We’re now exactly two weeks away from the official announcement of Apple’s next-generation iPhone 11 lineup. While the company hasn’t yet sent out any invitations to its upcoming iPhone event, the exact date of the press conference has already been revealed by Apple itself. As it did last year, Apple accidentally spilled the beans earlier this month when it mentioned the launch date in a beta version of its iOS 13 software. According to that leak, Apple plans to announce the new iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max on Tuesday, September 10th. As if we needed more confirmation than a leak that came directly from Apple, that announcement date aligns perfectly with the release date that was recently exposed by one of Apple’s own carrier partners. According to a SoftBank executive, Apple plans to release its iPhone 11 series handsets on Friday, September 20th. An announcement on the 10th would mean iPhone 11 preorders open on September 13th, and the phones will indeed then be released exactly one week later on September 20th.
As for what we can expect from Apple’s new iPhone 11 series handsets, it seems like nearly everything there is to know has already leaked. We’re sure that Apple will still have a few tricks up its sleeve during its big unveiling, but we already know about many of the new features that will be introduced on the new iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro phones. Huge camera upgrades will be the main focus, which is a page out of Apple’s playbook from 2016, when the iPhone 7 reused the same iPhone design for the third consecutive year. Apple will once again use the same iPhone design for three years in a row, but this time the design is the subject of some confusion.
Earlier this week, we explained that every single leaked image of the iPhone 11 we’ve seen so far is totally wrong. All of the physical mockups that have been circulated by third-party accessory makers in China are also wrong. We won’t go through the whole explanation again, but the gist of it is that all of these designs are based on schematics that were stolen from the Foxconn plant where Apple’s new iPhone 11 models will be built. While those design files include accurate information about things like dimensions, they don’t cover materials or other important specifics. As a result, everyone has simply been mocking up the iPhone 11 so that it looks like older iPhone models. Like this:
The problem, as we explained, is that those renders are totally wrong. As top Apple insider TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has been saying since last year, the back of Apple’s new iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro phones will actually be frosted glass with a “matte” finish, not clear like Apple’s previous-generation iPhones.
It turns out that the new square camera bump is all wrong as well, since the area around the iPhone 11’s dual-lens camera and the iPhone 11 Pro’s triple-lens camera will be color-matched to the rest of the back, as it has been on earlier iPhone models. On top of that, the render above shows a metal frame around the camera bump, which is how Apple has designed old iPhones. On the new iPhone 11 series, the back will actually be a single piece of molded glass that includes the camera bump. And finally, word is the “iPhone” logo that has been included on every iPhone model to date will be deleted from the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max.
So, long story short, everything we’ve seen so far is basically just a representation of the iPhone 11’s shape. Just about all the other details are wrong. That means when Apple finally does get around to announcing the iPhone 11 series in a couple of weeks, we’re actually in store for a surprise! Or at least, we would have been if not for a new image posted recently by Twitter user Ben Geskin. For the first time, the image shows physical iPhone 11 mockups that correct most of the design mistakes made by earlier efforts. The result is our first look at what Apple’s new iPhone 11 series will actually look like. Here it is:
The exact finish of the frosted glass may not be entirely accurate, and cost obviously prohibits whichever Chinese accessory maker made these dummies from molding glass to include the rear camera bump. Still, this image shows designs that will likely end up being very accurate representations of Apple’s upcoming iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max.
