporate new technology from LinX Computational Imaging, which Apple purchased earlier this year, to provide single-lens-reflex (SLR) quality images for its new iPhones. LinX makes smartphone and tablet cameras equipped with a depth-sensing sensor that allows affords them faster exposure times in normal light and better-quality images in low light.
Either way, it's unlikely that Apple will increase the iPhone 6s' camera's pixel number and leave it at that. Being known for shunning a pixel increase for four years yet still making one of the best smartphone cameras around, Apple is likely to tweak the iPhone 6s camera in other ways to keep it taking great photos, even with smaller pixels.
Photo: John Karakatsanis | Flickr
