As a tech website, we don’t really enjoy taking positions that go against the adoption of the “latest and greatest” in consumer electronics products, but sometimes, we just have to do it. When the iPhone 12 came out, we told you to get it if you’re running a three-year device or older, as the upgrade would be significant. The 12 lineup came with a refreshed design, standing out against all previous models, brought support for 5G, a 5nm chip, and introduced the lilliputian (by today’s standards) “mini.” All in all, we got a really “new” iPhone, and not just an incremental improvement masked as a revolutionary upgrade.
For the iPhone 13, the changes are expected to be a lot less dramatic. The design will stay the same, the new chip will be made on the same fabrication tech, and the battery is going to last exactly the same even if it increases in capacity. Yes, there will be some stuff like a more optimized 5G modem, but the next-gen connectivity tech hasn’t really taken off yet.
Camera optimizations and features that are also expected won’t make any real difference in most cases as the camera on the iPhone is already excellent. So, the only noteworthy thing that you’ll get with the iPhone 13 is a high refresh rate display, which, again, isn’t such a compelling reason to spend so much money on the new device.
Of course, Apple can always pull a rabbit out of the hat and present something that hasn’t leaked already and that nobody was expecting to get. It almost always happens with Apple product presentations, but it’s not always something big or notable. This time, Apple will need to work on their magic more urgently than ever because tech leaker Jon Prosser released what he claims to be renders of the iPhone 14, and it looks like something well worth waiting a year for.
It has no notch, as the FaceID system has gone under the display - which is technically easier to do than it is for front-facing cameras, by the way. For this alone, iPhone 13 can be skipped without having any "missing out" thoughts. Prosser’s renders may not reflect the final model or reality. Still, they have given iPhone fans an image of what they want now, so Apple cannot drop expectations without inducing huge disappointment. For sure, creating hype for iPhone 13 during next week’s presentation is going to be very, very hard.