Why Center Stage is probably the coolest new iPhone 17 feature

Apple just gave the iPhone 17 one of its most genius upgrades—a larger, square selfie camera sensor with which you’ll no longer need to awkwardly flip your phone sideways just to take a landscape selfie. This is enabled by what Apple calls ‘Center Stage’. Let’s do a deep dive into what makes this new feature so cool.

What you get when you mix a new square sensor and clever AI

Folks might recall that Center Stage is actually the company’s long-running auto-framing feature already present on the iPads and Macs. But it’s now front-and-centre on iPhones as well.

Most front cameras are built with a traditional rectangular sensor. That means when you switch between portrait and landscape modes, you’re essentially stuck with the orientation you picked.

But the new iPhone 17, 17 Pro, and the iPhone Air toss that rulebook out the window. They come with a square front-facing sensor that gives the system more real estate to play with. Apple’s software can then crop and compose the shot however it likes whether that’s vertical, horizontal, or square—without needing you to physically twist the phone. The feature received the loudest cheer at the iPhone 17 launch, per MKBHD.

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All that extra extra sensor space also allows the image recognition software to reframe the subject on the fly, whether you’re alone or a bunch of friends huddling together, pressing for space. And because the full 18MP sensor captures more than you actually see in the frame, it has the wiggle room to track and re-centre you, keeping you in the spotlight more effectively.

The result is two things: high-res selfies in any orientation and improved stabilisation tracking during video calls. This will be especially noticeable for when you’re livestreaming while jogging at the same time.

Content creators are probably going to love Center Stage, especially when it’s used along with Dual Capture, a feature that lets you record video from the front and rear cameras at the same time. All the new iPhone models now support this.

Center Stage also hints at a version of AI that actually feels helpful instead of overbearing. After the somewhat lukewarm rollout of Apple Intelligence earlier this year, this new addition feels like a return to form. It’s a simple, elegant tweak that removes friction from daily use—which is exactly what AI is supposed to be used for.