New fan-made iPhone13 render tease small notch and oblique camera

New fan-made iPhone13 render tease small notch and oblique camera

The iPhone 13 launch may still be months away, but we already know quite a bit about it.

The renderings are based on an iPhone 13 CAD file that leaker John Prosser released last week to accompany one of his videos. Fortunately, most of us are not FreeCAD experts, so concept artist Ian Zelbo did the hard work for us.

Zelbo had previously created a rendered image of the Apple Watch 7 based on Prosser's leaked information, but the raw file is a clean rendering of what the iPhone 13 will look like if Apple continues with the bright, bold color scheme image.

And while we're not entirely sure that Apple will go with the orange hue (we didn't see many people rocking orange Pixel 4s), other details seem consistent with what we've heard elsewhere.

The most obvious change is in the layout of the rear cameras: while the iPhone 12's two cameras were vertically aligned, Zelbo's renderings based on CAD files show them aligned at an angle. This would be an aesthetic rather than practical shift if it were to appear in the official release, and would cater to some buyers who want to prove they have the latest and greatest hardware on an easily identifiable design business card.

Then there is the slight reduction in notch size, again something we have heard before. If the renderings prove accurate, the notch will still be quite noticeable, but it will be significantly reduced for the first time since its debut on the iPhone X, as the TrueDepth sensor will be reduced in size and the earpiece speaker may be moved to the bezel. This is consistent with previous leaks that suggested an increase of 0.26mm. While not a huge change, it is enough to ensure that existing cases will not fit.

If true, the size change would not be noticeable unless the two devices are placed side by side, theoretically giving Apple space to improve the iPhone 12 family's disappointing battery life. That should be easy to do, given the company's reported plans to introduce new layering technology for higher-capacity cells. And indeed, just this week rumors have suggested that the iPhone 13 will have a larger capacity battery across the series.

Design-wise, it doesn't look like major changes are afoot, then - it should be emphasized that the CAD files Prosser has access to may not be the final design Apple has chosen. But it's what's inside that matters, and the A15 chip's improved performance and enhanced camera capabilities should be the least we can expect when Tim Cook unveils this phone on stage in September.

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