- Apple’s upcoming iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro smartphones are expected to be Apple’s biggest smartphone upgrade in years, according to multiple independent reports from industry insiders.
- The new iPhone 12 lineup won’t debut until early September, but we already know plenty about the new phone series.
- A recent huge iPhone 12 leak shed light on even more details surrounding Apple’s big 2020 iPhone upgrade and there are two key details in particular that should get Apple fans especially excited.
- Visit BGR’s homepage for more stories.
Apple’s big iPhone 12 release is still more than six months away. Actually, there’s an increasingly good chance that the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro release is even further away than it would typically be around this time of the year. With only two exceptions, Apple has been releasing its new flagship iPhone lineup in September each year ever since the iPhone 5 was released eight years ago back in 2012. The iPhone X was pushed back a bit in 2017 due to manufacturing complications, and something similar happened the next year with the iPhone XR. This year, however, the potential delay would be to outside factors that are far beyond Apple’s control. As everyone at this point is well aware, the outbreak of the novel coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, China is causing major planning and manufacturing as Eastern factories attempt to slow the spread of the deadly virus. It’s still unclear what that might mean for Apple’s iPhone 12 launch, but it’s already having an impact on iPhone 11 supply, according to reports.
Of course, Apple’s new iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro lineup will be released eventually, be it in September, October, or later. It all depends on how quickly the spread of the virus is slowed, but it’ll happen eventually. When it does, Apple fans will receive the biggest iPhone update in years, with an all-new design and tons of new features. We already know plenty about the iPhone 12 series thanks to a series of reports from the world’s top Apple insider, but a huge leak that hit the web recently revealed two very important upgrades for the iPhone 12 series that we weren’t previously aware of.
It should be obvious that when it comes to the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro series smartphones, nothing at all can be confirmed until Apple announces the two phones in early September. That said, TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has such an accurate track record that people often consider his claims confirmation when it comes to upcoming Apple products.
Kuo began spilling details about Apple’s iPhone 12 lineup last year and he proceeded to add even more detail in recent months. In a nutshell, Kuo believes that the iPhone 12 series will feature a big design overhaul with flat metal edges like the iPhone 5 instead of the rounded design Apple has been using since 2014. The front of the phones will still feature a notch in the displays since Apple hasn’t yet found a better way to present the TrueDepth camera sensors needed for Face ID, but the notch might be a bit smaller than it is on the iPhone 11 and earlier iPhone models. Apple’s 2020 iPhones will also reportedly feature 5G, and the iPhone 12 models will have dual-lens cameras while the iPhone 12 Pro models sport a new triple-lens camera setup that adds in a new Time of Flight (ToF) sensor.
Did you notice that we referred to iPhone 12 models, as in plural, in addition to iPhone 12 Pro models? That’s because according to Kuo’s intel, Apple is actually planning to release four new flagship iPhone models in 2020, including two iPhone 12 phones with different display sizes and two iPhone 12 Pro phones with different sized screens. Here’s a graphic that breaks them down:
A few other little tidbits had been shared in Kuo’s various notes to clients, but then last week we saw the first huge iPhone 12 leak hit the web from a source other than Kuo. Instead, it came from a leaker named Max Weinbach from xda-developers. He also has a good track record when it comes to smartphone leaks, though most of his insights pertain to unreleased smartphones from other brands.
He had a lot to say about the iPhone 12 series and you can read all about his iPhone 12 insights here, but there are two areas in particular where we wanted to focus one last time because they’re the most important takeaways by far.
If you take a look at any studies that involve surveying people about their priorities when picking a smartphone, two things will always be at the top of the list: camera, and battery life. As it turns out — not so coincidentally, we’re sure — those are two areas where the iPhone 12 series will allegedly feature huge improvements.
Weinbach reports that Apple’s new iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro models will include a new 64-megapixel primary rear camera sensor in place of the 12-megapixel wide-angle lens on the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro models. The phones will also apparently have enhanced Night mode that will work on all rear camera lenses rather than the main sensor like it is now. Apple’s Night mode feature on the current iPhone 11 series is already a class leader, so we’re really looking forward to that upgrade.
Beyond that, the report says Apple’s iPhone 12 Pro models will feature improved zoom as well as a new Time of Flight (ToF) sensor in addition to three main camera sensors, which is something Kuo also said. But Weinbach adds that a new macro mode is coming that will allow for much better close-range photos, as well as an HDR mode called “Smart XDR.” Long story short, it looks like Apple has no plans to sit back despite having just given the iPhone 11 series a huge camera update.
Where battery life is concerned, we have much less information to go on, but it’s quite promising. In his info dump, Weinbach said that Apple’s upcoming new iPhone 12 Pro Max model will have a huge 4,400 mAh battery. That’s an 11% increase in capacity compared to the 3,969 mAh battery in the iPhone 11 Pro Max, which is a massive leap for a single smartphone generation. No other battery sizes were provided.
If we overlay that information on what we know from Kuo’s earlier reports, there is one loose assumption we can make. The iPhone 12 Pro Max will have a 6.7-inch screen according to go, which is two-tenths of an inch larger in diameter. The iPhone 12 Pro, meanwhile, will apparently have a 6.1-inch display. That’s an increase of three-tenths of an inch, so we can perhaps expect a similar increase of 11% or even slightly more in battery size.
Apple’s iPhones already have great battery life compared to comparable smartphones and the upcoming new A14 processor and iOS 14 operating system will hopefully have even more optimizations that improve battery performance. That said, it’s unclear how 5G cellular connectivity will impact battery life, so it’s possible that some performance gains might be offset for users on 5G networks.
Each passing week seems to bring even more good news about Apple’s iPhone 12 lineup, but these are definitely two of the best rumors we’ve heard so far. Hopefully, we’ll learn even more about these key details soon.
