Mingchi Kuo, an analyst with KGI Securities, believes that Apple would include an improved front facing camera in the next iPhone, capable of shooting at HD resolution

In a note to investors, Kuo said  that Apple is expected to make “quite a few essential adjustments” to the next iPhone, the most notable of which is of course the bigger screen.

Kuo, much like almost everyone else, expects Apple to bump up the iPhone’s screen size to 4 inches, bringing the device’s resolution to 1,136 x 640 pixels. On a screen that large, the current front facing camera’s already unsatisfactory VGA resolution output would look even worse, which might have pushed Apple to upgrade the camera.

In addition to being upgraded, the front facing camera would also be repositioned to the center, which is in line with the leaked front panel images and blueprints we’ve seen earlier.

Next iPhone Mockup (Image credit – gizmosachin)

Kou believes that Apple would stick to the current 8 megapixel resolution of back camera, and instead improve the camera’s aperture range from f/2.4 to f/2.2. Apple has, time and again, pointed out the that capturing light plays a much more important role than the megapixel count when shooting images, and it seems the company intends to do exactly that.

The rear camera’s upgraded specs, as shown in the chart above, would present “unprecedented challenges” for suppliers, especially when dealing with Apple’s scale. Sony, with its new 8MP CMOS sensors, would most probably supply the next iPhone’s rear cameras. The new CMOS sensors would allow the iPhone to become thinner, while maintaining or even improving the image quality.

[via Apple Insider]