{"id":207330,"date":"2026-01-28T08:11:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T13:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/28\/the-next-iphone-could-use-a-telephoto-extender-to-out-zoom-galaxy-phones\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T08:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T13:30:09","slug":"the-next-iphone-could-use-a-telephoto-extender-to-out-zoom-galaxy-phones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/28\/the-next-iphone-could-use-a-telephoto-extender-to-out-zoom-galaxy-phones\/","title":{"rendered":"The next iPhone could use a telephoto extender to out-zoom Galaxy phones"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/apple-telephoto-extender-iphone-18-pro-3635871\/\">The next iPhone could use a telephoto extender to out-zoom Galaxy phones<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/apple-telephoto-extender-iphone-18-pro-3635871\/\">https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/apple-telephoto-extender-iphone-18-pro-3635871\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-01-28 08:11:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"www.androidauthority.com\">www.androidauthority.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Hadlee Simons \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n<p>TL;DR<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A leaker has claimed that Apple is testing telephoto converter lenses, ostensibly for the iPhone 18 Pro line.<\/li>\n<li>Vivo and OPPO debuted these new-generation add-on lenses, which can dramatically improve long-range camera zoom.<\/li>\n<li>The Galaxy S7 phones supported a 2x add-on lens back in 2016, but the Galaxy maker hasn\u2019t adopted these new lenses just yet.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The vivo X200 Ultra was the first Android phone to offer the new generation of telephoto extender lenses, and subsequent vivo and OPPO flagships support these add-on lenses too. These accessories attach to the phone\u2019s telephoto camera to improve long-range zoom. Now, Apple could also be testing this tech for the iPhone 18 Pro series.<\/p>\n<p>Weibo leaker Smart Pikachu reported that Apple is evaluating teleconverter lenses, with an accompanying hashtag suggesting that this could land on the iPhone 18 Pro series. Check out the machine-translated post below.<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"e_Ug\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(min-width: 64rem) 51.25rem, 80vw\" title=\"iPhone 18 Pro series telephoto extender Smart Pikachu Weibo\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/iPhone-18-Pro-series-telephoto-extender-Smart-Pikachu-Weibo.jpg 706w, https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/iPhone-18-Pro-series-telephoto-extender-Smart-Pikachu-Weibo-64w-16h.jpg 64w, https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/iPhone-18-Pro-series-telephoto-extender-Smart-Pikachu-Weibo-675w-168h.jpg 675w\" alt=\"iPhone 18 Pro series telephoto extender Smart Pikachu Weibo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/iPhone-18-Pro-series-telephoto-extender-Smart-Pikachu-Weibo.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Don\u2019t want to miss the best from Android Authority?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img class=\"e_Ug\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"9.375rem\" title=\"google preferred source badge light@2x\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/google_preferred_source_badge_light@2x.png 676w, https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/google_preferred_source_badge_light@2x-64w-20h.png 64w\" alt=\"google preferred source badge light@2x\" src=\"https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/google_preferred_source_badge_light@2x.png\"\/><img class=\"e_Ug\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"9.375rem\" title=\"google preferred source badge dark@2x\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/google_preferred_source_badge_dark@2x.png 676w, https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/google_preferred_source_badge_dark@2x-64w-20h.png 64w\" alt=\"google preferred source badge dark@2x\" src=\"https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/google_preferred_source_badge_dark@2x.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Smart Pikachu didn\u2019t reveal more details about the type of teleconverter lenses Apple is testing, but recent history suggests this could enable higher-quality camera zoom at long range. Vivo\u2019s telephoto extender lens is a 2.35x teleconverter, effectively converting the X200 Ultra and X300 Pro\u2019s 85mm (3.7x) periscope camera into a 200mm (~8.3x) shooter. Meanwhile, the OPPO Find X9 Pro extender lens is a 3.28x teleconverter, basically turning the 70mm (3x) periscope camera into a 230mm (~10x) shooter. Both companies can also use lossless-resolution cropping to offer higher quality ~16x and ~20x photos, respectively. The results speak for themselves, as seen below.<\/p>\n<p>This does make us wonder why Samsung hasn\u2019t jumped on this bandwagon just yet. The Galaxy S7 series actually offered an add-on lens back in 2016 that delivered 2x zoom, but the company hasn\u2019t released a new-generation telephoto extender just yet.<\/p>\n<p>We can think of a few reasons why Samsung hasn\u2019t adopted this&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/apple-telephoto-extender-iphone-18-pro-3635871\/\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The next iPhone could use a telephoto extender to out-zoom Galaxy phones https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/apple-telephoto-extender-iphone-18-pro-3635871\/ Publish Date:&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":207331,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/vivo-X200-Ultra-with-external-lens-side-view.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[120],"tags":[81],"class_list":["post-207330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-iphone","tag-iphone-18"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207330"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207330"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":207332,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207330\/revisions\/207332"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}