Here’s a somewhat unusual “LED test”.
Some time ago, it was announced that the new iOS version 18 would include a variable light cone (beam) for the flashlight. Today, the new version has officially been made available for update.
So I loaded iOS 18 on the iPhone 15 Pro and can show a brief review of the Matrix LED in the latest iPhones here. This LED - used as a flash for the camera - consists of different LED segments, which are then controlled individually and with a defined brightness level by the operating system.
The setting menu can be reached by tapping on the Dynamic island or by activating the shortcut on the lockscreen.
The manufacturer and a data sheet are not known to me. Presumably, this LED is a variant that was specially manufactured for Apple at the customer’s request.
The way it works is that the middle LED segment (in front of which there is another small lens) is controlled for the “throw”, while the surrounding LED segments are switched on for floodlighting so that the light is diffused in the optics.
The flashlight feature is funny and really something new, especially in a smartphone. Differences can definitely be seen in the beam, but there is still no miracle of luminous flux here, which is why even small 10440 or AAA lamps are massively superior to this smartphone lamp.
What is interesting here compared to iOS 17 is that the LED can now be dimmed extremely low, which was not possible before. However, setting this “moonlight” is extremely fiddly and cannot be done without blinding yourself. At least there is a mode memory so that the “moonlight” can be set in advance for night-time use.
Here are a few beam shots to get a feel for the change of the beam.
- Flood highest brightness level: 30 lm @ 12.5 lx (1 m)
- Throw highest brightness level: 34 lm @ 50.3 lx
- Moonlight (lowest brightness level) 100 % flood: 0.8 lm @ 0.4 lx
This shows: range is relative.
The iPhone is still a floodlight. The low luminous flux thwarts any attempt to achieve ranges with this smartphone light - 50 lux is really low, even compared to the smallest flashlights or mules. A classic flashlight can only replace the iPhone (or any other smartphone) in absolute emergencies, and a range of more than 5 meters is hardly possible.
Even a small keychain light such as a Thrunite Ti3 or most small cheap flashlights from circles around the iPhone.
The color quality, on the other hand, is very good, which is primarily useful for color reproduction in photos, as this is the actual purpose of this LED. It corresponds to a 4500 to 5000 K Nichia 519A.
- Ra 95
- R9 83
- 5205K
- duv 0.0005
Conclusion: nice gimmick, particularly interesting is the real moonlight, which was not possible before.
However, the iPhone will not be able to replace a dedicated flashlight in the future. The area of use remains limited to the ultra-close range (searching under the table, finding a keyhole, emergency lamp for the way home)
