4+ New iPhone 13, Apple Watch Series 7 Details Leak Ahead of Apple Event

No Price Increases

For one thing, Weinbach indicates that there will be no price increases for the new iPhone lineup. While most previous reports have also suggested prices would remain the same, information on pricing this year has been somewhat more vague than it was last year for the iPhone 12 lineup.

Still, as we explained last month, Apple clearly prefers to avoid increasing prices as much as possible. In fact, Apple has only permanently raised its base iPhone prices twice, with the 2011 iPhone 4S and the 2017 iPhone 8 each increasing by $50 over the prior models. Although the iPhone XR also saw a $50 price increase in 2018, this was temporary, as the iPhone 11 returned to the $699 price tag of the iPhone 8.

Similarly, the iPhone X, which was technically the birth of the new higher-tier models that we now know as the “iPhone Pro”, started at $999, and every one of its direct successors has continued to sell for the same price, with the larger “Max” models consistently going for $100 more, at $1,099.

So, there was every reason to believe that this year’s iPhone pricing would remain the same, until a supply chain report at the end of last month suggested that Apple could be forced to raise its prices due to rising chip manufacturing costs from partners like TSMC. However, while that may be true next year, Apple has already signed the necessary contracts and commitments for the A15 chips that are going into this year’s iPhones, so those costs were locked in a long time ago.

Most of Weinbach’s other comments centre around the improvements we’ve already heard about, such as battery life and camera changes, but he adds several interesting details.

Bigger iPhone Batteries

As we’ve already heard, the iPhone 13 is getting a bigger battery, which Weinbach specifies works out to around 18 to 20 percent in the case of the iPhone 13 Pro Max. The smaller 6.1-inch iPhone models will only increase by around 10 percent, and although he doesn’t specify a percentage increase for the iPhone 13 mini’s battery, he does add that it will offer about one more hour of battery life compared to the iPhone 12 mini, which could help boost its popularity this time around.

The new batteries may not translate into significantly longer run times, however, particularly in the case of the Pro models, where the new 120Hz ProMotion displays will eat up most of the increase. Since these displays will be able to throttle down to 60Hz when higher refresh rates aren’t necessary — and Weinbach says they’ll stay that way in Low Power Mode — we’ll have to wait and see how much different this will make in day-to-day use for most folks.

Cinematic Video, Warp, and Star Recognition

Last year’s iPhone 12 Pro Max pulled out ahead of its smaller counterpart by offering some significant camera improvements, and it looks like this could be part of a new trend.

We’ve already heard that the iPhone 13 Pro Max will still have the best camera in the lineup, and Weinbach’s sources confirm this is true. Although he doesn’t offer any specifics, Weinbach does note that all the cameras will get sensors that can receive 15 percent more light, while for the Ultra-Wide camera that will jump to 40 percent. This echoes a report that Ming-Chi Kuo shared last fall, which revealed that Apple was planning to bring a six-element lens and an f/1.8 aperture to the Ultra Wide camera — a massive improvement over the current five-element, f/2.4 lens.

Additional camera improvements are expected to come in software and computational photography features powered by Apple’s new A15 chip. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman already hinted at a new “Cinematic Video” that will allow Portrait Mode effects to function during video recording, but there may be another cool feature coming to the new video mode.

According to Weinbach, the new Cinematic Video mode will use a new electronic image stabilization feature that Apple is calling “Warp.” This will leverage Portrait Mode’s ability to recognize the subject of a video and attempt to keep the person in the centre of the frame at all times.

It’s also said to smooth out the optical image stabilization features that are already found on the iPhone 12, and will likely allow for additional effects to be used to take advantage of the computational depth mapping information.

Along similar lines, Weinbach notes that Night Mode is going to gain the ability to recognize stars, adjust for shadows, and provide a more accurate colour balance.

Apple Watch Series 7 Improvements

While there may not be much else to say about the new Apple Watch, Weinbach predicts that it will see “its first real battery life improvement” in the history of the product line. He doesn’t really say what he means by that, however.

Since the Apple Watch Series 7 is expected to get a major redesign along with a significantly improved display, it’s possible this could translate to extended battery life, either by offering room for a larger battery, or improving energy efficiency. A supply chain report a few months ago did suggest that smaller chips could offer more room, but that’s been unconfirmed by anybody apart from Weinbach.

However, with the addition of sleep tracking features in watchOS 7 last year, it makes sense that Apple is working to improve the battery life on the Apple Watch. While most users can get through a day of use on a single charge, wearing it to bed at night means that you have to plan your recharging time more carefully.

Since it’s challenging to improve battery life in something as small as the Apple Watch, however, if anything Apple should work on providing faster charging speeds, allowing users to more quickly top up their wearable to a full charge while they’re in the shower, or in between workouts. So far, though, we haven’t heard any reports that Apple is working on this.