iPhone 5 may upgrade to dual LED flashes

Apple's commitment to the iPhone as a camera phone might have grown as a rumor late Wednesday said it might jump to a dual LED flash. Edison Opto, Everlight Electronics, and Lite-On have all been raised as possible candidates. Both Edison and Lite-On have been stepping up their shipments of LED flashes to major phone designers, Digitimes heard, making them ideal candidates.

The involved companies have publicly denied making dual LED flashes.

Apple is increasingly suspected of making a change in the flash to some extent. It has supposedly been scaling back orders from Philips in a move that would at least drop the current iPhone 4 layout. Some tips have had Apple moving the flash outwards to a corner opposite the lens, although these so far haven't made mention of more than one LED.

Dual flashes are a common sight on phones from HTC, Nokia, and others. The extra light both makes the image brighter overall and helps eliminate some of the common weaknesses of a single flash, such as pronounced shadows and red eye.

Apple has usually trailed in resolution on its cameras compared to rivals and will continue to do so this year if talk of an eight-megapixel camera is true. When it launched the iPhone 4, the company nonetheless pledged to focus on image quality and emphasized low light performance as well as overall sharpness. The future OmniVision sensor is slated to be even better in low light and, with a dual LED flash, could be more usable in truly dark scenes.

By Electronista Staff