iPhone 12 pro latest news and leaks

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The iPhone 12 was originally expected to launch in September 2020, but in a startling admission Apple has now confirmed it will be delayed. The question is, how late will it be? And will it be split into two separate launches? In this article we report the latest news about the new iPhone's release date, design, new features, price and tech specs, and cut through the gossip.

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With a matter of weeks to go we've got a pretty good idea of what to expect. The design - squared-off corners, new screen sizes, reconfigured camera array - has been leaked, and the full specs list revealed. We have the prices of every model, which seem likely to go up again this year, and have heard whispers of a new tougher version of Gorilla Glass that could be used for the displays.

Controversially, it looks like Apple won't bundle any headphones or a charger with the iPhone 12, which is sure to make a few people quite annoyed. But cheer up, because leaked photos show a mysterious arrangement of magnets hinting that the phone will be usable as a magnetic charging pad.

When will the new iPhone come out?
The next batch of iPhones will be announced in autumn 2020 (that's been the case every year since 2011), but it may not be in the traditional September slot.

Apple rarely comments publicly on its product release plans, but after its earnings report at the end of July CFO Luca Maestri confirmed that the iPhone 12 will come out a few weeks later than usual. That's still pretty vague, and we don't know if it applies to the announcement itself or just the on-sale date, but things must be serious for secrecy-obsessed Apple to have reached this point.

In absence of further official detail, the latest theory is that Apple is going to deal with production bottlenecks by splitting the iPhone 12 launch in two. It will release the two 6.1in models initially, supply-chain sources claim (that's the 12 Max and 12 Pro), followed by the 5.4in iPhone 12 and the 6.7in 12 Pro Max a few weeks later. Because the first two would be based on the same OLED screens, it would ease some of the pressure on Apple's manufacturing partners.

Reports have been suggesting for a while that the iPhone 12 faces delays of at least a month, which would push us into October or beyond. There's some dispute about whether this will merely affect the shipping date (which as Samuel Nyberg points out is not unprecedented - we've been here before, with the iPhone X in 2017) or if it will push back the date of the announcement. Broadcom for one has hinted that the launch will be pushed back from the third to the fourth quarter

But that's not the worst of it. Sources familiar with the company report that Apple has been considering a delay of several months, which could easily push the iPhone 12's release back into 2021, as a result of COVID-19.

Design changes
We're starting to get a good idea of what the iPhone 12 will look like, as numerous leaks and rumours coalesce towards a single point of consensus. (One thing that's generally agreed upon, for example, is that the foldable iPhone prototype won't become a commercial product this year - that's one for 2021 or beyond.

Bezels that are 0.9mm thinner than on the 11 Pro Max
Larger screen: 6.7in, compared to 6.5in
Thinner chassis: 7.4mm, compared to 8.1mm
Much smaller notch
LiDAR sensor forms fourth element in square camera array
Notch
It's been expected for a while that we could see the shrinking or total elimination of the notch.

The notch contains important sensors - those for Face ID, for example - and removing it would raise design problems, of course. Apple may go for a punch-hole design, which is a compromise of its own. But we feel that would be the worst of both worlds: an admission that the notch was a misstep, the loss of an iconic piece of design, and a failure, still, to actually provide a seamless all-screen design.

Cameras
PhoneArena has posted concept illustrations showing an iPhone with four camera lenses on the rear. This is madness, surely... Although it does fit the square housing rather neatly. (The flash is placed in the centre.)

iPhone 12 (2020) release date, price & specs: PhoneArena concept illustration

It now appears more likely that the fourth sensor will be LiDAR, like on the new iPad Pro, than a fourth camera lens.

There is also talk of a big-zoom periscope lens, but that's not expected to appear until 2022.


Screen size
The 2020 iPhones will come in three screen sizes: 5.4in and 6.1in for the basic models, and 6.1in and 6.7in for the Pros. That comes from May's spec dump, but these numbers have been circulating for a while.