Apple’s 2019 Flagship iPhone Could Have Triple Cameras, Analyst Predicts

The Huawei P20 Pro is the first smartphone to feature three cameras on its back. A new rumor claims that Apple is planning to bring the same camera technology to its future iPhones. An analyst believes that Apple will include a triple-camera system in one of its iPhones next year.

Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co. analyst Jeff Pu believes that Apple will likely launch an iPhone with triple cameras in the “second half of next year.” Unfortunately, no other details were given on the specifications or capabilities of the triple-camera system of the 2019 iPhone. The analyst also said that he expects Huawei to introduce the triple camera system to the lower-end model of the Mate 20, according to Taipei Times.

The analyst’s prediction mirrors the report from last month that claimed Apple wants to introduce a triple-camera module to its 2019 iPhone. At the time, it was speculated that Apple’s camera system will be led by a 12-megapixel imaging sensor that’s accompanied by a second camera with a 6P lens design capable of 5x zoom. The secondary telephoto camera on the iPhone X, 8, 8 Plus and 7 Plus is only capable of 2x optical zoom and 10x digital zoom.

AppleInsider speculates that the third camera on the 2019 iPhone could be used for improving image quality rather than increasing the level of zoom. Apple could use the third lens to make low light photography look better, for example. Another possibility here is that the third camera could be used to improve Apple’s depth-mapping system to create better Portrait mode photos. This could also bring better-looking augmented reality experiences through ARKit apps on iOS.

For comparison, the Huawei P20 Pro features a 40-megapixel camera, a 20-megapixel monochrome camera and an 8-megapixel telephoto lens that’s capable of 3x optical zoom. The cameras on the Huawei P20 Pro are also co-developed by the German camera maker Leica. Only the 8MP telephoto camera comes with optical image stabilization (OIS), while the other two cameras use AIS, Huawei’s software stabilization technology that’s powered by AI.

Apple could easily one up Huawei if it introduces a new iPhone next year that features OIS on all three rear cameras. That being said, this is just a rumor for now and it should be taken with a grain of salt. However, with the Huawei P20 Pro gaining a lot of attention, it wouldn’t be surprising to see triple-camera phones becoming the trend next year.