The number of photos taken with Apple cell phones is increasing rapidly. With the iPhone 14 Pro, however, this could become a storage problem.
Apple’s iPhone has been one of the favorite cameras on the planet for years – if not the most popular, according to stats you can trust. Apple has now provided information on how many photos are snapped with its smartphones year after year – and the number is gigantic.
There is a lot of snapping
According to the group, which communicated the information last week on the sidelines of the iPhone 14 keynote, there are now three trillion individual photos – in the last year alone. This was announced by a senior camera quality manager, Caron Thor. The iPhone used to be the most popular camera for the photo storage service Flickr. However, Apple said nothing about the growth in the number of photos taken – so it is unclear how many more photos there were in the last year.
Apple regularly improves the photo quality of its iPhones. The iPhone 14 and 14 Plus now have a selfie camera with autofocus. The device also inherits rear sensors from the iPhone 13 Pro and offers improved computational photography that optimizes images in software. The innovations in the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max are much more exciting. There are finally more megapixels here.
Space requirements increase significantly
Both Pro models, which are available from 1300 euros, can record up to 48 megapixels with the main sensor for the first time. The age of sensors with a maximum of 12 MP at Apple is finally over. However, if you use the new format, you have to be prepared to use significantly more storage space. A ProRAW image with a resolution of 48 megapixels requires a good 75 MB, according to developer Steve Moser based on the latest iOS 16 version has calculated. That’s three times the footprint of 12MP capture from the iPhone 13 Pro (or either of the other two rear camera sensors that stay at 12MP).
In practice, this can mean significantly more space on the device, at least if you take a lot of photos and have bought a smaller model anyway. Apple is currently selling its Pro devices with 128, 256, 512 and 1 TB – the maximum price for the iPhone 13 Pro Max with 1 TB is a whopping 2200 euros. The rumor mill had actually expected that it would only start with 256 GB from now on, but Apple is sticking with the meager 128 GB in the entry-level model. The resolution for 48 MP images is 8064 by 6048 pixels. Apple emphasizes that the sensor also produces sharper images with less noise thanks to new algorithms from the field of machine learning. It is also possible to combine four pixels at a time via so-called Quad Pixels and create a sharper and brighter 12 MP image.
