All signs point to a regular mid-September launch for the iPhone 13 this year. The novel coronavirus pandemic forced Apple to delay the iPhone 12 announcement event, as the health crisis disrupted manufacturing and travel in the first part of 2020. The same conditions do not apply this year. A report a few days ago said that the new A15 chips that will power the iPhone 13 will be manufactured ahead of schedule. The chip shortage impactive various companies in the automotive and consumer electronics industries will not impact the iPhone, although iPad and MacBook production is reportedly affected.
With five months left until the iPhone 13’s expected launch, the handset’s design should be finalized. Several reports say the iPhone 13 will come in the same four versions as its predecessors, all featuring almost the same design. An increasing number of leaks have shown us the various design modifications expected from the iPhone 13 series. The main ones concern the notch and rear camera. The Face ID bezel will be smaller than before, while the rear camera will be larger and thicker than before. A brand new leak now shows us what the smaller notch will look like in real life.
We saw quite a few iPhone 13 design leaks in the past few weeks, including purported 3D schematics and iPhone 13 mockups 3D-printed with the help of those schematics. All of them painted precisely the same picture. All iPhone 13 models will be just as tall and wide as their predecessors, featuring the same chassis design. The phones will be about 0.2mm thicker, which would help Apple increase the battery size and address the camera bump. The main camera module will occupy more space on the back of the phone, and it’ll be slightly thicker than the iPhone 12’s camera modules.
— DuanRui (@duanrui1205) April 17, 2021
All those schematics and 3D printed iPhone 13 mockups showed the same notch size modifications. The Face ID bezel would be narrower than before, thanks to the top speaker’s displacement. The speaker will be placed inside the thin bezel that runs uniformly around the screen rather than inside the notch.
The new photos reinforce the leaked schematics. Anyone can come up with convincing 3D renders of a highly-anticipated unreleased phone. But these images show an actual accessory made for the new iPhone.
The screen protector in these photos looks like what you’d expect from any iPhone 12 screen protector. We’re looking at the same uniform side bezel around the display and a notch at the top. Considering that all Android flagships look the same, this screen protector fits the only phone that doesn’t have a hole-punch display, the iPhone.
The images also tell us the notch is about as tall as the notch design Apple used since the iPhone X, but it’s not as wide. A cutout in the thin bezel on top shows where the speaker would be placed. Flanking the notch are two display “ears” that can show more information than before.
As with all iPhone leaks, this remains a rumor, as there’s no way to verify it. But the source who collected the images from Chinese social media has posted information about unannounced Apple products before.
