The dark satanic rumour mill has manufactured a hell-on-earth rumour claiming that Jobs’ Mob is eyeing up the same 200MP sensor that powers Samsung’s ultra-slim Galaxy S25 Edge. The South Korean rival has pulled off a clever trick with sensor cropping, making its images at 4x zoom sharper than what the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max can achieve with their advanced 5x optical zoom.

YouTuber Vadim Yuryev, who runs the Max Tech channel, claims he put the S25 Edge through its paces and found that, despite lacking an optical zoom lens, the device’s image quality held its own and, in some cases, even beat the iPhone at its own game. "The Galaxy S25 Edge’s sensor crop at 4x zoom looked better than the iPhone’s 5x," he said. Not exactly a win for Job’s Mob, given Samsung's phone is thinner and doesn’t use a dedicated zoom lens.

This could be what prompts Apple to abandon its silly aversion to large sensors. The sensor crop method lets a 200MP camera zoom in digitally without butchering image quality, something Apple could use to punch up the vanilla iPhone 17 or the skinny iPhone 17 Air without needing to bolt on extra cameras.

Samsung’s 200MP unit in the Galaxy S25 Edge is reportedly even outperforming its big brother, the Galaxy S25 Ultra, when it comes to 4x zoom. So it’s not just a case of having the pixel count—it’s about clever optimisation and making every pixel count. That kind of tech shift could be a game-changer for Apple, particularly on lower-end models where it tends to skimp on camera kit. Whether that shows up in the iPhone 17 or gets punted further down the line is anyone’s guess, but it looks like the days of 48MP being good enough may be numbered.

With Cupertino already being shown up in side-by-side testing, it might be forced to do what it usually does and copy someone else’s already successful innovation.