According to a report, it looks as though this year’s flagship premium iPhone – which we’ve been referring to as the iPhone 8 – will hugely improve both device cameras, with 4K video support at 60fps as standard across both the iSight camera on the back and the FaceTime camera on the front.
Typically, the front-facing camera lags behind the rear one in capabilities. Last year’s iPhone 7 and 7 Plus support 4K at 30fps on the iSight camera, with a lower 1080p resolution on the FaceTime camera. In fact, every iPhone so far has offered much better image and video quality when using the main camera as opposed to the “selfie” camera on the front. That looks set to change this year, though.
With Apple really pushing the idea of “Augmented Reality” this year with ARKit, a move to 60fps video makes a lot of sense. Doubling the frame rate should make for a much smoother experience, and bringing parity to the cameras should make for a comparable experience no matter which camera is used.
It would also mean that selfies finally look as good as images taken with the rear camera, though it’s unlikely we’ll get advanced features like Portrait mode and optical zoom on the front camera, as those functions require twin lenses to work.
Like most of the things we’ve learned about the iPhone 8 this week, this information comes from Apple’s accidental leak of the upcoming HomePod speaker’s firmware. Developers have been digging into the code to reveal nuggets of information about the iPhone 8, and it’s been a treasure trove so far.