- Apple is expected to add 5G support to its 2020 flagship iPhones, according to initial reports and rumors.
- Apart from 5G connectivity, the phones, as rumored, will feature a more innovative 3D camera and new size options.
- The addition of 5G could increase demand for Apple’s new iPhones as customers are renewing their smartphones less often.
Even before Apple disclosed the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro in September, reports started making rounds that what the company could be planning for 2020.
The biggest update coming in 2020 will likely be the launch of 5G network support, an add-on that some analysts are expecting will result in a big iPhone upgrade cycle for Apple.
Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives considers 350 million iPhones are in the window of an upgrade prospect, as he wrote in a January 29 note ensuing Apple’s fiscal first-quarter earnings. A study from Strategy Analytics distributed in November also suggested that Apple could beat Samsung and Huawei to control the market for 5G smartphones in 2020, even if those companies have launched 5G-enabled smartphones way before Apple.
Apple’s next-generation iPhones are likely to introduce other major changes, such as different size options, a makeover design, and a new three-dimensional camera, according to the guesses of TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, and other reports.
We bring you everything we have about the new iPhones Apple is expected to release in September.
All of Apple’s 2020 iPhones would bring 5G support.
Apple is likely to bring 5G support to all of its flagship iPhones in 2020, according to Kuo, who has an outstanding track record when it comes to making forecasts about future Apple products. He initially said that only two of Apple’s 2020 smartphones would be attuned with 5G networks, but revised his view in a more current report, as MacRumors and 9to5Mac reported.
The iPhone is also expected to back millimeter wave-based 5G, Kuo said in a message from this January reported by 9to5Mac. Millimeter wave networks are remarkably faster than existing 4G LTE networks since they use high-frequency, un-congested radio spectrum bands. These networks can also be stimulating to deploy broadly since they’re susceptible to interference. In the beginning, Kuo said in a previous note that the new iPhone that would support millimeter wave 5G may be delayed to late 2020 or 2021, but his more new research seems to have walked back that statement.
They will also supposedly have OLED screens.
Apple could move totally away from LCD screen technology in preference of OLED for all of its new iPhones this year, Kuo said in the same message. That would be noteworthy because over the past two years, Apple has prepared its least expensive new iPhones, like the iPhone XR and iPhone 11, with an LCD screen instead of an OLED one. OLED displays usually offer deeper blacks and better contrast compared to LCD screens, but they are costly.
There may be four types of the next-generation iPhone.
Apple’s next major phone release possibly will come in four variants, Kuo wrote in a note recounted by 9to5Mac and other outlets. That would mark a parting from the company’s smartphone plan in recent years. In 2018 and 2019, for instance, it released new iPhones in three different models.
Kuo guesses that Apple will launch two 6.1-inch iPhones, a 5.4-inch iPhone and a 6.7-inch iPhone. While all of these iPhones are likely to have an OLED screen and 5G support, one of the 6.1-inch models and the 5.4-inch model are expected only to have two cameras in place of three. That could propose that these two models may be the successors to the less costly iPhone 11.
Kuo’s guesses also hint the next iPhone won’t be available in the 5.8-inch screen size that iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone X and iPhone XS owners have come to be familiar with.
New iPhone will supposedly have an upgraded 3D camera for augmented reality.
Other than new screen sizes and 5G connectivity, another promoting feature in this year’s iPhone is likely to be its camera. Apple is designing to equip its 2020 iPhone with a more powerful, 3D, rear-facing camera to allow better augmented-reality performance, according to Bloomberg.
The new camera would be driven by a laser scanner, different from the dot-projection technology Apple presently uses for Face ID in the iPhone X clan’s front-facing camera. In addition to enhancing the iPhone’s augmented reality functionality, the new 3D camera could be used to capture photos with greater depth, the report says.
It will probably include 5G chips from Qualcomm and Samsung.
Samsung and Qualcomm could supply the 5G chips for Apple’s new iPhones in 2020, as mentioned in April 2019 note from Kuo, which doesn’t come as much of a shock considering Apple and Qualcomm just settled their long-running legal dispute. Apple also bought Intel’s smartphone modem business in a deal priced at $1 billion in July, a move that will possibly help the iPhone maker develop its own modems in the future.
Apple may take some design motivation from the iPhone 4.
Apple’s iPhone restyle in 2020 could include going back to the metal frame similar to the iPhone 4, Kuo wrote in a note received by MacRumors. The expert also says Apple will be changing the iPhone’s design “significantly” in the coming year.
It is expected to have Apple’s Touch ID fingerprint sensor built into its screen.
Apple preferred Face ID instead of Touch ID on its latest flagships, but there’s a chance the company could turn to its fingerprint scanning technology back next year. Barclays expert Blayne Curtis believes Apple could incorporate Touch ID directly into the iPhone’s screen this year, as he penned in a note received by MacRumors back in May 2019.
Bloomberg also stated last September that Apple was making an in-screen fingerprint sensor for its 2020 iPhones, though that report notes the feature could sneak back to 2021.
That could support the 2020 iPhone more directly contest with rivals like Samsung’s Galaxy S10, which already claims in-screen fingerprint recognition.
We can expect it to have all the new features introduced in this year’s iPhone too.
Apple’s 2020 iPhones will likely bring in all the new features found on the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro. That means there’s a good possibility they’ll have the iPhone 11 Pro’s night mode and triple-camera system, among other features.
