Normally speaking, we’d know a lot more about the next iPhone by this point in the year than we do right now. Apple generally releases their new flagship phones in September, and although September was the projected release date of the iPhone 12 for a long time, it’s slipped backward. Apple has confirmed that there will be a delay, and they can’t tell us exactly how long that delay will be, but they’re still committed to bringing us the new handset this year. In the meantime, with little trustworthy information to go on, we’re seeing and reading a lot of rumors.
Some of the rumors that have leaked about the phone in the past have already been substantiated. Unless Apple does a u-turn on the issue, it appears that the phone will come in a box that doesn’t contain headphones or a charger. The rationale for the charger not being there is that everyone has at least one iPhone charger already, and not packaging them with the phone will cut down on plastic waste. The rationale for the headphones is harder to understand. A cynic would say that it’s a way of Apple ensuring that people spend even more money on their phone after they’ve bought it, and it’s hard to say those cynics are wrong unless headphones turn up in the box after all.
Aside from that headline-making and eyebrow-raising headphone and charger announcement, there are several other stories making the rounds. Let’s take a look at them.
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It Will Be Optimized For Gaming
Gaming wasn’t really a consideration when the first iPhone was released in 2007. Mobile games existed, but not games of the popularity or complexity of those that appear in the App Store today. It can be difficult to gauge the ‘true’ popularity of mobile gaming because the millions of people who play online slots on their phones are also represented in gaming statistics, but that doesn’t change the fact that millions of people download and play ‘Fortnite’ and similar games for their phones, too. Those ‘Fortnite’ players might also play online slots, but that seems unlikely. That’s beside the point, though – whether your preferred style of mobile gaming is hunting people to shoot at in ‘Fortnite’ or trying to win big money on online slots, the new iPhone is expected to have a specific screen mode and battery setting for gaming.
The New Chip Will Set Records
It’s no secret that Apple has been working on its own branded chips for a while now in an attempt to move away from its dependency on Intel. Earlier this year, we found out that there had been a breakthrough in that department. The new chip, known as Apple Silicon, is based on the chips that the company has previously used in iPads and iPhones, and will be incorporated into the next generation of MacBooks and other Apple-made computers. Inside the iPhone 12, however, will be the A14 Bionic. This is (as the name suggests) a generational shift from the A13 inside the iPhone 11, and will make its predecessor look feeble by comparison. A Twitter user called Komiya, who has a good track record when it comes to Apple leaks, claims that there will be a 40% improvement in CPU and a 50% GPU gain. That probably goes hand in hand with the anticipated gaming mode.
It Will Kill The iPhone XR
Whenever Apple releases something new, something old generally makes way for it. The company has never been big on continuing to support its old products when it wants users to buy something new to play with, and if rumors are to be believed, that’s bad news for anyone who has an iPhone XR or an iPhone 11 Pro. Numerous different media outlets are reporting that both models will be discontinued the day the iPhone 12 comes out. That won’t matter for the proportion of iPhone users who jump on the company’s new phones the moment they become available, but it’ll likely be a slow-burning frustration for people who don’t upgrade immediately as they watch their expensive purchases degrade in terms of both performance and support.
It Will Be Cheaper Than The iPhone 11
Even Apple can’t ignore that the world’s finances have taken a substantial hit this year, and people don’t have as much money to spend as they did this time last year. Accordingly, it seems that they’re going to price their latest phone at a lower point than they did with the iPhone 11. This is actually the continuation of a trend that started with the iPhone 11, which was $50 cheaper than the iPhone XR. It will still be priced higher than most phones on the market, so don’t get your hopes up for a bargain, but the prices we’ve seen suggest that it will hit the shelves with a recommended retail price of $649. That will rise to $999 if you want the Pro model, and it will break the one thousand dollar mark if you want to go the whole hog and get yourself an iPhone 12 Pro Max.
It Will Arrive 5G Ready
5G is coming. Conspiracy theorists don’t like the fact that it’s coming, and it’s arriving in some parts of the world a long time before it will arrive in others, but it’s coming all the same. Mobile phone manufacturers have to be careful about when they make the jump to 5G technology, but Apple might have decided that the correct time is right now. There are several reasons to believe that the iPhone 12 will come with 5G connectivity by default. The company has been working with Qualcomm for the past twelve months on 5G chips and might even have been in a position to push ahead with 5G phones last year, but the waiting period now appears to be over, and Apple is ready to not only sell 5G phones, but also use its own 5G antennas to provide connectivity for them. The technology and the facilities definitely exist, so it wouldn’t make any sense for Apple not to use them. On top of that, Samsung has already jumped aboard the 5G train, and so Apple would look stuck in the past if it didn’t follow suit.
Don’t hold us to any of those rumors – we’re only reporting what we’ve seen – but there appears to be plenty to get excited by if you’re a gamer, or even if you’re just someone who enjoys high-speed connections. We won’t know the truth until Apple finally breaks its silence and gives us the full scoop – and when they do, we’ll be sure to tell you right here!
