2026 iPhone Photography Awards show old models still cut it

The winners of the 2026 iPhone Photography Awards have been announced, with many of them taken using older iPhones, including an iPhone 8 Plus.

The 2026 IPPA winners were announced after entries from more than 140 countries were submitted. Four overall winners were announced, ranging from Grand Prix to Bronze.

Category winners, runners-up, and honorable mentions were also shared, giving us a wider look at the quality of images that were submitted this year.

Life in the old dog (and cat) yet

The overall winner was Robyn Jenson, who used an iPhone 15 Pro to capture a stunning shot of an erupting volcano. Gold went to Gellert Gombai, whose grayscale shot of two children was taken on an aging iPhone X.

Some winners were more colorful than others – image credit iPhone Photography Awards

Arnold Plotnick captured a cat on an iPhone 16 Pro for silver, while Catherine Wang used an iPhone 16 Pro Max to capture a shot of colorful melons and a bird.

Gombai’s iPhone X wasn’t the only older iPhone to steal the show, either. Barry Mayes used an iPhone 8 Plus to win the “Abstract” category. That phone was released alongside the iPhone X in 2017.

Moving through the list of runners-up and honorable mentions included an even older iPhone. Diego Schutt used an iPhone 7 Plus, while an iPhone 6s and iPhone 6 Plus also made an appearance elsewhere.

While the majority of the category-winners used more modern phones, it’s impressive that older models are still producing such stunning photos. It may also highlight just how small recent iPhone camera upgrades have been.