New iPhone 16

First iPhone 16 Leak about Redesigned Camera Chassis

Following previous in-depth coverage of the iPhone 16 and the various camera bump designs Apple has tested for it, new information has surfaced on social media. It appears that Apple has decided on the look of the next iPhone. The latest leaked CAD files claim to show the final design decision, and there’s a big win for another Apple product in the mix. Online reports say that the CAD plans show the rear view and new arrangement of the camera island for the upcoming iPhone 16 (and presumably the iPhone 16 Plus). In a change to the previous diagonally arranged pair of lenses, the iPhone 16 cameras will be mounted vertically atop each other. The flash is sitting at the side of the main and telephoto lenses.

Shared image of this device, appears to be the main camera chassis for the base model ‌iPhone 16‌, featuring a vertical camera layout. Although the part image was posted upside down. One of the key benefactors of this arrangement will be Apple’s mixed reality headset. The Apple Vision Pro can play stereoscopic videos—Apple has branded its version of this as Spatial Video. The vertical arrangement of the iPhone 16 camera will, when held in the traditional landscape mode for video recording, place the lenses alongside each other, like digital eyes.

This is an arrangement the current iPhone 15 Pro has, making those videos compatible with the headset (with a bonus third lens between the two) but it’s not an option available on the vanilla iPhone 15 or iPhone 15 Plus. But still we are able to confirm that the item featured in the social media is the main camera chassis for the I-34 camera project, intended for use in the base model ‌iPhone 16‌ set to be released later this year. Following the iPhone 16 CAD diagrams of the handset's rear, CAD diagrams for the larger iPhone 16 Pro model have also been published.

The iPhone 15 Pro already supports stereoscopic video recording thanks to the vertical alignment of two camera lenses. The iPhone 16 Pro continues with the same camera island design as the previous model. One addition that cannot be seen on the CAD diagram is the potential change to the telephoto camera, which reportedly gets the tetraprism telephoto lens which was previously an iPhone 15 Pro Max exclusive. This should offer x5 optical magnification. Along with the vertical camera layout, the ‌iPhone 16‌ is also expected to receive the Action button as a carryover from the iPhone 15 Pro, and will have an additional Capture button featuring force-sensor technology, located on the right side of the device. The CAD diagrams also back up previously leaked details on the size of the iPhone 16 Pro; with a slight increase in all dimensions, the display size should increase from 6.12 inches to 6.3 inches.

While the Apple Vision Pro remains an expensive luxury with a purpose beyond ‘defining a blue ribband product for Apple’s future,’ the company’s faithful community expects the headset's price to fall over the next few years and for compatible hardware to become more prevalent. When that happens, a new Apple Vision owner could have years of family memories and personal moments sitting in iCloud, all waiting to be played back in the virtual space. Apple could bring Spatial Video recording to the base model ‌iPhone 16‌, expanding the feature's overall availability to the entire ‌iPhone 16‌ range. It’s a powerful network effect which can sell future headsets.

With published CAD view of the iPhone 16’s rear plate, so many design cues are not fully visible, but their impact on the design can be seen. Around the edge of the design can be seen the various buttons to control parts of the device. The action button, introduced on the iPhone 15 Pro, can be seen above the two volume buttons. A fourth button can be seen on the opposite side of the iPhone 16. While it has not been confirmed, Apple is widely expected to add a second programmable button to the smartphone labelled the capture button. There was some discussion that this could be capacitive, but the CAD designs here suggest that company have decided on a physical capture button for this year’s iPhone.

This latest component leak aligns with multiple reports concerning the new vertical camera layout Apple has planned for the ‌iPhone 16‌. As seen in earlier report on early iPhone 16 prototypes, along with coverage of more recent internal designs, Apple has decided to align the cameras vertically, as opposed to the current diagonal layout found on the base model iPhone 15 and ‌iPhone 15‌ Plus.