iPhone 7 Plus Rumors: Apple Inc.'s 5.5-inch Smartphone Could Come With Dual-Camera Design

Apple’s next smartphone could have consumers seeing double. The anticipated iPhone 7 Plus could come with a dual-camera setup, according to a research note issued by KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo and obtained by MacRumors.

The larger, 5.5-inch model of Apple’s upcoming smartphone would utilize technology the company obtained with its purchase of Israeli imaging company LinX in April 2015. LinX specializes in developing arrays of sensors and algorithms to produce high-quality photos in a slimmer package.

While Apple is expected to reserve the feature for the iPhone 7 Plus, it may also offer a single-lens iSight camera version, according to the research note. The smaller, 4.7-inch iPhone 7 isn’t expected to come with the dual-camera feature.

How Apple will use the dual-camera setup isn’t known. One possibility is using the upgraded camera to capture a wide shot and a zoomed-in photo or video simultaneously, according to an Apple patent application published Jan. 7 by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

With Apple reporting flat iPhone 6S sales in the holiday quarter, analysts and investors are looking to the iPhone 7 to revive the company’s smartphone sales growth. But before that happens, Apple is expected to post its first year-over-year smartphone sales decline, at least through its next couple of quarters.

Apple hasn’t officially said that it has a new iPhone in the works. But if it follows the trend of previous releases, analysts expect the iPhone 7 to be unveiled sometime in the second half of 2016. Before that happens, it’s also expected to release a new 4-inch iPhone model in March, the iPhone 5se.