Upgrade your iPhone camera for free with this simple hack

If you use an iPhone you probably already appreciate how good its camera is, but it could be better – think iPhone X level good. Yup, you can get the smarts of portrait mode on your current iPhone for free – here's how.

• iPhone X review
• iOS 12: everything we know

Thanks to an eagle eyed tech tester the latest camera smarts made by Apple has just been spotted. The revelation happened in Apple's latest iOS 12 beta software where the camera upgrade features. 

Essentially the very smart depth detection on the dual camera of the iPhone X doesn't have to use the dual camera, it seems. Sure, that will offer the best depth thanks to two perspectives, like human eyes, but the smart sorts over at Apple have apparently managed to create the effect using software. Check out the comparison between the current iOS 11 camera and the new iOS 12 camera portrait mode.

As Ben points out, that edge definition is so much better in iOS 12 you can even make out individual facial hairs in the shot. The reason this is so good is that it allows the camera to separate the subject from the background so as to offer background blur for that SLR-like bokeh type effect. It should also help to sharpen the picture and offer better defined colour and contrast, theoretically anyway. 

So how do you get this for free? Simply get iOS 12 beta on your iPhone so you can try it early ahead of the expect official launch in September. Head over to the Apple Beta Software Program site and sign-up. The rest is a guided process that will have you up and running in no time. Just be warned, this is still an experimental platform so be sure to back everything up first.