iPhone 15 ultrawide-band chip will improve location accuracy; more – 9to5Mac
The iPhone 15 ultrawide-band chip will reportedly be a new U2 version – the first time the location-finding chip has been updated since the U1 first seen in the iPhone 11 Pro.
The report says that this further improves on the already impressive location-finding abilities of the first-gen chip …
Bloomberg has a roundup of everything it expects from next week’s Apple event. Most of it covers now-familiar ground, but there are a few new snippets, including the U2 chip.
The report says that all four models will get the update, not just the Pro ones, and that we can expect to see it included in the next releases of all other major products.
All of the new iPhones will get a “U2” ultrawide-band semiconductor, the first new Apple UWB chip since the U1 launched in the iPhone 11 Pro in 2019.
The new component is expected to improve location capabilities, making it so people and devices can be tracked more accurately in the Find My app. Apple plans to add this chip to the next versions of all of its major products.
The headline feature of the iPhone 15 Pro Max will, of course, be the periscope lens. This will extend the optical zoom length offered before digital cropping is needed.
Previous reports haven’t revealed the specs of this lens, with estimates of the maximum zoom length ranging from 5x to 6x – up from the 3x zoom of the current model.
Bloomberg doesn’t offer an exact number, but says that it will be “around 6x.”
We’d previously had two reports indicating that the 48MP camera sensor currently exclusive to the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max will be coming to all four models this year, and Gurman confirms this.
The regular iPhone models will get a significant camera improvement, moving from a 12-megapixel main camera sensor to a 48-megapixel version. That matches the resolution of the main camera on last year’s iPhone 14 Pro.
However, we’ve previously explained why you won’t want to use the optional 48MP mode most of the time.
The biggest drawback to shooting in RAW is the massive increase in file size. As an example, I took the same tripod-mounted photo in both 12MP and 48MP modes, and the file size increased from 3.6MB to 69.9MB!
Even with 12MP photos, however, pixel-binning means you should see better results.
The report also says that the titanium frame of the two Pro models will make them around 10% lighter than the equivalent iPhone 14 versions, despite longer battery life.
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Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!
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