The Evolution of the iPhone Camera Over the Last Decade

The iPhone has always had a pretty decent camera. While Google prides itself on the photo capabilities of the Pixel, the iPhone has steadily improved with each iteration. Today, a user on Threads posted a side-by-side comparison showing just how far the iPhone camera has come in the last 10 years. We have to admit: it’s pretty darn impressive, but perhaps even more impressive is how clear the iPhone camera’s pictures were even 10 years ago.

Threads user @yantastic shared two pictures of the same location. One was taken with an iPhone 6 camera, while the other was taken with the iPhone 16 Pro Max. The differences between the two photos are less stark than you might expect. The iPhone 6 is on the left, while the iPhone 16 Pro Max is on the right. The iPhone 6 picture is darker, with less crisp details and a slightly lower-resolution look, but it’s still far more than I remember the iPhone 6 being capable of.

On the other hand, the iPhone 16 Pro Max packs a lot more detail into the shot. The image is much more colorful and has a better dynamic range, allowing you to see detail in light and dark areas. The increased resolution pays off most when you look at the car in the picture. Where the white car in the iPhone 6 photo almost looks like it’s in motion, the iPhone 16 Pro Max picture has much cleaner edges.

The camera specs have come a long way in that time, too. The iPhone 6 camera had only 8 megapixels, while the iPhone 16 Pro Max camera has a whopping 48MP paired with a 12MP telephoto lens and a 48MP ultrawide camera. Although the iPhone 6 did have automatic HDR, the technology is clearly more advanced in the second shot.

Adding a second (or even third) camera to the back of the phone obviously improves any subsequent photographs, but the iPhone 6 did a satisfying job with only a single lens.