Bigger iPhone 16 Pro screen won't be its only big upgrade
With the upcoming iPhone 16 series, Apple will put a damper on its hardware and software fragmentation spree that has been going on for the last few years in order to push people to buy its more expensive handsets.
Not only will all iPhone 16 models ship with an Apple A18 processor and at least 8GB of RAM so that they can all run the new Apple Intelligence algorithms, but the Pro versions will do one better and not set themselves apart as drastically in terms of hardware as on the iPhone 15 Pro models.
According to Taiwanese publication Digitimes and its sources from Apple's local camera supply chain, there will be new component brand entrants this year. Apart from Largan Precision which supplies the optics for Apple's vaunted Tetraprism periscope lens, Genius Electronic Optical (GSEO) is now also taking a piece of the pie.
The supply diversification apparently comes because the Tetraprism lens will no longer remain exclusive to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, as it was last year. As heard from many independent and credible sources before, Apple plans to equip the smaller iPhone 16 Pro with periscope zoom lens for the first time as well, reducing its iPhone fragmentation tendencies, and giving users a real choice of a smaller and larger Pro phone.
Well, smaller will mean something different this year, as the iPhone 16 Pro display is expected to finally grow in size to 6.3 inches, setting it further apart from the basic iPhone 16 model with which it has shared a screen diagonal for a good while.
A larger iPhone 16 Pro will offer more space for the Tetraprism periscope zoom and will bridge the specs gap with the 16 Pro Max, but that might not be the only reason why Apple is doing this.
Ever since it started fragmenting the iPhone franchise and leaving cheaper iPhones severely under-specc'd in order to peddle the more expensive ones, users have been flocking to the Max version. So much so, that it has been the predominant sales driver and Apple might want to shake things up and spread demand over a larger pool of its most expensive iPhones.
Given that the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus are expected to still sport puny 60Hz displays, while the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max will come with Tetraprism zoom lens, Apple might just succeed in its sales tactics again.
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