iPhone 13 rumors: Release date, new features, death to the Lightning port and more

Apple’s iPhone 12 lineup has solely been on digital cabinets for half a 12 months, and already the cell phone world has turned its consideration to the iPhone 13 (or no matter Apple names its subsequent flagship) and the three different variants anticipated to hitch the lineup: the iPhone 13 Mini, iPhone 13 Professional and iPhone 13 Professional Max, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. The newest rumors embrace a 120Hz always-on show à la the Apple Watch (and like many Android telephones have had for years), a smaller notch, larger battery, and even a potential foldable iPhone variant.

Rumors have been circulating about Apple’s 2021 cellphone lineup even earlier than the final Apple occasion, which unveiled the iPhone 12. And the leaks are solely going to ramp up as we get nearer to the subsequent iPhone launch date (within the meantime, there’s one other Apple occasion rumored to be taking place very quickly). Learn on to search out the most recent rumors concerning the iPhone 13’s value, design, specs, digicam options and extra. We’ll replace this story as new data turns into obtainable.

Learn extra: iPhone 13 vs. iPhone 12

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iPhone 13 rumor roundup

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Launch date: iPhone 13 must be right here by mid-September

Thus far, there is no official or unofficial phrase on after we can anticipate to see Apple’s subsequent iPhone. Normally, we will predict with a point of accuracy when Apple’s iPhone occasions will happen and extrapolate a launch date based mostly on that. 2020 was a unique story — it was the primary September Apple occasion in eight years with out an iPhone — due to delays in manufacturing because of the coronavirus pandemic. This 12 months, nonetheless, Kuo is forecasting enterprise as common for Apple’s provide chain. If that is the case, we will anticipate to see the iPhone 13 unveiled at an occasion someday in September.

Let’s synthesize the data we now have: 

• Apple likes to carry its occasions on Tuesdays or Wednesdays.
• iPhone launch dates are usually per week and a half after Apple’s bulletins.
• Generally, new iPhones are launched on a Friday, across the third week of September.

Just a few years in the past, CNET took a deep dive into the Apple occasion timeline and emerged with a compelling Labor Day speculation, which you’ll examine right here. Based mostly on the 2021 calendar, the Labor Day rule would put the September Apple occasion (and unveiling of the iPhone 13) on Sept. 8, with a Sept. 17 launch date. 

Learn extra: iPhone 13 want listing: What Apple wants for its subsequent cellphone to succeed

Identify: Apple’s subsequent flagship may not be known as iPhone 13

We’re going with the identify “iPhone 13” for now, however the moniker just isn’t a positive factor. Contemplating high-rise buildings are inclined to omit the thirteenth flooring from their elevator buttons for superstitious causes, Apple might very properly succumb to its personal triskaidekaphobia and skip the quantity 13. 

Learn extra: iPhone 13 is likely to be the cellphone that by no means hits cabinets. Here is why folks suppose so

iPhone 12S is a worthy guess for the identify of Apple’s subsequent era of iPhones. Simply as 2014’s iPhone 6 gave strategy to 2015’s iPhone 6S and 2017’s iPhone X preceded 2018’s iPhone XS, with out a main redesign within the works (extra on that beneath), the 2021 iPhone is simply as prone to be positioned as an enchancment on the iPhone 12.

Or possibly Apple takes a web page out of Samsung’s guide and names its subsequent cellphone after the 12 months of its conception: iPhone 2021 has a pleasant ring to it. Or what concerning the iPhone XXI? Or, dare to dream, Apple might go in a totally completely different course and identify it one thing enjoyable, just like the Motorola Citrus or LG Chocolate of yore.

Worth: iPhone 13 might price the identical as iPhone 12… and even much less

Apple’s iPhone 12 lineup included 4 telephones at 4 completely different costs, with much more variation amongst carriers and storage configurations. At launch, the baseline iPhone 12 provider mannequin price $799, a rise of $100 from 2019’s iPhone 11, largely because of the addition of 5G help. As a result of the iPhone 13 just isn’t anticipated to have such a serious technical improve, analysts are predicting an analogous value construction for 2021. 

Here is the iPhone 12’s US pricing, for reference:

There’s some hypothesis that Apple would possibly think about reducing the worth of its subsequent cellphone lineup. A number of rivals rose to the event of the financial downturn by releasing extra inexpensive fashions in 2020, akin to Samsung’s Galaxy S20 FE and Google’s Pixel 5, each the identical value because the iPhone 12 Mini, however about $100 lower than the iPhone 12. The newly launched Samsung Galaxy S21 additionally boasted a cheaper price tag, beginning at $200 decrease than its predecessor. 

Gross sales of the iPhone 12 might point out the course Apple would possibly soak up pricing the iPhone 13. The anticipated 2020 “supercycle” appears to have occurred as Apple anticipated: In October, the iPhone 12 and 12 Professional grew to become the primary and second best-selling 5G cellphone fashions worldwide. And Apple not too long ago introduced that the iPhone 12 led to the most important income and revenue within the firm’s historical past.

Design: iPhone 13 will in all probability look acquainted

No leaked renders or grainy movies have emerged but, however we do not anticipate any large adjustments to the iPhone’s design in 2021, contemplating 2020 noticed a fairly important “slabular” redesign already with the return of the iPhone 5’s flat sides. Apple is also not expected to make any changes to the phone’s sizing from the earlier era. 

iPhone 13’s rumored sizes:

• iPhone 13 Mini: 5.4-inch
• iPhone 13: 6.1-inch
• iPhone 13 Professional: 6.1-inch
• iPhone 13 Professional Max: 6.7-inch

Two potential design components that are getting some first rate buzz already: A shallower notch or fully notchless display screen and the loss of life of the Lightning port, each of which have been speculated about, hoped for or dreaded advert nauseum for generations of iPhones. 

iPhone 13 might nix the chunky notch

Apple launched the world to the notched show in 2017 with the discharge of the iPhone X, and as rivals solved the selfie conundrum with hole-punch and under-display cameras, Apple nonetheless hasn’t, er, taken it down a notch. Those that crossed their fingers for a notchless or at the least smaller-notched iPhone 12 are reassigning their hopes to the iPhone 13 now that their 2020 all-screen goals have failed to come back to fruition. Rumors of a smaller notch resurfaced in early March in an traders word from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

Will Apple kill the Lightning port too?

When Apple ousted the headphone jack, the doomsday clock began ticking for the iPhone’s charging port as properly, in keeping with business analysts. Although numerous us are nonetheless holding out hope for a USB-C port, the introduction of MagSafe equipment in 2020 all however sealed the deal on a portless future for the iPhone. Frequent leaker Jon Prosser shares this prediction, asserting on his YouTube channel, “The end goal is very obviously portless.”

However do not get too excited (nervous?): Kuo predicts that only one 2021 iPhone will be completely portless, probably the iPhone 13 Professional Max. 

Cameras: New photograph tips and tech coming to the iPhone 13

The iPhone received some fairly properly acquired digicam upgrades in 2020, particularly within the Professional Max mannequin, which launched the iOS crowd to lidar (additionally discovered on the Professional) and ProRaw. The iPhone 12 even wrested CNET photograph fanatic Stephen Shankland’s loyalty away from Google Pixel, the erstwhile computational pictures king. 

Learn extra: iPhone 13 digicam rumors: The specs and upgrades we’ll probably see

Higher zoom capabilities for the iPhone 13

One weak spot within the 2020 lineup’s digicam choices, nonetheless, was zoom know-how. The iPhone 12 Professional Max solely featured a 2.5x optical zoom — for comparability, Samsung’s Galaxy S20 Extremely and now the S21 Extremely each supply a 100x zoom (although it’s a mixture of optical and digital). Based on ETNews (as reported by TechRadar), the iPhone 13 might probably embrace a periscope digicam, a know-how that will enable for a bigger zoom vary with out requiring a good bigger digicam bump. Kuo made related predictions for a future periscope lens, although his report hinted that we might have to attend till 2022. It is also potential that the two.5x zoom discovered on the iPhone 12 Professional Max might trickle right down to the following iPhone’s Professional mannequin.

Improved evening mode pictures

New rumors in early February trace at welcome enhancements for low-light pictures. Analysts are predicting an ultrawide-angle lens with a bigger aperture — f1.8, as a substitute of f2.4. A bigger aperture means extra mild can hit the sensor, which makes for higher pictures at nighttime or in low-light conditions.

You get lidar, you get lidar, everybody will get lidar!

All four models of the iPhone 13 lineup could include lidar technology, in keeping with a DigiTimes report. Lidar was launched to the iPhone in 2020, however solely on the Professional and Professional Max fashions, so this might solely be a real improve for the fundamental mannequin and the Mini. Nonetheless, lidar for everybody could be fairly nifty — the digicam function, which stands for “mild detection and ranging,” is a depth sensor that makes use of lasers to measure distance. The digicam trick can take your iPhone pictures to the following degree, and it additionally has some fairly cool AR functions. 

Options: All the opposite iPhone 13 rumors we have heard

There’s quite a bit we will confidently predict for the 2021 iPhone lineup based mostly on final 12 months’s options and Apple’s common observe report. For example, 5G is all however a foregone conclusion. There in all probability will not be a charger or headphones within the field, nor a headphone jack, nor a USB-C port. And except 2021 throws us for a good larger loop than 2020, we anticipate Apple to preview iOS 15 at its annual WWDC occasion in June, delivery the iPhone 13 with the brand new working system put in.

120Hz refresh fee for the iPhone 13 Professional and Professional Max

We thought we might get a refreshed refresh fee within the iPhone 12, however the 120Hz rumors did not pan out — probably due to the already elevated calls for on battery from the cellphone’s 5G connectivity. As an alternative, Apple’s lineup final 12 months featured the identical 60Hz show because the earlier 12 months’s iPhone 11.

However 2021 may very well be the 12 months of the 120Hz show, which might lead to a smoother, quicker scrolling expertise due to the next display screen refresh fee. Many higher-end opponents already function a 120Hz show (e.g. the OnePlus 8T and Galaxy S21), so the chances are good Apple heads on this course for its subsequent Professional line.

Proof for doubling the refresh fee in 2021 comes from Korean news site The Elec, which stories that two of the iPhone 13 fashions will use LTPO know-how of their screens (story is in Spanish). This display screen tech would make the cellphone extra power-efficient normally, which means smaller batteries and/or longer battery life are additionally possible (to not point out these whispers about an always-on display). Learn more about LTPO, or low-temperature polycrystalline oxide, OLED screens. This rumor was repeated by well-known leaker Max Weinbach in mid-February on YouTube.

An always-on show

Just like the Apple Watch (and Android telephones), the iPhone 13 might have its personal model of the always-on show, what Weinbach known as a “toned-down lock display screen.” If rumors are true, your subsequent iPhone would all the time show the time and battery cost, in addition to incoming notifications, with out you having to unlock or wake the entire display screen.

Return of the Contact ID button

Bloomberg reported in 2019 that the beloved Touch ID button could return as an under-display sensor within the subsequent 12 months’s flagship, which might have been the iPhone 12. That did not occur, however the Bloomberg report left room for error, saying the know-how might “slip to the 2021 iPhone refresh.” 

Twitter leaker @L0vetodream also teased an under-display Touch ID final fall, which was subsequently corroborated (and translated) by Prosser.

Apple’s 2020 iPad Air, introduced final September throughout what usually would have been an iPhone unveiling occasion, built-in a Contact ID button onto the facet of the machine. This addition was thrilling as a result of it solved the “Face ID does not work whereas sporting a masks” downside with out ceding display screen actual property. An under-display button would clear up the issue, too, although it stays to be seen whether or not the tech shall be prepared in time for the iPhone 13. (In the meantime, those that personal an Apple Watch can have but an alternative choice for masked iPhone-unlocking, as soon as iOS 14.5 turns into obtainable.)

As we close to the purported September iPhone announcement, we’ll preserve this put up up to date with all of the iPhone 13 leaks, rumors and different hypothesis because it comes up, so test again. And within the meantime, this is what you must know concerning the iPhone 12: