It goes without saying that Apple's iPhone revolutionized the smartphone game upon its initial release in back in 2007, and looking at the device in retrospect, its design really hasn't changed all that drastically. While companies like Samsung have made attempts to reinvent the smartphone with new technologies and foldable devices, Apple has remained rather faithful to its original iPhone design, sometimes simply changing the phone's shape and screen sizes just slightly.
Undoubtedly, the iPhone's most significant design change came with 2017's iPhone X, which finally got rid of the smartphone's top and bottom bezels, as well as the Apple's high-quality fingerprint recognition technology, Touch ID. Instead, the iPhone X introduced consumers to the face recognition technology of Face ID, and popularized the camera and speaker "notch" at the top of the device, allowing for a much larger display. However, it seems that this could be changing very soon.
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Although the iPhone 12 is still fairly new, notable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has shed some new light on some upcoming Apple devices, not just for this year, but next year as well. Kuo reports not only that this year's iPhone 13 will have a smaller notch and screens with higher refresh rates for some models, but also that some of 2022's models may actually do away with the infamous notch, finally introducing iPhone users to a hole-punch display.
While the notch has certainly allowed for a larger display on the iPhone X and onward, Apple fans have been clamoring for a hole-punch display like the ones seen in the Samsung Galaxy S21 and Motorola One Vision for years now. Kuo didn't divulge how each of the components in the current iPhones' notch will be translated over to a hole-punch format, but he did note that a truly all-screen iPhone could come as soon as 2023. The insider claims that this year's iPhones will stick with Apple's Lightning port, but include Qualcomm's Snapdragon X60 modem as well as improved battery life, as is expected with each new iPhone iteration.
Apple's lineup of iPhone 12 phones added 5G capability last year, but Kuo reports that a 5G-capable iPhone SE is also being worked on at Apple and could launch earlier than 2022's other iPhones, likely in the first half of the year. And although Apple fans sorely miss Touch ID and are eager to see USB-C replace the iPhones' Lightning ports, the insider claims that is seems Apple isn't planning on changing those aspects just yet.
Kuo has also said that a foldable iPhone is in the very early stages of development over at Apple. This phone could feature a 7.5 to 8-in. display, even possibly launching as soon as 2023. Even though Apple has been pre-occupied battling it out in court with Epic Games lately, it seems that fans of the company could have a lot to look forward to in the next couple of years.
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Source: MacRumors