Apple’s new iPhone 13 offers some nice upgrades in battery life, cameras, camera features, a 20% smaller inelegant kludge (notch), and displays (ProMotion in the Pro models), but a much more significant leap is coming with 2022’s “iPhone 14” lineup, Bloomberg Technology’s Mark Gurman reports in his “Power On” newsletter.
Mark Gurman for Bloomberg Technology’s “Power On”:
Compared with the iPhone 12 Pro Max, the iPhone 13 Pro Max is no major step up. But this phone is clearly meant to spur upgrades from pre-5G iPhone models, and it will hold Apple over until more significant iPhone changes arrive over the next few years.
In my testing, ProMotion was the most noticeable upgrade. Moving through home screens, launching apps and scrolling are all incredibly smooth. It’s a day-and-night change, and it boggles my mind that it took Apple this long to implement… [as] Apple’s own iPad Pro popularized the feature almost four and a half years ago. It’s awesome on the iPhone.
Apple will have to get more dramatic with next year’s overhaul… The minor changes this year also mean that Apple’s engineers were working behind the scenes on bigger things that will take more time. With the iPhone 14, you can expect new entry-level and Pro models and a complete redesign.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s tock-tock production model for iPhone has returned as expected (after a longer than usual/useful three-year iPhone X, XS, 11 period of design stagnation). We also expect “iPhone 14 Pro” and the flagship “iPhone 14 Pro Max” to get a new punch-hole display (buh-bye, finally, inelegant kludge!)
The general consensus currently expects the following lineup:
• 6.1-inch iPhone 14*
• 6.7-inch iPhone 14 Max*
• 6.1-inch iPhone 14 Pro**
• 6.7-inch iPhone 14 Pro Max**
*with current TrueDepth camera system notch
**with new TrueDepth camera system punch-hole