Can you believe the iPhone 17 Pro will be copying a 2013 Galaxy phone?
This upcoming iPhone 17 feature has been on Android since 2013.
This article may contain personal views and opinion from the author.
According to the ever-chattering and always-industrious rumor mill, the iPhone 17 Pro line is about to score some pretty major camera upgrades.
A higher-res 48MP camera sensor is by all means a given, but some flashy recent rumors claim that Apple's upcoming best phone will offer an upgraded periscope with a moving lens offering up to 8X optical zoom, a new Pro camera app that should appeal to vloggers, and finally, one extra Camera Control button.
At this rate, the iPhone might feature half a dozen camera buttons by 2030 as far as I'm concerned!
Seriously though, there's nothing wrong with Apple finally adding truly "pro" camera features to its most coveted and expensive devices in 2025. Android devices have meanwhile grown out of those super-long periscope cameras and are currently betting on high-res sensors that allow for AI-assisted in-sensor cropping, so Apple is once again playing its favorite "catch-up" game once again.
But it's not only the hardware that Apple is now catching up to its 'droid rivals, the software is another aspect of the upcoming iPhone 17 line that will offer seemingly offer nothing new, at least not anything we haven't seen already.
In fact, one of the software features that will reportedly aim to appeal to the vloggers of the world is a new camera feature that will let users capture videos with both the front and rear cameras at the same time.
iPhone's future is Android's past
Not a bad idea at all, but… not terribly original at all.
In fact, one of the last Samsung phones I purchased with my own hard-earned cash right before I joined PhoneArena, the iconic Galaxy S4, was among the first (if not the first) phones to feature a similar software feature in the camera app.
It was called Dual Shot and allowed you to record videos from both the front and the single rear camera. You could customize the frame for the selfie camera footage and even change its position on the screen.
Here is how the feature works in real life:
This feature is essentially over a decade old by now: the Galaxy S4 was released in early 2013. I can't recall of any other Android phones having a similar feature before that, so please pardon me if I'm missing any device, it's not intentional.
One thing is for certain, though: over the years, multiple devices have utilized a similar feature in their camera apps, sort of hidden away as a niche functionality that was usually a mainstay on Android phones hailing from mainland China, as well as Galaxies and LG devices, too.
Cupertino isn't oozing with originality once again
Point is, Apple is seemingly once again turning to the vast collection of Android software features in order to find interesting features for its upcoming phones. Features that you simply know will make it to the bento grid that is typically shown as a summary of all new iPhones, aiming to rile up interest about Cupertino's new, but usually same-ish flagships every September.
Don't get this the wrong way, I have nothing against this particular camera feature in particular or iPhone users who'd love to use it on their new iPhones to showcase their roasted turkeys this Thanksgiving.
The problem is that Apple shows no signs of getting out of the creativity hole that it's seemingly stuck in, throwing existing and random Android features at the wall and hoping most would stick.
I'd love for seasoned and die-hard iPhone users to finally be able to experience proper long zoom on their devices, as that's still one of the bigger differentiators between the top Android flagships out there and Apple's seemingly best phones so far, but so far, the hinted software features definitely sound whack.
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