Leaked ‘iPhone 14’ Case Schematics Show Bigger Bumps, Same Cameras

With the “iPhone 14” design reportedly locked down, accessory makers are trying to get a head start by building mockups and molds to begin preparing their case lineups to fit this year’s iPhone models.

Once third-party companies start making these, some photos will inevitably leak out. That’s precisely what’s happened again with Apple’s “iPhone 14” lineup, giving us a better look at what we can expect the new iPhones to look like.

New photos from the Chinese social media site Weibo have been shared on Twitter by @ShrimpApplePro. Although they confirm much of what we already know, they also show that this year’s “iPhone 14” lineup will look remarkably similar to what came before.

Most significantly, the camera configuration appears identical to the iPhone 13 lineup. It’s not a surprise that the standard iPhone 14 models will stick with a two-camera system, but it also seems that Apple is keeping the diagonal layout that it introduced last year.

The LED flash remains in the same position, and there’s no evidence of the LiDAR scanner coming to the standard iPhone 14 models.

Early in the iPhone 13 rumor cycle last year, some reports suggested that Apple planned to bring the LiDAR sensor to all models. When that didn’t materialize, there was speculation that Apple was holding it off for another year. However, the rumor mill has been pretty quiet on that front, and combined with these mockups, it’s a safe bet that Apple plans to reserve the LiDAR capabilities for its “Pro” models.

The mockups confirm something else that’s also a given by now: the 5.4-inch iPhone mini is dead. The original iPhone 12 mini was a disappointment for Apple, and while some of that was simply bad timing, it was clear that its days were numbered.

The iPhone 13 mini likely only showed up because it was too late to change course. Apple had already locked down its 2021 production plans before the results came in; there’s every indication that it had already decided to kill the 5.4-inch model off for 2022 months before the iPhone 13 mini ever saw the light of day. Hence, it wasn’t about giving the smaller iPhone another chance to prove itself.

Instead, this year, Apple will standardize the entire “iPhone 14” lineup on only two sizes: Two standard 6.1-inch models and two 6.7-inch “Max” models.

The Pro Models

The “iPhone 14 Pro” and “iPhone 14 Pro Max” are also expected to sport the same triangular three-camera layout that’s been the norm since the iPhone 11 Pro was introduced in 2019, along with the LiDAR sensor from the iPhone 12 Pro.

One thing is certain: we’re not going to see the flat camera design this year. Instead, we’re getting an even bigger camera bump.

However, the good news is that just like the larger camera bumps on the iPhone 12 Pro Max and both iPhone 13 Pro models, a bigger bump always means better cameras. After all, Apple isn’t going to increase the size just for kicks.

In this case, the rumors are that Apple is increasing the sensor resolution to 48 megapixels. If true, that will undoubtedly be worth the size increase. Still, before you start getting too excited about taking ultra-high resolution photos, it’s much more likely that Apple plans to use these extra pixels to support more advanced computational photography features.

In other words, this year’s “Pro” iPhone models will likely still produce 12MP photos, but those 12MP photos could be much better, especially under specific conditions such as low-light photography. Apple has been putting a lot of work into things like Night Mode and Deep Fusion, and the ability to capture four times more detail will be a tremendous help in those areas.

[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]