Apple has revealed plenty about the iPhone Duo’s cameras, but there’s one detail it’s keeping to itself: the resolution of the under-display FaceTime camera.
The camera sits beneath the foldable iPhone’s 7.6-inch inner display, making this the first time Apple has used an under-screen camera on an iPhone. While Apple has detailed the 12-megapixel camera on the outer display and the two 48-megapixel rear cameras, it hasn’t said how many megapixels the hidden camera has.
Apple does confirm that the under-display camera has an f/1.8 aperture and can record 1080p video at up to 60fps. It also gets Center Stage for video calls, tap-to-zoom and rotate, ultra-stabilised video, Animoji and Memoji support, lens correction, Auto image stabilisation, QuickTake, Spatial Audio, stereo recording, wind noise reduction and Audio Mix.
The 1080p limit offers a clue about what’s underneath the screen. A camera needs at least around 2 megapixels to capture 1080p footage, while the lack of 4K recording could suggest the sensor is below 8 megapixels – although that remains speculation until the company provides more information.
The f/1.8 aperture is actually wider than the f/2.2 aperture on the outer front camera. That could help compensate for some of the light lost as it passes through the display, although the impact on image quality isn’t yet clear.
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There’s another compromise that may be easier to spot. The area of the display covering the camera appears to lack the anti-reflective nano-texture coating used elsewhere, leaving a glossy circular patch that can become more noticeable depending on the lighting and viewing angle. Apple even appears to acknowledge the effect in its marketing imagery.
Samsung faced a similar problem with its own under-display cameras before returning to a conventional punch-hole design on the Galaxy Z Fold 7. Apple is making its first attempt here, so how well it works in everyday use will be clearer once the iPhone Duo is in people’s hands.
Preorders open on October 16, with the iPhone Duo arriving on October 23.