We’re in for a busy nine months of iPhone 13 rumors ahead of the handset’s expected unveiling in September 2021, and the latest unconfirmed whispers to reach us suggest that the phone is going to bring with it some subtle design tweaks.
Well-known and usually reliable Japanese outlet MacOtakara reports that the iPhone 13 will have a smaller notch at the top of the front display, with a more compact TrueDepth camera for Face ID enabling Apple to make the cut-out less prominent.
The phone is also set to get around 0.26 mm (0.01 inches) thicker too, according to suppliers speaking to MacOtakara, but apparently the rear camera bump will remain as the camera module is also getting bigger.
The whole of the rear camera unit is going to be covered in sapphire glass, MacOtakara claims, with the iPhone 13 Pro having the same camera module as the iPhone 13 Pro Max – that means sensor-shifted optical image stabilization and all.
The iPhone 13 story so far
Talk of a smaller notch for the iPhone 13 has surfaced before – as Apple gets better at miniaturizing components and packing them in tightly, it makes sense that the forward-facing camera components will take up less room year on year.
Most other manufacturers still go for the punch hole design on the display to accommodate the front-facing camera, but everyone – Apple included – is most likely looking to eliminate notches entirely with in-screen camera technology.
Even with the launch date so far off, we’re starting to see rumors and leaks around the iPhone 13 start to trickle in. Some of the features that we thought might arrive on the iPhone 12 – like 120Hz refresh rate displays – are tipped to land this year instead.
Camera upgrades are expected too: new iPhones always bring improved cameras of course, and in 2021 it’s anticipated that we’ll see LiDAR technology expand to every handset in the iPhone range, rather than being exclusive to the Pro models.
Via 9to5Mac