Selfie with Ijustine and Tim Cook at 2025 Apple event.
Jason Hinar/ZDNET
We always knew that people took a lot of selfies, but when Apple unveiled its 2025 fall device, it was discovered that iPhone users had taken more than 500 billion selfies in the last one year. Since there are about 1.5 billion iPhone users in the world, it is about 330 selfies per person per person per year.
In this selfie taken on the iPhone 17, you can see the level of expansion in the face, hat and texture on the wall. You can also see dynamic range in clouds in the sky.
Jason Hinar/ZDNET
No wonder how Apple worked on the iPhone this year.
In this process, Apple also gave the selfie camera a big upgrade in image quality. This is a welcome news for those of us who take a lot of selfies because the front-faceing camera has been the weakest link among iPhone cameras over the years. And as shows the data of Apple, it can be the most commonly used camera on the phone for many people.
Too: I have reviewed every iPhone 17 model, and my advice is different this year
Apple gave all four phones iPhone 17 The lineup by taking a 12MP rectangular sensor from a 12MP rectangular sensor for a single upgrade selfie camera, which can take an 18MP image in horizontal or vertical orientation.
In fact, one of the best things about the new front-facing camera is that as soon as you invite it, a new button center pops up a new button called stage button and when you tap it, it switches your photo between vertical and horizontal modes, without you have to flip the camera. In other words, you can catch it whoever is the most comfortable for you – usually vertical for most people – and software will all work.
Even better, you can click on the center stage settings on top of the window and turn on auto zoom and auto rotates. With this, the iPhone will now use AI to automatically identify all people in your shot by putting boxes around your face and then it automatically switchs between vertical and horizontal and wide and ultravide to fit all in the shot.
The interface for the front-faceing camera on the iPhone 17 model now lets you switch between vertical and horizontal (right arrow) and sets the center stage to automatically use zoom or swap between vertical and horizontal to achieve everyone in your group’s selfie shot (left arrow).
Screenshot by Jason Hinar
While Apple uses “Center Stage” branding for its new selfie camera, it is much more powerful than the center stage feature on Mac and iPad that puts you in the center of the frame on video calls.
Too: I tested the iPhone 17 Pro Max, and here is a big reason for a year-on-year upgrade.
In fact, Apple’s new selfie camera in the iPhone 17 lineup is clearly the world’s smartest selfie camera. It is so good that it is difficult to return to use a stable selfie camera on old iphones and Android phones. Keeping this in mind, I would not be surprised to see Android phone manufacturers adopting a square selfie sensor in 2026 and beyond smartphones.
Apple went away from trailing in another flagship smartphone – which has been using 24MP selfie cameras from the beginning of 2018 – all of them to leapy in a generation of a generation.
Here is the horizontal version of the latest selfie, with all the same quality benefits of the new 18MP sensor. The only difference is that I hit the center stage button to switch to landscape mode.
Jason Hinar/ZDNET
I have been testing new selfie cameras on various models of the iPhone 17 lineup for the past several weeks and I am happy to report that it works along with advertised and the front sensor is now worthy of taking high quality photos and not just a quick picture to post on social media.
