Apple’s new iPhone, said to be called the iPhone 13 , is expected to get a few snazzy upgrades this fall. The highly anticipated smartphone …
Apple’s new iPhone, said to be called the iPhone 13, is expected to get a few snazzy upgrades this fall. The highly anticipated smartphone is rumored to feature a new design, longer battery life, increased refresh rate, upped camera specs, new color options (may be even bubblegum pink) and more. As we approach the iPhone 13’s possible release date, speculation about the new iPhone continues to buzz. The latest gossip, from an August DigiTimes, says that Apple is considering raising the price for the iPhone 13 to compensate for the increased price of chip production from supplier TSMC. It was previously said that the iPhone 13 would cost nearly the same as the iPhone 12. It seems like hype for the new Apple smartphone continues to grow, as we inch closer and closer to the reveal of Apple’s new iPhone as well. According to a survey by SellCell, reported on by MacRumors,44% of current iPhone users plan to upgrade to one of the iPhone 13 models when it becomes available. We’ve heard that the iPhone 13 lineup will feature four phones — the iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Mini, iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max — as predicted by analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. This lineup matches the four iPhone 12 models from last year. But that’s not all that’s staying the same: The iPhone 13’s price and design might be familiar as well. We’ve collected these rumors and everything else we’ve heard below, including speculation about the iPhone 13’s release date (rumors say September, as usual), how the iPhone 13 might compare to the iPhone 12 and everything we know about the iPhone 13’s price and other specs. (And don’t miss our iPhone 13 wish list.) We have a few more weeks of speculation before Apple unveils its next flagship, so buckle up and read on. We’ll update this story as new information becomes available. Read more: Should you even still buy an iPhone 12? What if you really want the purple iPhone? A rumor from Chinese social media platform Weibo in early June suggested that the iPhone 13 lineup will feature larger batteries than the iPhone 12 lineup. The specs, shared on Twitter by leaker @L0vetodream, claim a 2,406-mAh battery for the iPhone 13 Mini, going up to 3,095 mAh for the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro, and 4,325 mAh for the iPhone 13 Pro Max. These battery sizes are all upgrades over the iPhone 12’s respective capacities (though Apple doesn’t disclose official battery specs). However, battery life is not the same as battery capacity, so it’s possible that the increase in iPhone 13’s battery size will not translate into a longer battery life. That all depends on the phone’s other upgrades and how well its software optimizes for battery life. But compared with other brands’ premium phones, Apple’s batteries fall short. The batteries in Samsung’s Galaxy S21 lineup, for example, range from 4,000 to 5,000 mAh. Read more: iOS 15: Release date, new features and every rumor, detailed When it comes to charging its battery, the iPhone 13 could have some new tricks up its sleeve with faster wireless charging and possible reverse charging capabilities, according to a video from EverythingApplePro on YouTube via leaker Max Weinbach. Reverse charging is a feature that allows you to charge other Qi devices on the back of your phone. Weinbach speculates the upcoming iPhone 13 will have this feature due to a bigger wireless charging coil and a stronger set of magnets housed in the back of the phone. Many of the iPhone’s competitors including the Samsung Galaxy S21, Samsung Galaxy S20, the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra and the OnePlus 8 Pro already have reverse wireless charging. But, Apple has yet to introduce the feature to its iPhones. So far, there’s no official or unofficial word on when we can expect to see Apple’s next iPhone. An April report suggested the manufacturing of the iPhones’ new chips were running ahead of schedule, putting the iPhone 13 release date back on Apple’s pre-pandemic timeline. Usually, we can predict with some degree of accuracy when Apple’s iPhone events will occur and extrapolate a release date based on that. But 2020 was a different story — it was the first September Apple event in eight years without an iPhone — thanks to delays in production due to the coronavirus pandemic. This year, however, Kuo is also forecasting business as usual for Apple’s supply chain. If that’s the case, we can expect to see the iPhone 13 unveiled at an event sometime in September. Let’s synthesize the info we have: A few years ago, CNET took a deep dive into the Apple event timeline and emerged with a compelling Labor Day hypothesis, which you can read about here. Based on the 2021 calendar, the Labor Day rule would put the September Apple event (and unveiling of the iPhone 13) on Sept.8, with a Sept.17 release date. No matter the date, Apple’s next iPhone event could be fully virtual like last year. In his Power On newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman said that the event will be completely virtual because of the tech giant’s decision to delay its return to in-person work due to rising COVID-19 cases. Apple originally said that all employees would be required to come into the office three days a week starting in September. Gurman says that if Apple stuck with the September time frame, an in-person iPhone 13 event would have been “plausible.” Now, he expects another online-only event. Read more: iPhone 13 wish list: What Apple needs for its next phone to succeed Apple will call its next lineup “iPhone 13,” according to a report from Taiwanese publication Economic Daily News. The rumored decision to adhere to its standard naming method followed speculation that the tech giant would switch up the new iPhone’s title and dodge the superstition associated with the number. Considering high-rise buildings tend to omit the 13th floor from their elevator buttons for superstitious reasons, previous rumors suggested Apple could succumb to its own triskaidekaphobia and skip the number 13. Read more: iPhone 13 might be the phone that never hits shelves. Here’s why people think so iPhone 12S was a worthy guess for the name of Apple’s next generation of iPhones. Just as 2014’s iPhone 6 gave way to 2015’s iPhone 6S and 2017’s iPhone X preceded 2018’s iPhone XS, without a major redesign in the works (more on that below), the 2021 iPhone seemed just as likely to be positioned as an improvement on the iPhone 12.
