<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the iPhone 17 Pro<\/a> series sees a couple of notable upgrades, including a 48MP telephoto zoom lens with 8x optical zoom with cropping (up from 5x) and a 24MP Center Stage front camera. But there’s not a dramatic difference in quality versus the iPhone 16 Pro<\/a>.<\/p>\n Best picks for you<\/p>\n In fairness, camera phones are a pretty mature product at this point, leaving only so much room for changes. But that doesn\u2019t mean that there aren’t hardware improvements out there that phone makers can adopt.<\/p>\n Why camera hardware changes matter<\/p>\n \n (Image credit: Tom’s Guide)<\/p>\n Hardware only tells part of the story when it comes to camera phone performance. Algorithms and photo processing also play a big role in how your photos look. So you might be tempted to argue that upgraded hardware doesn’t have that big an impact on the output.<\/p>\n But photo processing can only enhance what the hardware can capture. For instance, a camera with a larger sensor can capture more light in the initial photo, allowing the AI to work with a better dynamic range. Meanwhile, having faster lenses allows for brighter images, while having better optics means there are fewer distortions the AI has to fix.<\/p>\n It’s also important to note that AI can stretch the limits of the camera, but it can\u2019t change physics. For instance, the dynamic range of a camera phone will always be limited by the sensor\u2019s full well capacity, which determines how much a pixel can hold before it becomes oversaturated. Low-light performance will also depend on a pixel’s size and the sensor area. Photo-processing can address some limitations, but not all of them.<\/p>\n Personally, I’m less inclined to consider buying or upgrading to a new phone that prioritizes AI improvements over new hardware. Yes, AI can be impressive, but I want to see physical improvements to help justify my purchase.<\/p>\n With that in mind, I decided to reach out to some camera phone experts to find out what they think the future could bring, or if we really have seen the peak of camera improvements.<\/p>\n The experts weigh in<\/p>\n \n (Image credit: Tom’s Guide)<\/p>\n “While the industry is certainly shifting to AI camera technology, something we\u2019ve seen Google popularize with the Pixel series, there\u2019s still a lot more that can be done in terms of camera sensors,” says Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman<\/a>.<\/p>\n Don’t miss these<\/p>\n That could include improved telephoto lens with higher zoom capabilities for getting closer to a subject \u2014 and “without quality degradation,” according to Gurman.<\/p>\n “The bigger innovation would be as physics gets bent to allow more light to be let into lenses despite shrinking form-factors,” Gurman added. “The other innovation in cameras will be how they will get redesigned to fit into smart glasses <\/a>and other AI wearables.<\/a>“<\/p>\n \n (Image credit: Tom’s Guide \/ John Velasco)<\/p>\n Avi Greengart, president of research firm Techsponential<\/a>, had a similar thought: “Smartphone imaging is certainly mature \u2014 we aren\u2019t in the early megapixel wars anymore, and there is more of an emphasis on improvements in computational photography than the hardware.”<\/p>\n Sensors, optics, camera arrays and signal processing silicon all represent areas of potential innovation, according to Greengart.<\/p>\n “Some of those improvements will be aimed at making the camera bump thinner,” he added. “Some will be about squeezing more telephoto distance into the tiny real estate that a smartphone affords. Some will be about getting more light and color to the sensors.<\/p>\n “I would be shocked if there weren\u2019t hardware changes coming, specifically designed to take advantage of ever-increasing power and AI capabilities of the silicon from Qualcomm, MediaTek, and Apple.”<\/p>\n A bright future \u2014 but when?<\/p>\n \n (Image credit: Tom’s Guide)<\/p>\n The ideas presented here are certainly interesting, and the future of cameras doesn\u2019t seem to be set in stone yet. However, that doesn\u2019t mean we\u2019ll see any of these changes anytime soon. Because AI features are in such an early state, there’s more opportunities to innovate there compared to more mature camera hardware.<\/p>\n As a result. phone makers looking to push the envelope on the best camera phones<\/a> are going to focus on AI and image processing first and foremost. But talking to Gurman and Greengart has convinced me that there’s still room to improve when it comes to camera hardware.<\/p>\n Let us know what you think, including what camera improvements you would like to see in future phones.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n <\/a><\/p>\n Follow Tom’s Guide on Google News<\/a> and add us as a preferred source<\/a> to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. <\/p>\n More from Tom’s Guide Back to Mobile Cell Phones<\/p>\n SORT BYPrice (low to high)Price (high to low)Product Name (A to Z)Product Name (Z to A)Retailer name (A to Z)Retailer name (Z to A) Show more<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Have smartphones gone as far as they can when it comes to cameras? While other aspects of phones…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[2306,86,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-274030","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-mobile","9":"tag-technology","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"iPhone](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/YSHzDRdAY5dDBgWBWd9zWB.jpg\")
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