Apple loaded the iPhone 17 with clever camera tweaks — a squared-off selfie sensor for portrait or landscape framing, a higher-res ultrawide — and yet the regular model ships without a dedicated telephoto lens. In an age when even midbudget Android phones come equipped with true optical zoom, that omission doesn’t just feel conservative; it feels out of step with the market.
Missing Telephoto
Why a missing telephoto now looks archaic
On paper, Apple uses some in-sensor cropping off of the 48MP main sensor to tout “2x optical” framing. In real-world terms, that’s a digital crop of a wide lens. You lose that compression, as well as the contrast rendition that longer focal lengths give you, and fine textures — particularly hair, foliage and fabric — degrade more quickly beyond 2x, when you have fewer pixels to work with to resolve small detail. The competition, meanwhile, has made true 3x to 5x optics — the optics that we associate with a 3x to 5x zoom — standard with O.I.S. (optical image stabilization), longer focal lengths and brighter periscope designs.
Consider the workaday Android flagship: Google’s Pixel 10 slathers its base model with a 5x periscope, Samsung’s Galaxy S25 gets down with a 3x telephoto on the vanilla variant, and OnePlus and Nothing bring the 2x or the 3x for significantly less money than they charge for the prom model. Even the budget Realme line has transferred over to having 3x 50MP tele modules. The signal to users is straightforward: Optical zoom is no longer just a “Pro” feature.
In-sensor crop isn’t “optical”: the real-world cost
Behind the marketing, there’s a physics lesson here. A 24–26mm-equivalent main camera cropped to simulate 50mm will never match a native 70–120mm-equivalent telephoto for subject separation, geometric compression, and micro-contrast. Because longer optics project a different image circle — and OIS is tuned for the focal length — you get steadier, cleaner frames at 3x to 5x.And that’s what matters. That’s what most people will shoot — When their kids are on stage and they don’t have an 18-month year old, when their pets are across the yard, when there’s an architectural detail their missing, when they’re in the stands or the sidelines, or when they’re in a museum or gallery and there’s a sign telling them they can’t step in closer.
Independent lab results from folks like DXOMARK have consistently found that real tele modules beat high-res crops in most mid-zoom texture and noise tests. You can tell reviewers who pixel-peep less notice it too: faces look waxy, hair strands meld together and fine typography on distant signage smears together into slime. Apple’s computational stack can help mitigate the above phenomenon through multi-frame super‑resolution but it is still fighting an uphillbattle due to optics.
Its Android rivals make the point at every price level
Consider a few direct comparisons. The Pixel 10 throws a stabilized 5x periscope onto its base model, the better to prioritize reach and low-light stabilization without making buyers pay for the most expensive trim. Samsung’s Galaxy S25 comes with a 3x tele that totally nails the sweet 70–75mm portrait range. The Galaxy S25 FE, usually with hundreds to spare from Apple’s regular model, still makes way for a dedicated 3x. On the value front, there’s the Nothing Phone 3a which will sling you a 2x tele, the 3a Pro which ups that to 3x, and Realme’s most recent Pro Plus lineup is all about having a 3x 50MP sensor — all undercutting Apple by a mile.
This isn’t just spec-chasing. Counterpoint Research and other analyst shops have also noted the rapid rise of telephoto usage across upper mid-tier Android phones, reflecting consumer desire for improved zoom. If you don’t believe me, just look at the polls and buyer feedback: People may not know what the term “telephoto” means, but they sure do recognize when their phone can’t cleanly capture a school play from 10 rows back.
Where Apple remains brilliant — and it’s not enough
Apple is still in a class by itself when it comes to mobile video consistency. The color science, whereby the camera knows not to dissemble anyone’s composure if it can help it, the reliability of autofocusing and stabilization will remain enviable standards in the industry, and the new square selfie sensor’s just being able to frame properly in both orientations is smart industrial design. The step up in base storage to 256GB is a welcome move given today’s heavier files generated by higher resolution stills and video.
But the still-photo experience at 3x to 5x is not saved by those strengths. If you regularly shoot travel details, headshots from across the room or indoor performances, an actual telephoto has a far bigger impact than an ultrawide bump or a neat crop mode. Apple’s very own iPhone 17 Pro even addresses this with a 4x option, the question is why Apple’s regular model remains on the bench for a feature that would-be rivals are now touting as table stakes.
How Apple could catch up
The solution is simple: add an iPhone with a stabilized 3x lens to the lineup, at the same price, and point to where most everyday shooting takes place. A small folded (periscope) design might keep thickness constant and deliver 70–80mm-equivalent reach, the sweet spot for portraits and medium-distance scenes. Combine it with Apple’s powerful computational pipeline (multi-frame fusion, better subject segmentation and tele specific noise reduction) and you won’t even narrow the gap, you’d probably set a new class leader at the price.
Until then, the calculations favor Android for anyone who seeks clean, reliable zoom but doesn’t want to be upsold to a “Pro.” The iPhone 17 is still great all-around, but its camera hardware stalemates for the first time; where Apple’s model for the masses is a generation behind on something that’s table stakes in 2022.
