We haven’t really made a Leaks & Rumors episode on the 2020 iPhones in more than a month now. Mostly because there wasn’t anything new to talk about. But, we’ve got a ton of fresh new leaks to talk about now, most of them from just the past week alone, coming from Jon Prosser from ‘FrontPageTech’. I don’t know how he did it but he’s pretty much the person with the highest amount of inside news on Apple at the moment.
So, here’s everything new in terms of the 2020 iPhones!
iPhone SE (Second Generation)
First things first, Apple has now unveiled what we thought was going to be the iPhone 9. This is the one we were talking about for so long, it is essentially the iPhone SE 2. Only, it isn’t called the iPhone 9 or the iPhone SE 2, but instead they called it the iPhone SE…Second Generation.
I personally think that iPhone 9 would’ve been the perfect name as this would be the last iPhone to feature the old pre-iPhone X design and Apple has yet to use the iPhone 9 naming scheme. But at the same time, calling this the iPhone SE means that Apple is not necessarily considering this inferior to the iPhone 11. They seemingly just consider it something different.
The iPhone 9, or the iPhone SE Second Generation as it is being called by Apple, is our first iPhone of 2020.
The iPhone SE Second Generation is essentially just an iPhone 8, but with upgraded internals. We have the same design on the front as the iPhone 8, 7, 6s & 6, so we’re getting a six year old design here. But, we are getting some very nice specs.
To start with, we’re getting Apple’s most powerful iPhone Chip, the Apple A11. The same CPU as found in the iPhone 11 & 11 Pro’s. We’re also getting an improved Camera, which looks to be the same Module as the Main on the iPhone 11 & 11 Pro. Don’t quote me on this because I do need to get it and test it to confirm that.
That’s pretty much it. Other than that, this is an iPhone 8. The only other difference being that this iPhone only costs $400 / £420 in the UK. The UK market is getting a slap in the face again. It is almost half the price of the iPhone 11, which starts at $700, so if you don’t care about having an outdated design and you just want a very affordable iPhone (price can actually go down further if you trade in your old phone) with the very best performance and almost the same quality Camera as on an iPhone 11 Pro, then this is a perfect deal.
We’ll be making a more in-depth video about the iPhone SE Second Generation, once we get it ourselves, so stay tuned for that. Subscribe and hit the bell so you don’t miss out.
AirPower
Then, at number two, AirPower is apparently making a comeback. You know, the Wireless Charging Mat that Apple kept on postponing and then eventually cancelled? We may be seeing that after all.
Essentially, AirPower was a fairly revolutionary Wireless Charger. On pretty much every single Wireless Charger out there, you need to position your Smartphone on a specific spot because that’s where the Wireless Charging Coil is located. Apple, on the other hand, wanted you to be able to place your Smartphone, Apple Watch or even your AirPods literally anywhere on the Mat. In order for you to be able to do that, the Mat needed a ton of Charging Coils. I’m not talking about two, three or even five, the AirPower Mat was developed with over 20 different Coils in mind. But, these Coils generated a lot of heat, which made an AirPower Mat a safety hazard to use, so it got cancelled.
How will the AirPower solve the overheating issues that has prevented it from being released so far?
Well, it seems like it might have been revived! According to Jon Prosser, Apple’s Sharing & Proximity Team are receiving prototype units of something called C68, which looks a lot like the AirPower Mat. Not only that, but apparently this new AirPower Mat actually has an Apple A11 Processor inside that’s being used to dynamically manage heat. An Apple A11, inside of a Wireless Charger!
The A11 is what the iPhone X from 2017 used and it is still one of the most powerful Chips in the mobile industry. According to Jon, because the Apple Watch uses a proprietary charging method, when you placed the Apple Watch on charge while other devices were also on the Mat, the AirPower would combust because the Watch required so much power. The A11 can tell when the temperature drops and it can wait until that happens before diverting power to charging the Apple Watch. It’s a pretty genius solution but I’m not so sure if this is indeed the answer.
I’m saying this because firstly, having an A11 Chip inside what is essentially just a Wireless Charger means that the price of it will sky-rocket and secondly, it’s not like the Mat won’t overheat. It’s just that the A11 will put some devices on hold, in terms of charging, until the temperatures go down. This means that if you need a quick charge of your Apple Watch and your iPhone is also charging, you might not even be able to charge your Apple Watch at all, if the A11 Chip decides that is the safest case.
I still think that the best approach here would be to have marked spots on the Mat, where you can place your devices. These spots will also be magnetised so that the devices snap into place once they’re close.
iOS 14
Next up, we have some updates to iOS 14. In case you missed it, we did an iOS 14 video back in March that covered every single thing we knew up until that point, in terms of iOS 14. Definitely do give that video a watch, in case you want to know more about it. But since that video of ours went live, a few more details have emerged.
Reports from ‘9to5Mac’ indicate that Apple is working on improving iCloud Keychain on iOS to make it compete better with apps such as ‘1Password’ or ‘LastPass’. Apparently, users will now be warned if their passwords are being reused, so that they can change them if they’re using one multiple times. Users will also be getting some sort of new 2-Factor Authentication that will let you log into a website using just iCloud Keychain, rather than using SMS or Email. But keep in mind, this will still be 2-Factor Authentication.
Twitter user ‘DongleBookPro’ shared a few more details about iOS 14. The first one being that Apple seems to be working with car manufactures, such as BMW, to allow you to use the iPhone itself as a car key. It won’t work with all models, just with a few select ones, but this will apparently be called CarKey.
‘DongleBookPro’ also shared some iOS 14 images. One, with how the new Wallpaper selection would work, which has been reported previously. It seems that now, we would be able to tweak the current Wallpaper. It seems like the stock iOS 13 Wallpaper has four different variants, one of them being a gradient. The ability to turn them into gradients seems to be applicable to all of Apple’s first party Wallpapers. They’re calling it a Smart Gradient.
Aside from this, Dongle also shared an image of how the Wallpaper selection screen will look, with Wallpapers now grouped into Collections. You can also have some photos of your own there, which is great. Third party apps should be supported as well, according to some of the earlier leaks that we’ve seen before.
Now, there’s one more thing about iOS 14 that I want to share here and it is coming from Jon Prosser. We’ve heard some rumors that Apple might be implementing a new list view on the iPhone, similar to the one that we have on the Apple Watch. But now it seems that Apple is indeed considering Widgets on iOS. Jon is saying that there are currently no internal builds featuring Widgets, but it is something that Apple is internally working on. They’re also considering third-party Widgets in the Control Centre. Now, Jon did say that this is probably something likely to come in iOS 15 rather than iOS 14. We’ll have to wait and see.
But, I’ve had two massive requests for iOS, for so many years now. One of them being an Always-On Display. Android Smartphones have had this for so many years now and it’s a complete game-changer. The ability to see the time and the notifications on your Display, all the time, even when your phone is in sleep, is so useful. But for some reason, we never got that on the iPhone. Now that the Apple Watch finally got it with the Series 5, I would bet that Apple is at least considering adding an Always-On Display to the iPhone as well.
You may soon be able to use some popular apps without actually needing to have them installed, such as Twitter.
My second request was on-screen Widgets. This is something that we’ve had on Android Smartphones for years. The iPhone Home-Screens have pretty much remained unchanged since the very first iPhone launched, back in 2007 (13 years ago). We can now change the Wallpaper but aside from that, and the fact that we can put apps in folders, which Apple added in iOS 4 back in 2010, we cannot really change anything. Widgets will allow us to see the Weather, Calendar, To-Do List and more, right on the Home-Screen without even having to open up those apps.
Apple did indeed add Widgets, but only to the Notification Panel in iOS 13, on the iPad, with iPadOS. They finally added Home-Screen Widgets, but it only works in Landscape Mode and it is a separate panel on the Home-Screen, rather than something that’s embedded into it.
It seems like we will have to wait a bit longer and see if this does happen, but if it does, it will be a pretty massive change for iOS functionality wise, which is something that we haven’t seen since iOS 4, back in 2010.
The last piece of news that we have on iOS 14 comes from 9to5Mac. They claim that they’re developing a new feature called “Clips”, which will allow us to use an app without necessarily having it installed. A good example of this would be when you’re on a web page and you’re opening up a Twitter link. Normally this will just take you to the Twitter browser, the same applies to YouTube where, as we all know, the UI is really messed up. Well, with this new Clips API, you will pretty much get the same experience as if you actually had the app installed. It’s just that you won’t need to actually have it installed, which is pretty cool.
iPhone 12 Pro
Now, onto the good stuff, the iPhone 12. The biggest thing here is that we finally know the final design of this year’s iPhone.
We’re getting four iPhone 12 models this year. A 5.4” model, which will be the smallest one. This will be even smaller than the 5.8” iPhone X, XS or iPhone 11 Pro and this one will come with two Camera Modules, the Apple A14 Processor and 5G, as well as an Aluminium Body. Then, we have a 6.1” iPhone, similar in size to the regular iPhone 11, this will also come with two Camera Modules, the A14, 5G and an Aluminium Body too. We have another 6,1” iPhone, a Pro model this time. This will still come with the A14, 5G, only three Camera Modules as well as that LiDAR Module that the iPad Pro just got. This will have a Stainless Steel, rather than an Aluminium, Body. Finally, we have a 6.7” iPhone, another Pro model. This will come with the A14, 5G, three Camera Modules, LiDAR and that Stainless Steel Body as well. In summary, two regular and two ‘Pro’ models.
All models are indeed said to come with an OLED Display, so finally no more LCD. All models are said to come with a smaller Notch as well as a Squared-Off Frame, similar to the one that we got on the 2018 iPad Pro. So, we’re finally getting a return to that iPhone 4 & iPhone 5 style design, which was definitely my favourite. This had been initially reported by Ming-Chi Kuo, but has now confirmed by Bloomberg as well.
Remember the iOS 14 Widgets image that Jon Prosser shared? Well, it seems like that image is coming from Twitter user Fudge (@choco_bit). This gives us a really good idea of what the smaller Notch would look like. It looks to me that it’s about half the size of the Notch on the current iPhones.
Unfortunately, the Bezels still seem to be the same size. I was really hoping that these would be getting a bit thinner, as iPhones now have one of the thickest Bezels / Border on any Smartphone now and they’re already looking quite outdated when compared to the competition. But, keep in mind that this is not a Press render, it is what looks to be an iOS icon, which means that the Bezels might indeed be bit thinner on the actual iPhone 12.
Follow our second Instagram account @ZONEofCONCEPTS for more models on upcoming releases.
Anyway, Fudge also shared an image of the back of the iPhone and from this one we can see that the LiDAR Sensor has been added as a fourth Module, just like we envisioned in our very own concept months ago. Funnily enough, we modelled this concept back in October 2019 and at that time, we only knew that Apple was going to add a ToF Camera. We didn’t know where and how it would be positioned. So, we fully modelled ours based on what made the most amount of sense. A fourth module in that Camera Array alongside a Flash in the middle, for even Light Exposure, and a Microphone just under it for a consistent design. It seems like we were pretty much spot on.
So, this is what the iPhone 12’s would look like. A Flat Frame, just like on the 2018 and 2020 iPad Pro’s, which would be made out of Aluminium on the non-pro models, just like on the iPhone 5 and SE, and full Stainless Steel on the Pro models. We also get a smaller Notch, at least in terms of its length, and two new Display sizes, a 5.4” and a 6.7” as well as a Quad Camera Module on the back, with that brand new LiDAR Sensor.
We have seen multiple reports that the iPhone 12’s could indeed be delayed up to October or so, but there are many reports on this, some saying that they will be delayed while other are saying that they’re still scheduled for a September release. If I were to put my money on any of these, I would say that the regular iPhone 12’s will be released in September, while the Pro models would be released a bit later, around October. This would just be because of that LiDAR Module, which is a brand new component to manufacture.