It's not quite clear what the specifics are, but a new rumor claims that Apple's iPhone 17 Pro Max is looking at a big telephoto lens upgrade.
The new iPhones are expected to be announced at an event in the first half of September 2025. More and more information is leaking as we get closer to the big day.
Now, leaker Instant Digital says that we can expect a big upgrade in terms of telephoto camera performance from the biggest iPhone of all. The leaker was writing on the Weibo Chinese social network.
"At this stage, [iPhone 17 Pro Max] will be the strongest telephoto mobile phone to be released next month," the post reads via machine translation. We're skeptical about the "strongest telephoto mobile phone" claim, however, as that bar is pretty high.
The leaker didn't share any information on how that will be achieved.
This all said about the vague rumor published on late Thursday, the cameras used in the iPhone 17 Pro models have been a topic of discussion for a while now, with a new 48-megapixel telephoto camera having been rumored.
Though initial rumors suggested that the new, higher-resolution zoom camera would come to both Pro models, that no longer seems to be the case. More recent rumors have suggested that the best telephoto sensor will be reserved for the more costly iPhone 17 Pro Max.
Other rumors have pointed to a new 8x optical zoom capability, but it's unclear whether that is limited to the iPhone 17 Pro Max.
Apple has a history of limiting its latest camera technology to the Pro Max variant, so this move wouldn't be surprising. The overall size of the Pro Max gives Apple more room for larger components in general.
Apple limited optical image stabilization to the iPhone 8 Plus, for example. The iPhone 12 Max also had a larger main sensor with sensor-shift optical stabilization.
Thankfully, further miniaturization normally leads to these features moving down to the smaller phones. If that's the case, we can eventually expect the 48-megapixel telephoto to also come to the standard Pro model in the future.
While it's important to take these kinds of leaks with a pinch of salt, this particular leaker has been accurate in the past. However, like most leakers, they don't have a 100% record — something to keep in mind as we edge nearer to September's event.
We also don't yet know if Instant Digital's claim of an all-glass Apple Watch is accurate. They did correctly predict the yellow iPhone 14, and they were also right about the iPhone 16's camera control button.
