The iPhone 7 camera could have a significant new feature

iPhone 6S

It appears that only the iPhone 7 Plus will get a dual-lens camera, but while the standard iPhone 7 will likely be stuck with a single-lens snapper that's not to say its photographic skills won't be improved over the iPhone 6S, and one improvement could come in the form of optical image stabilization (OIS).

OIS helps to counteract camera shake, meaning shots are more likely to come out in focus while also improving low light performance, and a leaked image obtained by Nowhereelse.fr suggests the iPhone 7 might feature it.

OIS is built-in to many high-end smartphones, including the Samsung Galaxy S7 and HTC 10, but so far Apple has only included OIS in the larger iPhone 6 Plus and iPhone 6S Plus handsets.

iPhone 7 OIS leak

Yet as you can see in the image comparison above, the alleged iPhone 7 camera module has a key thing in common with the cameras on Apple's phablets – namely the four little cut-outs around the lens.

An obvious explanation

On the iPhone 6 Plus and iPhone 6S Plus these cut-outs house components required for OIS, which is why they're missing from the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6S camera modules. It's possible that the cut-outs serve a different purpose on the iPhone 7, but OIS is the most obvious explanation for them.

Of course it's also possible that the entire image is showing a fake component, especially as the shape of the module is quite different to previous iPhone cameras, but Nowhereelse.fr has a good track record for leaks and this isn't the first we've heard of OIS in the iPhone 7.

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James Rogerson

James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.