Roger Fingas
A new set of "iPhone XI" renders emerged on Tuesday, claimed to depict one of the rear camera designs Apple is considering.
The proposed module would sport three lenses in a centered, horizontal alignment, plus a ring flash around the middle one, according to CompareRaja and well-known leak source Steve Hemmerstoffer, better known as @OnLeaks. Hemmerstoffer was also responsible for another set of published renders showing a corner-based triple-lens design.
Both renders are allegedly based on "100 percent legit prototypes," but Apple is still said to be in the engineering validation testing (EVT) phase and yet to settle on a final layout. As before it's claimed that Apple is preparing three new iPhones for launch in September 2019, and it's not certain which model(s) the renders represent.
There's currently no way of verifying the authenticity of the two leaks. A centered camera module would mark a definite break from past iPhones, which have always used corner cameras and never a ring flash. Apple has also moved away from horizontal alignments beginning with the iPhone X, operating on the idea that vertical is better for augmented reality.
That may or may not be an obstacle though, and Apple might prefer symmetry as well as a decreased chance of fingers covering the lens.
As with the previous version, the authenticity of the data leading to the render cannot be confirmed. This design seems even less probable at first glance, given the loss of internal space in the center of the device that the design would require.
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
Chip Loder
Malcolm Owen
16 Comments
Too early for any of these even close to true but entertaining jibber-jabber. Helps people pass time.
Well, I can see this one's more likely than the other one, but it still doesn't look very Apple. I don't think they'll go for a centrally-aligned camera array, although I can see some advantages to it: It acts like a rest, so that the phone is now slightly raised when lying on its back, and getting away from the assymmetry of the current design means if you rotate it clockwise (as I do, being left handed) to take a photo, the camera is no longer on the bottom edge of the phone.
Still, I expect something more like this, but probably in the same location as it is currently, but putting it in the centre is not completely absurd, like that massive array on the other render was.
This is stupid, no iPhone, iPad not even iPod have ever had a entered camera. It's already brand recognition, Apple is not gonna move that camera ever!
"it's better for AR" was the first explanation people came up with for the vertical orientation, but I was under the impression it was because the new sensor array took up too much space across the top. It seems unlikely that they miniaturized things to such a degree that they could stack these components on top of each other.
Am I the only one who suspects these renders are more someone’s idea of what the next iPhone may look like rather than anything Apple is proposing?
Aside from looking like an Android phone (heaven forbid!) moving the cameras to the middle would likely run into space conflicts with the Face ID and speaker array. They already have a bump on the back to allow enough depth for the cameras. I suspect there would be even less room in the middle.
I also wonder if a ring flash would cause more glare. I can’t see any advantage to it.