iPhone should catch up in the Ultra camera wars, just not this year

No sooner does one iPhone launch than rumours for the next start. In fact, sometimes, the rumours can start years before. That’s been the case for the folding iPhone, but we’ve also been hearing for some time that Apple is planning to increase the resolution of one of its rear cameras.

It was first mentioned in May last year that the iPhone could feature a 200-megapixel camera at some point in the future, matching that of the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra.

Now, the latest report from GSM Arena has picked up on a post from a reliable leaker suggesting there may be a little bit of time still to wait.

What's the timeline for a new telephoto sensor on iPhone?

According to Digital Chat Station, Apple is testing a 200-megapixel periscope telephoto camera for its iPhone, but it could still be a few years away.

For anyone following iPhone rumours, this may not come as a huge surprise as a Morgan Stanley investor note recently said similar.

The note suggested the 200-megapixel sensor was unlikely to arrive before 2028, suggesting it wouldn’t appear before what would numerically be called the iPhone 19 Pro, though may instead be the iPhone 21 Pro.

It’s thought Apple will adopt the iPhone 20 branding next year to tie in with the 20th anniversary of the iPhone which first landed in 2007.

For now, absolutely nothing is official so this is certainly something worth taking with a pinch of salt. Apple increased the resolution of the telephoto sensor last year with the iPhone 17 Pro from 12-megapixels to 48-megapixels, too, so a further jump to 200-megapixels a year later would be quite surprising.

The iPhone 17 Pro’s telephoto lens does offer 8x zoom however, and it’s pretty good so if we have to wait a little longer for a higher resolution then that’s probably okay.