All attention may be on the iPhone 17 and the impending Awe Dropping launch event, but there are still iPhone 18 rumors doing their rounds online at this early stage. Unfortunately, a new report claims one of the rumored upgrades won't actually happen until iPhone 19.
Last year, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claimed that Samsung would start shipping 48MP ultrawide camera lenses to Apple in 2026, with the goal of including them on iPhone 18. However he's since updated his prediction, now claiming that the new cameras may not appear until 2027's iPhone 19.
Kuo claimed that Samsung would end up replacing Sony as Apple's key camera supplier, developing a series of new 1/2.6-inch 48MP CMOS image sensors. At the start of the year, leaker Jukanlosreve claimed that Samsung had specifically developed a "three-layer stacked" image sensor, which was allegedly more advanced than Sony's Exmor RS.
The benefits for these sensors include higher pixel density, improved low-light camera performance, reduced power consumption and higher dynamic range. Much of which comes from the fact those sensor layers are vertically stacked.
While Jukanlosreve believed the sensor would be used for the main camera lens, Kuo still maintains that Samsung is providing a 48MP ultrawide sensor for Apple. Though, there's nothing to say that Samsung couldn't offer this tech for both.
Apple later confirmed that Samsung would supply iPhone chips that were manufactured in Texas, with the Financial Times reporting that said chips would be a new three-layer stacked image sensor.
This is obviously bad news for anyone hoping to pick up an iPhone 18 next year. But it does mean that this latest rumor adds even more anticipation for the iPhone's 20th anniversary in 2027.
We've already heard about the possibility of seeing a new all-glass iPhone that could feature an under-display camera, no doubt some kind of Ultra or Pro model, but now it sounds like the standard model could pack in more than a few upgrades, too.
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