The iPhone 13, coming this fall, will likely be the fastest phone ever (again) and will also have the best camera. These updates range from more robust 5G connectivity and astrophotography tricks to a 120Hz display (finally) on the iPhone 13 Pro model.

But if you've been paying attention to early design leaks, including iPhone 13 renderings and photos of what appears to be an iPhone 13 dummy unit, the look and feel of the iPhone 13 appears to have not changed much if at all. And that's a problem when you're trying to get shoppers excited about an upgrade.

To be fair, the iPhone 12 is a relatively big departure from the iPhone 11 series, and Apple has moved away from rounded sides to a more square look. As a result, the iPhone 12 feels more substantial, if less comfortable in the hand. The iPhone with its emphasized edges may bite a bit into the palm of the hand.

The iPhone 12 also introduced a tougher Ceramic Shield display as well as support for MagSafe chargers. Therefore, iPhone 13 should share these same features or be based on them.

However, based on the iPhone 13 reports I have seen so far, these new phones do not appear to be significantly different in appearance at all. The biggest and most immediate design tweak is that the notch will be smaller on all iPhone 13 models. The notch isn't going away, and based on the images I've seen, it's still going to be larger than the punch hole on the Galaxy S21 and the best Android phones.

Nevertheless, this is a welcome upgrade, and it looks like Apple will shrink the Face ID technology and possibly move the speaker to make this happen. The key thing to remember, however, is that the screen area will only increase slightly.

The other not-so-big iPhone 13 design change we're hearing about is the new camera placement on the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini; the two lenses should be diagonal this time, as opposed to stacked vertically. Surprising, isn't it? This arrangement is said to be useful for augmented reality applications, as there should also be a LiDAR sensor in the mix.

Of course, there are other ways to make the iPhone 13 look new. This includes color options for the new iPhone 13, with the regular iPhone 13 said to possibly come in a shade of pink. iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max may come in orange or bronze.

The iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro series are rumored to be thicker to accommodate enhanced cameras and larger batteries, but this is not likely to be noticeable in everyday use.

The iPhone 13 will have more going on under the hood, and we look forward to seeing how Apple evolves the phone's capabilities, especially when it comes to computational photography. For example, it will be interesting to see how well the rumored portrait mode video will work. It also appears that ultra-wide photography will be improved across the board, and at least the Pro model will have an always-on display.

Overall, however, at a time when Samsung is pushing the envelope with folding phones like the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3, and other companies like TCL and Oppo are exploring rollable phones, the iPhone 13 will be just another slab phone It's likely. The so-called iPhone Flip will not be available until 2023.

Call me shallow, but at this stage I want to be excited by the look and feel of the phone and its features. And based on the leaks so far, the iPhone 13 doesn't look like something that will surprise me out of the box.