Rumor claims iPhone 17 will get an upgrade we’ve been waiting 5 years for

If you buy through a BGR link, we may earn an affiliate commission, helping support our expert product labs.

It’s been too long since Apple updated the iPhone selfie camera with a 12MP sensor. Since then, the company’s only improvements were software-related, with Photonic Engine and updates to Smart HDR.

While the iPhone 16 will be the first to bring an Apple Intelligence approach, only the iPhone 17 models will add the selfie camera upgrades users have long been waiting for. According to Haitong Securities analyst Jeff Pu, the 2025 iPhone 17 models will get a 24MP sensor with six plastic lens elements.

In comparison, the current iPhone 15 lineup has a 12MP front camera with five plastic lens elements. That said, the iPhone 16 is expected to offer six plastic lens elements. This means Apple will take five long years to upgrade its 12MP sensor, first introduced with the iPhone 11, to a 24MP sensor with the iPhone 17.

While Cupertino has always stated that megapixels aren’t the most important feature on a camera, this massive increase will improve selfies. Besides Jeff Pu, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo had previously claimed that at least one iPhone 17 model would have a 24MP selfie camera with a six-piece lens. With that, it’s interesting to see that rumors about the iPhone 17 selfie camera have upgraded to all models.

Jeff Pu also shares the forecast of the other specs for the 2025 iPhone. For example, he believes Apple won’t add a 6.3-inch display to the regular model, so the lineup would have four different sizes for the first time, ranging from 6.1-inch to 6.3, 6.6, and 6.9-inch options.

Apple is expected to develop the A19 chip for the new phones, separating the models with regular and Pro processors. The regular models would also have 8GB of RAM, while 12GB would be exclusive to the Pro versions.

In addition, only the Pro models would have three main 48MP cameras. The regular iPhone 17 would have 48MP and 12MP sensors, and the rumored iPhone 17 Slim could have a single 48MP main camera.

Below, you can learn more about the iPhone 17 rumors we’ve gathered so far.