Despite fierce competition from smartphone manufacturing giants across the globe, the Apple iPhone remains one of the most sought-after premium pieces of consumer technology in the world. Rumours of updates and new models often fuel excitement in the tech community and amongst consumers eager to see what the Californian company have come up with next.
Here’s a round-up of the latest news and rumours for the iPhone 12, expected to be the next major phone release from Apple.
When is the iPhone 12 released?
Our best guess is the iPhone 12 will be released in September 2020.
Although no official announcement has been made by Apple, it is largely expected that the next generation iPhone (following the iPhone 11 series, we assume it will be called iPhone 12) will be unveiled at an autumn event in 2020.
Apple usually has its annual launch events in September where it unveils new products including phones. On Tuesday September 10th 2019, Tim Cook showcased the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max. The devices began shipping shortly afterwards.
We expect that Apple will follow a similar pattern this year with the iPhone 12 unveiled in early September and shipping globally shortly afterwards.
How much will the iPhone 12 cost?
Pricing information is never announced for devices until much closer to sale, but if the iPhone 11 is anything to go by, the iPhone 12 will probably start from about $700 and around £700.
However, the iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max were significantly more expensive, so if the iPhone 12 has several higher spec variants, it’s not inconceivable there could be models retailing over $1,000 or £1,000 each.
Latest iPhone deals
Can’t wait for the iPhone 12? We’ve rounded up some of the best iPhone deals for January…
Three has the Apple iPhone 11 64GB in Black for £29 upfront, £39 monthly. It comes with 100GB data, unlimited minutes and texts on a 24 month plan. Buy it here
Fonehouse has the Apple iPhone 11 Pro 64GB in Space Grey with 100GB data, unlimited texts and minutes on a 24 month contract for £19.99 upfront and £55 a month.
The Apple iPhone XR 64GB in Black with 100GB, unlimited texts and minutes on a 24 month plan is £29 upfront and £37 monthly on Three.
What might we expect from the iPhone 12?
As with all major tech launches, especially with Apple, there is a huge amount of secrecy around the new product – and so it at this stage much of the chat around the iPhone 12 is speculation and guesses based on the previous models and upgrades…
Storage
iPhones have always come with various levels of storage. The iPhone 11 series offered the choice of 64GB, 128GB or 256GB to consumers, but as we consume more and more data, save more pictures, videos and apps to our phones – could the iPhone 12 be about to up that storage?
It’s possible that Apple might double the top spec to 512GB storage for real data hungry users, which would make sense as mobile data transfer just gets faster.
Camera
The iPhone 11 has two cameras on the standard model – and three cameras on the Pro version, making it one of the best for photography and video in a smartphone. Perhaps the 12 will have three on the standard model?
Could Apple be about to add yet another camera to the device to make it even better? There have been various concept designs made and circulated by fans online with four cameras grouped around a flash – it looks neat, but does any phone really need four cameras?
Whatever happens we’d expect 12Mp rear facing cameras to continue the brilliant photo and video experience.
Processor
It’s likely the new model will upgrade from the Apple 13 Bionic Chip to the Apple 14 Bionic Chip.
5G capability
5G is big news across the world as countries begin to roll out the infrastructure for a super-fast mobile network allowing a much more complex and connected internet of things. It feels inevitable that at some point Apple will join the 5G party and make a new iPhone ready for this data network.
In recent interviews, Apple boss Tim Cook has sidestepped the issue of 5G admitting that the company is still in the “early innings” of rolling out the technology globally for its mobile devices.
So, at this stage, it’s not clear whether iPhone 12 will have 5G capability.
Screen size
There are rumours that iPhone 12 may offer different screen sizes to the previous model.
Some reports have speculated that Apple is preparing to release a smaller 5.4 inch screen version of the 12 series as well as 6.7 inch Max version of the 12 series, which would be smaller and larger respectively than the smallest and largest versions of the iPhone 11.
Connectivity
It seems likely that the days of Apple’s lightning port are numbered as the tech giant is under pressure to go with standardised formats with the industry – especially after the EU began pushing for a common charging cable.
One school of thought is that Apple may add the USB-C port to some new devices going forward, and that could mean the iPhone 12. However, others argue that Apple are likely to resist making any changes in the very near future and may be looking to move to completely wireless connectivity and charging as soon as possible in devices of the future.
At this point it is hard to know whether any of these factors will play into the design of the iPhone 12.
from Radio Times https://ift.tt/2OX5Y4S
