Over the course of the last few months, Apple has been experimenting with different camera bump designs for the standard iPhone 16 models. We outlined three of Apple's prototype designs back in December, but now Apple has shifted focus once again.
Apple's latest prototype features a vertical camera arrangement with a pill-shaped raised surface, and we've created a series of mockups based on internal designs to help readers visualize the change.
The pill-shaped camera bump features two separate camera rings for the Wide and Ultrawide cameras, adopting some of the stylistic cues from earlier prototype designs. A vertical camera arrangement has remained consistent throughout the prototyping process, and Apple has not changed the position of the flash or the camera lenses with this latest update.
Our findings align with schematics recently shared by Majin Bu on social media website X. Bu's leaked images also feature the same updated design.
The latest camera look that Apple is experimenting with draws inspiration from older iPhone models, such as the iPhone X. The iPhone X also had a pill-shaped camera with a slim bump design. While Apple used a vertical camera for the iPhone 12 as well, it had a wider square bump that also housed the flash and microphone.
With the vertical camera layout, we are expecting Apple to bring Spatial Video recording to the base model iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus models. Right now, the iPhone 15 models have a diagonal camera arrangement and are not able to capture spatial video, a feature that is so far limited to the iPhone 15 Pro models and the Vision Pro headset itself.
Apart from the updated camera bump design, more recent iPhone 16 prototypes include slight modifications to the Action Button and Capture Button, as we reported previously. The latest prototype units feature a smaller Action Button, akin to the one used on iPhone 15 Pro, along with a pressure-sensitive Capture Button that sits flush with the frame of the device. While the camera bump design is largely a cosmetic update affecting the glass backplate, the change to the Action Button during the prototyping phase is more significant. Apple's updates suggest that it has scrapped its initial idea of bringing a capacitive Action Button to the iPhone 16 range.
Note that what we've shared here is sourced from pre-production information, and it may not ultimately reflect the design of the final mass-production units that are released this fall. As we've seen with previous iPhone models, Apple creates multiple designs and hardware configurations as part of the development process, and the iPhone 16 range is no exception. More tangible information will come to light as the devices move closer to the EVT (Engineering Validation Testing) phase of development.
For additional details on what to expect, check out our dedicated rumor roundup pages for iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro.
