Apple’s Deep Fusion camera feature has made a lot of buzz before its official release in iOS 13.2. Now that it’s live, we’re taking a deeper look at what’s being fused, and how.
Much like Apple’s Smart HDR, Deep Fusion relies on object and scene recognition, as well as a series of eight images captured before you click the shutter button.
Of the eight images, four are taken with standard exposure, and four with short exposure. A ninth picture is then taken with a long exposure when the shutter button is triggered. The short exposure shots are meant to freeze time and bolster high-frequency details like grass blades or stubble on a person’s face. Therefore, the sharpest image of this series is chosen to move on to the next step.
Three of the standard-exposure shots which display the best color, tones, and other low-frequency data are then fused with the long-exposure frame to compose a single image. This image and the sharpest short-exposure frame are then sent through neural networks, which choose between these two images for the best pixel to ultimately represent this photo. This pixel-by-pixel analysis enhances your images by ultimately minimizing noise, sharpening details, and accurately coloring your photos, doing so on a very granular and intelligent level.
All of the post-shutter processing is done behind the scenes, so it won’t impact your photo capture time. In other words, you can still snap back-to-back photos just as quickly as you ever could on the iPhone, and if they’re all using Deep Fusion, they’ll simply be queued up in the camera roll to be processed in order. Apple says you could go into your camera roll and potentially see an image still processing for a half-second, but I’ve yet to encounter this. Deep Fusion won’t work on burst mode, however, and it will only be available on the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro models.
Apple’s iconic mantra is the guiding principle for Deep Fusion’s nonintrusiveness. There’s no toggle to flip this on; it will enable itself when possible in during various lighting situations that vary by the lens you’re shooting with.
The ultrawide-angle lens, for instance, cannot take advantage of Deep Fusion at all. On the main lens, Deep Fusion kicks in for what Apple describes as “indoor lighting” or anything below twilight in outdoor settings — that is, if the iPhone doesn’t explicitly offer night mode. The telephoto lens uses Deep Fusion for anything that isn’t very dark or exceedingly bright, but keep in mind that darker situations usually disable the telephoto camera and kick over the responsibilities to the main sensor, which will then determine what to do — be it Deep Fusion, night mode, or Smart HDR.
So far, Deep Fusion’s impacts have been mostly subtle in our testing. We tested it on our iPhone 11 Pro Max running iOS 13.2 against the iPhone 11 Pro running iOS 13.1 which is not equipped with Deep Fusion, and at first, it’s hard to see Deep Fusion’s influence. But zooming in on a picture did reveal areas where finer details were more defined and less smoothed-over. This isn’t something that’s going to jump out at you, especially looking at it on a phone, though. Of course, Deep Fusion being a part of the equation never produced a worse image than without it.
We did have a couple of instances where, if you zoomed in a little, you could appreciate the difference Deep Fusion makes, particularly in the finer details of an image. So, while it may not be as magical as night mode, it’s still better to have than to not.
Are you tired of paying for streaming services you never watch just to get a phone plan feature you actually want? T-Mobile has good news for you! The carrier is rolling out new plans, called T-Mix, in early November to replace its old Experience lineup with a build-your-own perks system called Picks.
The benefits you choose vary from streaming and gaming to food delivery, AI, satellite service, and phone discounts. But if you are satisfied with your existing plan, you can keep it.
Merely days after the iPhone Duo hit the shelves, images of broken screens on the phone started popping up across social media. Until now, it’s been unclear what’s causing the line of defective pixels that appears vertically along the crease, as well as horizontally, on the phone’s inner display.
Apple has finally acknowledged the issue, which has shown up on iPhone Duo units owned by customers as well as demo units in stores. In a statement shared with Bloomberg, Apple says that not all iPhone Duo units are affected and that those that are tend to show the display fault early on. The company added that users who experience problems with their iPhone Duo display should contact AppleCare for a replacement.
Not long ago, Apple treated independent repair like an act of outright hostility. The Cupertino giant locked down parts with serial-number pairing, while repair tools remained firmly out of reach of anyone outside its authorized repair network. More importantly, the company waged a legal and lobbying battle against right-to-repair legislation.
I've covered enough of these fights over the years to know what a shift looks like. That's why what happened in October 2026 genuinely caught me off guard. The day the iPhone Duo went on sale, what may be the most mechanically complex iPhone to date, Apple pulled off a surprising about-face. It published teardown-style repair manuals for a handful of major components.