WE’RE NOW JUST HOURS AWAY from Apple’s long-anticipated ‘Gather Round’ event, where it’s expected to unveil a bunch of new iPhones…
WE’RE NOW JUST HOURS AWAY from Apple’s long-anticipated ‘Gather Round’ event, where it’s expected to unveil a bunch of new iPhones and some other overpriced electronic trinkets.
We can expect three new iPhone models, with all of them borrowing the nasty ‘notch’ concept introduced with last year’s iPhone X. The lineup looks set to include the ‘affordable’ iPhone XR, the 5.8in iPhone XS and the 6.5in iPhone XS Max, which should keep Apple Store tills ringing loudly for another year .
We’ve rounded up everything we know about Apple’s incoming trio of iPhones below, and will update this article as we hear more.
Release date Apple’s new iPhones will be unveiled on 12 September, with the event set to kick off at 6pm UK time. Release date details are not yet known, but new devices normally launch in September with availability for the keenest buyers within about a week.
The event will be live-streamed on Apple’s Events website. While the feeds have long supported Safari and Microsoft Edge, this year’s launch will able be available to Chrome and Firefox users on macOS and Windows 10.
And, for the first time, Apple will be streaming the event on its largely-defunct Twitter account ( above).
Price According to rumours, the iPhone 9 will be the most-affordable in Apple’s 2018 iPhones. Apple guru Ming-Chi Kuo expects the smartphone to retail for $600-$700 (around £450-£530).
However, a note from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, shared by CNBC, suggests that Apple’s 2018 iPhones could be the firm’s most expensive yet. According to the note, the 6.1in iPhone 9 will be priced at $799 (probably £799), while the 5.8in iPhone XS and 6.5in iPhone XS Max look set to fetch $999 (likely £999) and $1,049 (£1,049), respectively.
Latest news 12/9/18: Apple’s iPhone XS, the direct successor to last year’s iPhone X, has been exposed in hands-on images ( below) with just hours to go until its official unveiling. A Weibo user posted images of the soon-to-be-unveiled smartphone, confirming that it’ll look almost identical to its predecessor with its notched display and chamfered edges. The leak doesn’t tell us much else about the iPhone XS, but we don’t have long to wait until all is revealed.
11/9/18: Apple’s low-cost iPhone will reportedly be available in short supply at launch due to “quality issues of assembly and display”. That’s according to Ming-Chi Kuo (via 9to5Mac), backed up by Bloomberg, who claims that the so-called iPhone XR will launch in “late September-early October” due to issues attaching backlights to the LCD screen. These manufacturing problems will lead to supply constraints at launch, according to the two reports.
10/9/18: The incoming entry-level 6.1in LCD iPhone could arrive as the iPhone XC, according to a presentation from carrier China Mobile, via Macotakara. The slide also casts some doubt over the name of Apple’s incoming 6.5in OLED model, suggesting it’ll be called the iPhone XS Plus, rather than the XS Max.
The leak also claims the so-called iPhone XC will fetch around £540 at launch, while the iPhone XS and XS Plus will fetch around £700 and £775, respectively.
7/9/18: Apple’s incoming 6.1in LCD iPhone, tipped to arrive as the iPhone 9, has leaked in a series of images that confirm it’ll be available in three colour options: white, red and blue. In contrast, the iPhone XS and XS Max are expected to launch in white, gold and black variants.
The leaked images, which come courtesy of SlashLeaks, also confirm that the iPhone 9 will pack a dual-SIM tray, confirming rumours that the handset will be made available in a. dual-SIM variant.
6/9/18: Apple is widely expected to launch two new OLED iPhone models next week – an upgraded 5.8in model set to launch as the iPhone XS and a heftier 6.5in version that’s going to be called the iPhone XS Max, according to 9to5Mac. This backs up an earlier report from Bloomberg, which claimed that Apple planned to drop the ‘Plus’ label from its 2018 iPhones.
9to5Mac ‘s report, which has compiled info from multiple sources, adds that both the iPhone XS and XS Max are likely to include 4GB RAM, up from 3GB in last year’s iPhone X, alongside a new A12 chip and dual-SIM options in some countries.
3/9/18: A mega-leak courtesy of 9to5Mac has revealed that Apple’s new OLED iPhones will arrive as the ‘iPhone XS’, and will be made available in 5.8in and 6.5in versions. The incoming iPhones, previously referred to as the iPhone 11 and 11 Plus, will also be made available in a new gold colour option ( above), according to the leak, and both will be released before the end of September.
30/8/18: Apple’s ‘affordable’ iPhone 9 will be delayed beyond September, according to – who else – Ming-Chi Kuo. In a research note seen by Apple Insider, Kuo claims that while the high-end OLED models will be available to buy next month, the 6.1in LCD model will be made available later in the report.
There is some good news, though, as Kuo expects the device to be powered by the same A12 SoC that will be found in the higher-spec models. The 7nm chip will reportedly offer ’20 to 30 per cent’ performance gains compared to Apple’s A11 chip, and will offer better battery efficiency.
Contrary to earlier reports, Kuo also predicts that the new iPhone models will not support the Apple Pencil, as the accessory “does not currently offer a good user experience.”
29/8/18: Apple looks set to ditch 3D Touch from all of its 2018 iPhones. That’s according to Barclays analyst Blayne Curtis, via MacRumours, who claims that it’s “widely understood” that 3D Touch will be removed from iPhones with OLED displays in 2019.
This contradicts with earlier rumours from Apple oracle Ming-Chi Kuo, who said that 3D Touch won’t be a feature on the rumoured 6.1in iPhone, and could suggest that all three incoming models won’t feature the haptic screen tech.
28/8/18: Apple’s 2018 iPhones looks set to offer a hefty performance boost, according to Macworld, which has taken a look at what we can expect from TSMC’s incoming 7nm A12 chip.
Based on TSMC’s own claims, and some educated guessing, Macworld says it expects the A12 processor to offer 20 to 30 per cent performance gains compared to last year’s A11 Bionic CPU, along with a 40 per cent reduction in power consumption.
It expects the 7nm processor to stick to a six-core design, which will earn it a multi-core performance score of around 13,000 in Geekbench 4. For single-core performance, it’s likely to increase the A11’s 4217 score to around the 5,000 mark.
21/8/18: Apple’s 2018 iPhones will be available to pre-order in less than a month’s time on 14 September, according to German publication Macerkopf. The website, citing two unnamed German carriers, reports that networks are preparing to start taking pre-orders on 14 September, suggesting that Apple is planning an announcement later that week, likely on 12 September.
Last year, we saw new iPhones announced on 12 September, pre-orders kicking off on 14 September and then an official release on 22 September.
17/8/18: Taiwanese publication Economic Daily News has backed up reports that Apple’s 2018 OLED iPhones will ship with Apple Pencil report. The site, which got its information from “industry insiders”, claims that the second-gen iPhone X and 6.5in iPhone X Plus will both be compatible with the Apple Pencil, but notes that the 6.1in LCD model won’t be compatible with the stylus.
15/8/18: Apple’s 2018 iPhones will offer Apple Pencil support and up to 512GB built-in storage, according to research firm TrendForce .
It’s unclear whether these features, similar to those found on Samsung’s newly-launched Galaxy Note 9, will be available on all three incoming iPhones or reserved for Apple’s higher-end OLED models.
These OLED models will, unsurprisingly, be more expensive than the “budget” 6.1in LCD iPhone 9, which Trendforce expects to have a starting price of around $699 to $749. The so-called iPhone X (2018) and iPhone X Plus will have starting prices of $899 to $949 and $999, respectively, according to the research firm.
The report confirms that the two OLED models are already assembled, while the budget LCD model will begin assembly in mid-September, in line with the smartphones’ rumoured September and October release dates, respectively.
14/8/18: Yet another video showing off Apple’s 2018 iPhones has cropped up on YouTube ( below), courtesy of DetroitBORG. The seven-minute video shows off new dummy units obtained by Sonny Dickson, and refers to the incoming devices as the iPhone 9, iPhone X (2018) and iPhone X Plus. The clip doesn’t have many surprises in store, but the “fairly accurate” models show that all three new iPhones will feature a notched design to accommodate Face ID. The ‘cheap’ LCD iPhone 9 will sport a single-lens camera on its rear, while its presumaly more expensive siblings will retain the iPhone X’s dual camera system.
9/8/18: Well-known phone reviewer Marques Brownlee has given us our best look at Apple’s 2018 iPhones yet – although he, presumably accidentally, refers to them as 2019 models.
In a video posted to YouTube (below), Brownlee goes hands-on with dummies of the so-called iPhone X2, iPhone X Plus and iPhone 9, confirming that the notch will be the same size on all of the three models, and that the 6.5in iPhone X Plus will boast a smaller design than Apple’s current iPhone 8 Plus.
He also gives us a good look at the protruding camera lenses on the three iPhones, with the iPhone X2 and X Plus both packing dual camera setups, while the LCD model sticks with a single-lens rear-facing camera. This ‘cheaper’ model will also stick with Apple’s first-gen Face ID tech, according to Browlee, while the duo of iPhone X-branded models will be upgraded to the firm’s second-gen tech.
7/8/18: We’ve seen plenty of mock-ups of Apple’s incoming iPhones, but thanks to a new leak courtesy of Slashleaks, we may have caught a glimpse at a 6.1in iPhone 9 in the flesh for the first time.
The image ( above), which appears to have been taken in a factory, gives us a somewhat blurry look at the rear of the so-called iPhone 9. If legit, the leak confirms that the 6.1in LCD iPhone will feature a larger camera sensor paired with a repositioned dual LED flash.
6/8/18: Apple’s rumoured dual-SIM iPhone will be exclusive to China, according to a report from Economic Daily News .
The Chinese news outlet, citing a source at Foxconn, reports that the 6.1in LCD iPhone will be the only model to support the functionality, with the handset to be made available in both single and dual-SIM models; the latter which it claims will be made available exclusively in China.
According to the report, Apple’s made the decision because it’s common for people in China to have more than one mobile phone number, with as many as three to four billion consumers using dual SIM cards.
3/8/18: Apple won’t bundle a Lightning-to-3.5mm adapter with its 2018 iPhones, according to Cohen analyst Matthew D Ramsay.
Cirrus Logic, which makes audio hardware for iDevices, posted its fiscal quarter guidance this week, which Ramsey claims “all but confirms that Apple will not bundle the DAC headset converter ‘dongle’ in its new iPhone models”.
As per Apple Insider, Ramsay notes that the dongle will continue to ship with older iPhone models, just not with Apple’s incoming iPhone 9, iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Plus.
