New iPhone 16 rumor is an early April Fools joke

Vector graphic of salt shaker on a table
(Image credit: Future, www.vecteezy.com)

The launch of the next iPhone may be over 6 months away, but that isn't stopping the leakers and tipsters from dreaming up possible new features that might materialize on the iPhone 16. If we're being kind, the latest rumor is somewhat far-fetched. If we're being honest, it may as well be an April Fools joke a month too early.

The tip comes from Twitter tipster Majin Bu, who claims to have "consulted different resources" and both suggest a change to the design of the rear-facing camera array/bump. If true, this would be pretty big, as the current style of the iPhone's camera array has been fundamentally unchanged since the iPhone 11. However, while Apple could well see fit to redesign the camera bump for the iPhone 16, we HIGHLY doubt it'll end up resembling the render in this rumor Tweet.

(Image credit: Twitter / @MajinBuOfficial)

The catastrophically ugly chunk of camera bump in the render is like a giant triangular wart, protruding way too far from the rest of the back panel. Majin Bu likens the design to a Philips electric shaver, but that's really not fair to the shaver. If anything, Apple's current trio of camera lenses on the iPhone 15 is more befitting of the shaver analogy. This iPhone 16 render reminds us more of the triangular logo used by the Google Play store. I'm sure if an Apple designer had actually pitched such a design, it would have been dismissed immediately for this very reason.

Majin Bu goes on to claim that the new triangular camera bump may "allow more cameras to be added to the module in the future". This too seems implausible, as Apple's current design of separate, isolated camera lenses lends itself better to the addition of extra lenses. Why would confining the camera modules within a triangular housing help to add more lenses?

Finally, the tipster does admit that he has "no way of verifying whether this information is 100% accurate or true". Shall we therefore assume then that it 100% isn't accurate or true. That is, unless Apple drops tech bombshell of 2024 and partners with Google, releasing the iPhone 16 'Pixel Edition': complete with Play-button inspired camera bump, a red/yellow/blue/green chassis colorway, and to really shake things up, a native Android OS. You heard it here first, folks.

Story credit: Phone Arena

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Ben Andrews

Ben is the Imaging Labs manager, responsible for all the testing on Digital Camera World and across the entire photography portfolio at Future. Whether he's in the lab testing the sharpness of new lenses, the resolution of the latest image sensors, the zoom range of monster bridge cameras or even the latest camera phones, Ben is our go-to guy for technical insight. He's also the team's man-at-arms when it comes to camera bags, filters, memory cards, and all manner of camera accessories – his lab is a bit like the Batcave of photography! With years of experience trialling and testing kit, he's a human encyclopedia of benchmarks when it comes to recommending the best buys.