Apple has just launched the iPhone 17 series, and there are quite a few camera changes this time. We’ve got a square selfie camera sensor that enables portrait or landscape shots without rotating the phone, a 48MP 4x camera for the Pro phones, and a 48MP ultrawide camera for the standard model.
Unfortunately, one thing you won’t find on the standard Phone 17 is a telephoto camera. Apple has decided to skip this option yet again, and this is a frankly embarrassing decision in 2025.
What do you think of the iPhone 17 lacking a tele camera? 14 votes It's a bad move for an $800 phone 64 % I don't care about tele/zoom cameras 36 %
A telephoto camera isn’t an ultra-premium feature
Robert Triggs / Android Authority
Apple hasn’t offered a telephoto camera on its base iPhone since it first introduced tele cameras in 2016. And this trend continues with the iPhone 17, despite the device’s $800 price tag.
Apple wasn’t alone in this regard. Google also omitted a tele camera from its standard Pixel phones since 2021. However, even the Pixel maker wised up and brought a 5x periscope camera to the $800 Pixel 10 last month.
This isn’t just an enthusiast feature, either, as colleague Rita El-Khoury explained earlier this year. She noted repeated conversations with non-techie people about the disappointing camera zoom on their regular Pixel phones. In other words, people might not know what a telephoto camera is, but they still want good camera zoom.
This sentiment was also shared by our readers in the lead-up to the Pixel 10’s release. We posted a poll asking whether readers wanted a telephoto camera on the base model. Over 90% of surveyed users expressed at least some interest in this camera, and over half of the total respondents said they “absolutely” wanted it. So it’s clear that our audience values good camera zoom too.
A telephoto camera isn't reserved for $1,000+ phones anymore, but Apple hasn't received the memo.
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