iPhone 8/8 Plus Cameras

Phil Schiller introduced us to iPhone 8's cameras beginning with the A11 Bionic's specs, which include a new Apple-designed image signal processor (ISP) that helps improve autofocus (AF) performance in low-light, and features pixel processing for enhanced sharpness and texture. rst time, the ISP on iPhone’s application processor (AP) features hardware-enabled multi-band noise reduction. Of course, this new AP functionality complements the processing done on the stacked chip image sensors’ companion ISPs.

As for the image sensors, Mr. Schiller commented at launch that while there is no change for the iPhone 8 camera resolution, the rear-facing 12 MP camera features a new, larger CIS. iPhone 8 Plus uses a dual camera system adding a telephoto camera with 12 MP CIS. The FaceTime camera resolution remains unchanged at 7 MP. We don’t recall hearing the term ‘iSight’ during the September 22 event, and it appears the iSight sub-branding has been dropped from Apple’s iPhone product specification pages. Regardless, the new CIS is reported to feature “deeper pixels”, and a new color filter. Mr. Schiller also mentioned the 12 MP cameras are more power efficient. Our initial speculation on this statement is iPhone 8's stacked chip camera ISPs might now be fabricated using TSMC's 28 nm line. Since Apple started using Sony stacked (Exmor RS) image sensors in 2013 (iPhone 5s) we have found iPhone’s camera ISPs fabricated with either 65 nm or 40 nm generation process technology. Sony has previously used TSMC 28 nm generation ISPs for its own IMX318, but we haven’t seen that in an Apple product yet. There is also the possibility the camera chip’s ISP is fabricated using FD-SOI. Recalling Junko Yoshida of EETimes’ 2016 article[1], Sony was rumored to be exploring FD-SOI for stacked imager ISPs.

The video performance is claimed to be the highest quality video capture available in a smartphone. The A11 also features an Apple-designed video encoder enabling 4K video at 60 fps and Slo-mo 1080p video at 240 fps. Augmented reality (AR) was prominently featured in the September 22nd announcement, and the iPhone 8 is claimed to be the first smartphone with substantial customization for AR. As mentioned in February [2], Tim Cook and Team Apple consider AR to be the next big thing and the camera modules are apparently individually calibrated with AR in mind.

We’ll be providing deeper technical analysis through our Image Sensor subscription service as well as through the following TechInsights Open Market Reports:

DEF-1709-802: Apple iPhone 8 Plus Wide-Angle Camera 12 MP Image Sensor Device Essentials Image Set and Summary

DEF-1709-803: Apple iPhone 8 Plus Telephoto Camera 12 MP Image Sensor Device Essentials Image Set and Summary

DEF-1709-804: Apple iPhone 8 Plus FaceTime Camera 7 MP Image Sensor Device Essentials Image Set and Summary

In the meantime, we’re happy to share the following preliminary camera-related findings below: