A new series of iPhone 12 pictures have leaked, showing off how Apple should change its familiar flagship design for this year.
These images were spotted by 9to5Mac on Israeli Apple fanpage HaAppelistim on Facebook. The images and the associated post no longer appear to be on the page, but the pictures and 9to5Mac both confirm these are early promo shots for a casemaker's accessories.
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The iPhone line has looked pretty samey since 2017, when the iPhone X debuted. The notched display, glass back and curved metal sides are due for a refresh, which is what we're expecting to get this year with the iPhone 12.
One of the most obvious changes is the return of flat sides, originally seen on the beloved iPhone 4. It'll give the new iPhone a much more distinct look compared to the curved edges of the Android competition. We just hope that there isn't an ergonomic sacrifice because of this.
The sides of the phone show the same arrangement for the power button, alerts slider and volume buttons, although these have changed to an old-style flat circular shape to fit with the new sides. On the bottom edge of these dummies, there's nothing new to spot, just a Lightning port and speaker holes. While it's been hoped for some time that Apple would abandon its proprietary Lightning connector for the more ubiquitous USB-C, it looks like Apple will go full wireless before it uses the common port format.
The camera modules on these dummies don't reflect the rumors, but that's because casemakers only really care about the total size of the bump, not what it contains. What the square patch will contain is a main/ultrawide duo of sensors on the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Max, with the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max getting that plus a telephoto lens and a LiDAR depth sensor to play with too.
We're expecting single front cameras on all models, although there could be a difference in resolution, as there is between the selfie cameras on the iPhone 11 (7MP) and iPhone 11 Pro (12MP).
While you can't see the front sides of the phones here, we are expecting the same kind of notched display as we've seen before. That's unfortunate given that the 5.4-inch iPhone 12 will be the smallest phone with this display set-up that Apple's made so far, meaning a larger percentage of screen space is taken up by the Face ID sensors and selfie camera. The 6.1-inch iPhone 12 Max and iPhone 12 Pro equal the size of the current iPhone 11, while the iPhone 12 Pro Max will be Apple's largest iPhone yet at 6.7 inches across.
We would Apple reveal the iPhone 12 range officially next month if this was a normal year. However, numerous coronavirus-related delays may mean the phones actually appear on stage around October, with sales starting as late as November.
Other changes and new features to look out for when the keynote finally takes place will be a new A14 Bionic chipset, 5G connectivity, and OLED displays across all models.
