Apple ‘iPhone 14 Pro’ Rumored with ‘Taller’ Screen
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By now we’re getting a pretty good idea of what this year’s “iPhone 14” lineup will look like, which is probably understandable considering that Apple has reportedly finalized the design, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t room or a few surprises.
While it’s now basically a given that Apple plans to maintain the same 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch sizes — to the point of shifting the standard iPhone models up to the same sizes as the larger “Pro” models — a new exclusive report from 9to5Mac reveals that the premium “iPhone 14 Pro” tier could be getting a taller screen.
To be clear, this doesn’t seem to mean that the “iPhone 14 Pro” and “iPhone 14 Pro Max” will be getting physically larger. Rather, 9to5Mac’s sources say that the new “notch-and-pill” design will leave a bit more usable room at the top of the display.
Technically, these models will still have 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch screens, respectively, but when you consider the rumored new screen design, it’s easy to see how there’s going to be more space to play with up there.
There’s still some debate on how big these holes will be, but even the largest renders show them taking up considerably less screen real estate than the notch.
More importantly, it’s likely this new screen design will be exclusive to the “iPhone 14 Pro” and “iPhone 14 Pro Max.” By all reports, the “iPhone 14” and 6.7-inch “iPhone 14 Max” are expected to keep the same notch design found on their iPhone 13 counterparts.
A15 or A16?
In fact, that’s not the only thing this year’s standard iPhone models will be bringing along from their predecessors. Yesterday, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo dropped the bombshell that only the “Pro” iPhones will get a new A16 chip — here’s what our sources have to say about that.
The “iPhone 14” models will instead stay with the A15 Bionic chip (possibly renamed), although that doesn’t mean it will be the exact same A15 chip used in the iPhone 13. More likely, the 2022 models will move up to the 5-core GPU and 6GB version that was used in last year’s iPhone 13 Pro models. 9to5Mac suggests that Apple may even rebrand it as an “A15X” just to make this clear, much like it’s done with the A-series chips in past iPad models.
It’s even possible Apple could make the bolder decision to rebrand the current higher-end A15 as an A16, and then put an “A17” in the “iPhone 14 Pro” models. While this seems quite unlikely, it’s not entirely unprecedented — last year’s Apple Watch Series 7 packs in an S7 chip that’s for all intents and purposes identical to the S6 that came before.
Satellite Connectivity?
A strange report appeared last August proposing that the iPhone 13 might have the hardware necessary for satellite communications. It was hard to know exactly what to make of this at first, but later reports clarified that it would likely just be for emergency use — basically an extension of the Emergency SOS feature that would allow folks to summon help even when stranded in areas with no cellular or Wi-Fi coverage.
Nonetheless, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman quickly insisted that the feature would not be coming to the iPhone 13 — at least not right away. Gurman’s sources said Apple was working on it, but it wouldn’t be coming until at least 2022.
There was a slight possibility that the necessary hardware might be in the iPhone 13, but it also became apparent that some folks were confusing a new frequency band used for private terrestrial 5G networks with low earth orbit (LEO) satellite communications, merely because the same company, Globalstar, handles both terrestrial 5G and LEO networks.
However, 9to5Mac’s sources have confirmed that Apple is indeed still working on this, and has an internal prototype codenamed “Stewie” that’s already capable of sending text messages via satellites. Whether that will be ready for this year’s iPhone or not is another matter, of course, as there’s very likely still a lot of work to be done on this — not to mention additional regulatory and licensing hurdles that Apple would need to overcome.
[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.]
