Apple iPhone 12: News, rumours and features

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Every year since 2007, Apple has released a new iteration of its iPhone line of smartphones. Every year, Apple tries to keep as tight a lid as possible on its future smartphone plans, although this is clearly also part of its marketing strategy to try to create as much hype around the most valuable part of its business as possible.

Apple has tried its best to keep the iPhone 12 family under wraps in 2020, but there has been an emerging picture of what’s coming out of Cupertino.

Apple had an online event on 13 October, where we heard full details of the iPhone 12.

Design

• High refresh rates possible, but could lead to launch delays
• Multiple phone sizes
• Possible Navy Blue iPhone

• Read more about the Apple iPhone 12's design

  The big news around the iPhone 12 family has fundamentally focused around when we’re likely to see a launch and actual models available. Apple has played around with this concept over the years, especially once it shifted to a multi-size model and differing price strategies. Where once we could confidently predict a September launch event and early October availability, 2020 and the coronavirus pandemic specifically have apparently played havoc with Apple’s plans.

  That extends to the design, where Apple was once predicted to follow the trend of high-refresh-rate displays, shipping an iPhone with either a 90Hz- or 120Hz-capable display. It’s entirely unclear if it will do so, with leakers and analysts suggesting that Apple may be finding it hard to source enough 120Hz screens. Apple may opt to wait out the delay to deliver the slickest screens or simply launch with models that come with 60Hz displays instead.

  Speaking of displays, it seems likely that Apple may launch with as many as four different iPhone 12 models in 2020. The base model, presumably the iPhone 12 but only Tim Cook knows for sure, is predicted to ship with a 5.4-inch display, with a 6.1-inch model offering much the same feature set but a larger screen.

  That 6.1-inch size is reportedly also in play for the higher-spec iPhone 12 – we’ll go with iPhone 12 Pro to fit in with the iPhone 11 naming scheme – alongside a much larger 6.7-inch iPhone 12 Pro Max model. Again, we’re guessing on model names there, but Apple does like to differentiate out its more expensive lines, so it’s an informed guess at least. Based on prior Apple history, if it is going to wait out for 120Hz displays in enough volume, it’s probably the Pro lines that will be delayed. Apple has launched a range of phones only to ship them at differing times before, as we saw with the Apple iPhone XR and Apple iPhone X in past years.

  Apple’s design changes have tended to be relatively slow and sedate over time, but 2020 could see some larger changes than we’re used to. That’s partly down to the current crop of rumours and also due to the fact that Sir Jony Ive is no longer head of design of Apple; he’s now in a consulting role and that opens up the possibility of differing design ideas coming into play.

  However, the current crop of rumours suggest that Apple’s going to play it very safe in 2020 when it comes to iPhone 12 design notes, with most pitching the idea of a return to a solid stainless steel frame in the style of the iPhone 4 family. That would bring the design language in line with other Apple products such as the Apple iPad Pro, even if it doesn’t feel all that “new”.

  What may be new in 2020 is the possibility of new iPhone colours. Apple has tended to offer more “out there” colour options for the entry-level iPhone families, but it’s rumoured that we might see a new Navy Blue colour across the range, possibly ousting Midnight Green as your alternative iPhone 12 colour.

  While early rumours suggested that Apple might be looking to drop the front display “notch” that provides both selfie shooting and FaceID features, it now appears that Apple will be sticking to a phone with a notched display. We’ve seen prototypes of notchless phones with under-display cameras, but it’s a technology that’s yet to come to market in any significant way. Given Apple’s reliance on FaceID for payment authentication, you can imagine that it would be hesitant to adopt a new technology like this unless it could perfect it. However, it has been rumoured that Apple might opt for an in-display fingerprint sensor in the iPhone 12 and that’s a technology which is considerably more mature, so it’s feasible that may happen.

  At the rear, case leaks have shown off a square camera bump that looks essentially identical to that on the iPhone 11 Pro Max. While there was some speculation that Apple might adopt USB-C connectivity to fall in line with EU directives, all signs point to it continuing to use its own proprietary Lightning connector instead.

Camera

• Triple-lens camera with LIDAR expected
• Dual-lens cameras on the cheaper iPhones

• Read more about the Apple iPhone 12's camera

  Apple finally flipped up to triple-lens cameras in the iPhone 11 Pro/Max, but it seems unlikely that we’ll see a fourth addressable camera lens on the back of any of the iPhone 12 family.

  Instead what’s likely in terms of new camera technology for the top tier iPhone 12 lines is likely to be a LIDAR depth sensor. Apple already has the software lined up for this, because LIDAR is a feature of the 2020 iPad Pro. Indeed, well before the iPad Pro line adopted LIDAR it was already being rumoured to be a feature of the iPhone 12. While time of flight sensors are nothing new in the Android world, Apple tends to put a lot of polish on its camera software and hardware, which could lead to even better portrait photos and depth sensing for AR purposes.

  Beyond LIDAR, it’s expected Apple may shift up its telephoto lenses, although not to the level of periscope lenses seen in some flagship 2019 and 2020 Android models. It’s likely that Apple may adopt larger actual camera sensors to improve the iPhone’s low-light capability and it may add optical stabilisation to all of the phone’s rear camera lenses.

  Most of the more intriguing rumours point to the cameras on the higher-end iPhone models, because this is an area where Apple very strictly delineates value. If you opt for the smaller and cheaper iPhone models, the rumours suggest you’ll get a phone with a dual-lens camera array.

Performance

• A14 processor likely to continue Apple’s silicon lead
• 5G expected across all iPhones

• Read more about the Apple iPhone 12's performance

  Apple produces phones Apple’s way and like everything else iPhone 12-related, actual concrete details around the internals of the new phones aren’t exactly easy to come by.

  Again, though, we don’t have to stir the tea leaves too rapidly to suggest that we’ll see a successor to the A13 Bionic in 2020’s iPhone crop. The A14 processor may well take on a different marketing suffix – we’d suggest the A14 TurboHyperMegaBlast+ if anyone from Apple’s marketing department is listening – and it’s likely to continue Apple’s general benchmark lead over its mostly-Qualcomm-running Android competition.

  One improvement that’s being touted for the iPhone 12 Pro series is a slight bump in included RAM. Apple historically hasn’t packed as much RAM into its phones as its Android counterparts and it somewhat hasn’t needed to. The tighter control over software and hardware has allowed Apple to wallow in just 4GB of RAM, but it has been rumoured that the Pro models due to debut in 2020 may bump up to 6GB of RAM instead. Inevitably Apple won’t actually announce that detail and we’ll have to wait until a teardown of a physical handset to find out for sure.

  Then there’s the question of 5G compatibility. Apple’s plans for 5G in iPhones were delayed by the fact that it was relying on Intel-built modems for its prior iPhone generations, before Intel chucked in the whole modem-building business wholesale. That business unit was sold to Apple and at some point in the future it seems inevitable that we’ll see Apple-built 5G silicon inside iPhones.

  That year won’t be 2020, where we’re expecting to see 5G compatibility via Qualcomm-built 5G modems across the entire iPhone 12 line. Apple may split this slightly for some markets and it’s not clear if what it will offer will simply be sub-6 5G, mmWave 5G or both.

Battery life

• Smaller batteries, but is that in size or capacity?
• 5G could be a real battery killer

• Read more about the Apple iPhone 12's battery life

  Apple iPhone battery life has typically been what we’d describe as poor over the entire lifespan of the brand compared to Android equivalents.

  That’s partly down to Apple’s obsession with ever-thinner handsets limiting the quantity of space it can put towards battery capacity. It has somewhat reversed that position with the iPhone 11 series of phones, no doubt helped by the power efficiency of the A13 Bionic chip. We’d expect – or at least hope – that the A14 provided the same boosts in battery power.

  The current crop of rumours suggest that while some of the iPhone 12’s internal battery circuitry could be smaller, potentially opening up more space for battery capacity, that may not be the way Apple has chosen to go for the iPhone 12 family.

  Possible specifications for iPhone 12 batteries suggest that while the largest iPhone in the 2020 line-up may see a bump up to 3687mAh capacity from 2019’s 3500mAh battery, across the rest of the line there may be some substantial drops in battery capacity. The entry-level iPhone 12 is purported to offer a 2227mAh battery where the iPhone 11 has 3110mAh, while the iPhone 12 Pro is apparently going to ship with a 2775mAh battery, compared to the 3190mAh battery on the iPhone 11 Pro.

  Now, Apple may be able to make a lot of power saving with the A14 chip, but it has to balance that against the more power-hungry nature of 5G. We’ll have to wait and see exactly what the real-world performance of these new iPhones are before coming up with a conclusive verdict there.

  While they may have smaller batteries, it seems possible that you may be able to pump up their power a little faster, with the same rumours around battery life pointing to a 20W Apple charger coming to market. Current iPhone models top out at 18W charging, so that’s at least one positive step. It’s counterbalanced though by a rumour that Apple may look to omit supplying an actual charger with any of the new iPhone models. If that’s true and you need a charger, you’ll have to pay extra for it.

  Apple’s not expected to drop wireless charging any time soon, although it never talks about its once-mooted “AirPower” charger any more. While rumours have circulated for some time that Apple is investigating entirely wirelessly charged iPhones, that doesn’t appear to be the case for its 2020 crop.

Early outlook

• Apple’s still playing catch-up, so we’d like to see something smart and new

• What do we want to see from the iPhone 12?

  The practical reality for Apple is that its strategy of a single flagship phone release per year – leaving aside the iPhone SE 2020 which serves a different market need – means that it inevitably lags behind the Android pack when it comes to innovative “new” features.

  Sometimes this is no bad thing. 2019’s experiments in gesture control as seen on the LG G8s ThinQ, Samsung Galaxy Note10 and Google Pixel 4 really didn’t pan out in any useful way, for example. The jury is still out on foldable phones, but Apple doesn’t seem to be leaning that way anyway.

  But still, it leaves much of what has been suggested by the current crop of rumours as putting Apple in a catch-up phase. Depth-sensing cameras, more RAM, OLED displays, in-display fingerprint readers and 5G aren’t new and bold technologies for Apple to engage in. While they’d all be welcome additions, by late 2020, they’re also going to be rather old tech.

  So what should Apple do? It’d be nice to see even more improvement in overall battery life in the iPhone, because it’s such a key complaint of so many iPhone users. Apple’s control over iOS gives it a unique ability to deliver controlled and slick phone experiences, so it’d be great to see new iOS features that work with the iPhone 12 in genuinely new ways.

Pricing and availability

• They won’t be cheap
• Announcement of pricing, tech specs and pre-order date expected on 13 October

Apple won’t comment on rumour or speculation and its representatives aren’t even allowed to.

Typically the company announces and launches new flagship phones in September each year, whereas this year the announcement will be on 13 October. The logistical realities of the coronavirus pandemic have thrown a lot of doubt about whether we’ll see actual on-sale devices before late October or November.

If the rumours around display tech pan out, it’s possible Apple might bring the cheaper iPhone 12 models with 60Hz displays to market first, with the 120Hz iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max hitting store shelves a month or so later.

As to what they’ll cost, you can expect that they won’t be cheap. 2019’s iPhone 11 pricing is as good a guide as any, so expect around £730 for the lowest-end iPhone 12 model and up to (or maybe more than) £1,499 for the top-spec Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max.

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