Apple’s iPhones are perhaps the most leaked gadgets on the planet. Well, if you ask someone in the Google product team, they will disagree. That being said, there is a lot of information that’s already out there. People like Jon Prosner and Marc Gurman have been shedding light on the product for months. In fact, Apple could be preparing to launch something more than the iPhone — we could have the new Apple Silicon MacBook, new HomePods and even new headphones based on the AirPod technology. Apple in its invite has teased “Hi, speed” but that could just be nomenclature for 5G or it could beyond and be a flex on the chipset capabilities of all the products it has in store. So, let us discuss what to expect from the event, considering the brand did trend just for announcing the date of the event, wherein we are not confirmed as to what is launching. Now without blabbering on and on, let’s get to business.

What to Expect

Before we get into the deeper specifications of the device, which are known because of some rumours, we must first clear what variants of the iPhone are going to launch. This is a particularly important factor, considering Apple this year is said to be deviating from the strategy it has followed for the last two years. We are set to be treated with four iPhone models.

— Apple iPhone 12 mini — a 5.4-inch model which may not be much larger than the iPhone SE in overall size. This phone is expected to get OLED panels as well.

— Apple iPhone 12 — the standard iPhone size of 6.1-inches which has been there on the iPhone XR and iPhone 11. Apple is upgrading the display and moving away from the Liquid Retina technology to using an OLED panel on this, but one sourced from Chinese screen maker BOE.

— Apple iPhone 12 Pro — this phone is set to get a bigger 6.1-inch or 6.2-inch screen. Traditionally, Apple had a 5.8-inch screen for the lead iPhone since the iPhone X. On these phones, the display quality is set to be pushed further, something which is already among the bests in the business with the current iPhone 11 series.

— Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max- the largest phone of the bunch, the iPhone 12 Pro Max is set to feature a 6.7-inch panel, which is slightly larger than the current largest phone in the iPhone 11 lineup, which is a 6.5-inch panel present on the iPhone 12 Pro Max.

Now the biggest controversy is that these phones may not get a 120Hz refresh rate for the “pro motion” tech. This has now been confirmed by many people, even though it has been said that Apple had been testing this feature internally.

Moving on to some other features that might make a debut with the 12 series of devices, the iPhone 12 Mini will supposedly come with dual cameras, similar to a setup found on the iPhone 11. Additionally, the iPhone 12 will also feature a similar camera setup to the Mini. Coming to the 12 Pro, the one addition to the iPhone 12 is going to be the presence of a LiDAR lens. What’s interesting is that the sensor size is also going to be dramatically bigger by around 50 per cent and while doing so, Apple may also expand the apeture to f/1.6. Apple hasn’t increased the aperture of the camera in a while since the iPhone 7 in 2016. This amouts to perhaps the biggest update to the optical hardware of the iPhone in 4 years.

On the pro models, Apple is also said to be playing up the levels of optical zoom. The iPhone 12 Pro may get 3x optical zoom while the Pro Max may get 5x optical zoom. This phone will likely also have the U1 spatial awarness chip. This again is a huge update to the telephoto lens — the biggest one since Apple introduced the feature in the iPhone 7 Plus. The software of the cameras is going through a rejig reportedly — new generations of Night Mode, Smart HDR, and Deep Fusion can be expected.

Some additional information courtesy of Ice Universe is that of all four devices featuring flat edges, rather than curved screens, the presence of the A14 chip, which made it’s debut with the iPad Air along with wireless charging, Dolby vision etc. All these devices will come equipped with iOS 14 out of the box. There is also chatter about a new charging accessory called the magsafe charger and the magsafe duo charger which may work through the contact points on the leaked renders that many have claimed to be for a fingerprint scanner.

This is quite interesting considering Apple was planning to launch AirPower but that never saw the light of the day. In an unpreccedented move, Apple had to cancel the product. The heat issues that Apple faced with AirPower were the root cause behind their cancallation. This problem could be fixed by the Magsafe chargers according to rumours from tipster Kang and L0vetodream, the devices that might be charged from the charger might feature a specific charging coil via a specific charging system inside the new iPhone, which basically means you would be able to put your device anywhere you want and charge it without any issues. The Duo Charger by name seems to indicate support for charging two devices, one of which could be Airpods.

The A14 Bionic chip at its heart, one can expect these phones to be screamers. The A14 Bionic is the world’s first SoC to be made on a 5nm process and it is said to be significantly faster than the A13 Bionic which is already signifcantly faster than the Snapdragon 865 on Android phones. Apple’s performance figures as per the iPad Air launch indicate 20 per cent boost in CPU performance and 16 per cent boost in GPU performance, but leaked Geekbench benchamarks indicate, this could be even better as its GPU and single core performance is said to eclipse the performance of the A12Z bionic which is Apple’s fastest chip on the iPad Pro. This chip also comes with a new neural engine which is 16 times faster than before and new machine leanring acclerators which are 10 times faster than before.

On the iPhone, this SoC will be paired with the Qualcomm X60 modem which will enable the most sophisticated 5G connectivity on a phone yet. It also will make it the first 5G iPhone which could be the reason behind the “Hi, Speed” invite. This will be a serious chip as it will be the basis of the foundation for the A14X Bionic which many people suspect will end up in the first Apple Silicon powered MacBook.

What else

Apart from this, there could be a couple of side events — like a bunch of accessories around the iPhone. Furthermore, Apple is expected to launch a smaller version of the HomePod, by the name of HomePod Mini. This is supposedly going to feature the S5 chip by Apple and a height of 3.3-inch, which is smaller than the original Home Pod. The pricing of the same has been revealed by the leaks and it might cost as less as $99, which is incidentally the exact same price as the new Nest audio from Google.

As for the new MacBook which is rumoured to be released in November and Apple’s new AirPods Studio — these products are unlikely to make the cut as they may be too high profile and may take away the sheen from Apple’s halo product. That being said, now reprots are emerging that Apple is planning a new event around the Macs - because of Apple Silicon at their heart. To get all the news, do log in to Apple’s stream on Tuesday which starts at 10:30 pm.

Words : Shloke Sarkar

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