Apple’s flagship iPhone 17 Pro Max coming in September could feature one of the best telephoto cameras on any smartphone.
Leaker known as “Instant Digital” said in today’s post on the Chinese social network Weibo that the iPhone 17 Pro Max will be the only model in Apple’s 2025 smartphone lineup to feature a major upgrade for the telephoto camera, MacRumors reports.
The leaker only mentioned that the iPhone 17 Pro Max would feature the best telephoto camera on any smartphone without providing any further details.
iPhone 17 Pro Max could have an upgraded telephoto camera
Earlier rumors have suggested that both the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max might rock triple 48-megapixel cameras out the back. Recently, a sketchy report suggested that the flagship iPhone 17 Pro Max may also upgrade the telephoto lens to support 8x optical zoom, an upgrade from the 5x optical zoom on the current iPhone 16 Pro models.
To be clear, all iPhones to date have fixed lenses. Apple markets them as having “optical” zoom, but nothing could be farther form the truth. Optical zoom on most smartphones doesn’t hold a candle to continuous optical zoom available on a DSLR or camcorder, which physically moves lens elements to change the focal length.
This bends light differently before it hits the sensor than zooming on an iPhone, where you’re jumping between separate lenses, each with its own fixed optical properties, with the algorithm filling the gaps with digital cropping.
However, that sketchy report suggested that the iPhone 17 Pro Max might have a telephoto lens that moves within the camera housing to allow for continuous optical zoom at various focal lengths. Take that claim with a grain of salt as it came via an anonymous tip from a source with no track record.