Portrait Mode is a fine example of that, but obviously more work needs to be done. Apple seems to be working towards that as according to a report from Bloomberg, the Cupertino company is said to have acquired a company called Spectral, which it is believed that they could leverage the Spectral’s machine learning algorithms to help improve on the iPhone’s photos.
For those unfamiliar, Spectral’s tech involves taking both an infrared photo and a standard photo and merging it together, where it resulting image should have increased details and colors. If true, then this could indeed help to further improve on the iPhone’s camera capabilities and give Apple an edge over the competition from Samsung and Huawei.
Given that smartphone tech has kind of peaked, it boils down to these smaller details that helps give a phone an edge over another. When exactly we will see these improvements find its way into the iPhone remains to be seen, but as Apple has yet to confirm the acquisition, take it with a grain of salt.