(Image credit: Future)

We may see an iPhone 16 Pro upgrade to Apple’s long-serving Face ID system thanks to new lenses, a report from DigiTimes claims.

Face ID, and the TrueDepth camera and selfie camera that make it work, could be equipped with a “metalens” on this year’s Pro iPhone 16 models. Metalenses, in case you didn’t know, are super-thin flat lenses that use etchings on their surface to manipulate light passing through it, rather than a curved structure like a regular lens.

High-quality traditional lenses require multiple, curved glass or plastic parts, and those can prove bulky and heavy. But in the Face ID example, the trio of lenses currently needed for the facial recognition system to function could in theory be switched out for a single thinner and lighter metalens. And on top of that, the use of a metalens could also allow for a smaller camera sensor beneath it without compromising image quality.

The DigiTimes report details that the metalenses we could see on the iPhone 16 Pro could be developed by Apple’s component partners ViesEra and Asia Optical. The use of metalenses is something Apple’s apparently been working on for some time, with their first intended use being the iPad Pro’s Face ID system.

A metalens is the better lens

However, it’s possible that Apple may hold off on using these new metalenses until next year. We’ve previously heard that metalenses were tipped for use in the iPhone 17 series next year, and the Apple Glasses AR headset after that, which could mean the iPhone 16 series is launching a little too soon for the new lenses to be ready.

We may not even see metalenses used for that long on iPhones, since future iPhones are thought to be embedding the Face ID system under the display. This would make for a neater-looking phone without a notch or cutout, but will require a lot of redesigning of the associated components.

Whether Apple debuts its first metalens-equipped iPhones this year or not, it remains pretty certain that an Apple event will introduce the iPhone 16 series this September. If you want to know more about it, or the iPhone 16 Pro or iPhone 16 Pro Max models, our rumor and news hubs will tell you everything we know so far.