The latest leak surrounding the eagerly anticipated iPhone 14 points towards Apple finally taking the front-facing selfie camera seriously and equipping the upcoming flagship with a higher tech unit.
The phone rumor (opens in new tab) comes courtesy of Korean site ET News (opens in new tab) who has published a series of reports on the Apple supply chain, with this latest one providing information from “industry sources” on Apple using products from Korean LG Innotek's for the iPhone, rather than iPhone 15 as originally planned. Reportedly, the upgrade will come at a price.
“Apple originally planned to install LG Innotek's products on the front camera of the iPhone 15, which is scheduled to be released next year, but recently moved the schedule forward hurriedly. It is understood that there had been quality problems from Chinese camera manufacturers during the quality tests,” states ET News, who go on to say while the front-facing camera had been regarded as a low-cost part by Apple it is now high-cost.
Hello autofocus!
Probably the most exciting part of this new leak is the mention of the swich to LG Innotek meaning the iPhone 14’s selfie snapper will at last feature autofocus – a missing feature which has seriously let Apple down in the past. This ties in with the information provided by prolific Apple analyst, Ming-Chi Kuo (opens in new tab) at the beginning of the month – he tweeted that the upcoming series of iPhones will feature two key upgrades to the front-facing camera: autofocus and a bigger aperture on the lens.
We don’t know if the sensor will have a higher resolution or be larger, or indeed if the lens will have been improved but just the promise of AF is heartening for Apple fans everywhere.
Probable price hike
According to ET News, the front-facing camera modules that are now going to be used in the iPhone 14 (opens in new tab) cost about three times more than those in the iPhone 13 (opens in new tab). When the manufacturing cost rises significantly, often this will mean a price hike for consumers – so we won’t be surprised if the new phone is more expensive than originally anticipated.
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