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In the early days of the smartphone, Apple had a strong lead with the camera on the iPhone consistently besting its peers. There was a period somewhere in the middle where it lagged, but over the past several years it has produced some of the best mobile cameras on the market, and it still delivers one of the best video capture experiences—even for aspiring filmmakers.
With the new iPhone 17 range—which includes the iPhone Air—Apple has a bevy of camera upgrades that go beyond more megapixels and larger image sensors. I had the opportunity to explore some of these new capabilities on the latest iPhones. Here’s what they’re like.
Smarter Selfies
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
1x
Android phone owners are probably rolling their eyes right now. Yes, Samsung used to have 10X optical zoom on its Ultra phones a few years ago. Sony has offered variable optical zoom for years (sadly, no one really buys its phones). Even today, you can get excellent optical-like image quality at 10X from phones like the Google Pixel 10 and Galaxy S25 Ultra. iPhones have been limited in this way, but that’s starting to change.
From the very few sample photos I captured, the 8X optical-like zoom option on the iPhone 17 Pro looked great. I’ll need to give it more of a challenge and compare it to its peers, but I’m excited that iPhone owners can get this level of quality at that zoom level. You can technically zoom even more, up to 40X, but this is digital zoom, and those images were far less impressive. They certainly won’t hold a candle to Google’s Super Res Zoom or new Pro Res Zoom. (Though in the case of the latter, Google uses generative AI to fill in some of the details, and you probably have thoughts on that.)
Clearing the Air
While all the above features are exciting, I felt extremely limited when I opened up the camera app on the iPhone Air. A phone with a single camera that costs $999 in 2025? Not being able to use an ultrawide or to zoom in past 2X and get optical-like quality irked me. If you like taking photos on your iPhone and playing around with different modes and zoom levels, the Air might not be for you, even if its ultralight and thin design feels fantastic.
Stay tuned for our full review of these new camera capabilities ahead of the iPhone 17 launch on September 19.
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
Apple
