iPhone 14 Leak Teases Cleverly Hidden Secret
The iPhone 14 series, especially the pricier Pro models, have been frequent visitors of the leak arena for the past few months now. Adding more to it, leaker Jon Prosser just dropped a whole bunch of alleged CAD-based renders of the iPhone 14 Pro models that claim to offer the best look yet at Apple's upcoming iPhones.
Of course, the redesigned front face is what truly grabs the eyeballs. The wide boat-shaped notch, which has been a staple on Apple smartphones since the iPhone X, is finally gone, but not without paving the way for an even more controversial design. Apple is apparently going for an odd "pill + hole" design on the front to get rid of the notch.
Naturally, the entire Face ID and True Depth camera system have been rearranged to create a design that has a pill and circular hole-punch cutout literally floating in a sea of pixels. The smartphone industry has seen both pill-shaped and dot-shaped holes drilled in the screen, but never witnessed both of them together. Apple is audaciously going in that direction, and in doing so, appears to be cheekily underlining its product naming convention with the design makeover.
Is that intentional?
iBook. iMac. iPod. iPad, and finally, the iPhone. Apple has a not-so-hidden affinity for naming products that start with the letter "i." With the iPhone 14 Pro, Apple apparently wants to put that signature love for the letter "i" front and center of its upcoming phone. How? Well, just tilt any of the iPhone 14 Pro renders 90-degrees and you'll see that the pill and circular cutouts make a stout "i" outline at the top.
Was this an intentional design callback? We don't know for sure. Apple could have simply gone with a single pill-shaped cutout for housing all the sensors, the way Android smartphone makers like Samsung and Huawei have done in the past. But this is Apple we are talking about, and that means the company is going to do things differently even if that means opting for a polarizing design just to stand out from the crowd.
Well, Apple has definitely managed to nail the "standing out from the crowd" part. In doing so, its designers have also plastered an unmissable "i" right on the iPhone 14 Pro's forehead. And if Apple's product strategy is anything to go by, iPhone buyers are going to see this design for at least the next couple of years. Rumors suggest that Apple will eventually kill the notch on the non-Pro iPhones as well, which means the hole + pill design will possibly become a family-wide design element for future Apple smartphones.
The Easter egg side
One might argue that the iPhone 14 Pro's unique design with an in-your-face "i" aesthetic is a brazen Easter egg. There's some merit to it, too. Apple has a rich history of baking Easter eggs in its products, both hardware and software, and some of them actually took years for users to figure out.
Take for example the icon of the Voice Memo app on iPhones. Well, that peculiar waveform you see in the icon is no random design. In fact, that's the waveform you get when you record the word "Apple" in the app. Does the Reading List icon in Safari rings a bell? Well, those are almost an exact replica of the signature round spectacles worn by Apple's founder and former CEO Steve Jobs. OS X Lion let users select a vinyl record as their profile icon, with the words Boom, Magic, Magic, and Unbelievable written in the middle. Steve Jobs was known to frequently use these words in his famed keynotes.
The old TextEdit app icon in macOS actually had the lines spoken in Apple's "Think Different" ad campaign from over two decades ago. Apple even RickRolled fans on a support page for the Apple Watch. In the case of the iPhone 14 Pro's design, the "i" at the top just looks like an unintentional design secret that was borne more out of engineering necessity and a wish to stand out, rather than an outrageously expensive and brave "iSecret."
What else to expect from the iPhone 14 Pro
Underneath the iPhone 14 Pro's camera hump is reportedly an upgraded 48-megapixel primary camera that is said to be capable of recording 8K videos and features a 57% larger sensor at its heart for collecting more light data. The telephoto camera is also getting an upgraded 7-element lens system, while the front camera is also said to be in line for a wider f/1.9 lens.
At the heart of the iPhone 14 Pro and its Max sibling will be the next-gen A16 Bionic chip, while the standard iPhone 14 and the iPhone 14 Max will reportedly stick to the A15 Bionic or a slightly tweaked version of it. A vapor chamber cooling system for more efficient thermal management is also said to be in the pipeline, while the RAM capacity could see an upgrade to 8GB on the Pro trims. The iPhone 14 Pro pair will also lead the way with sturdier Titanium alloy chassis, taking inspiration from the pricier Apple Watch models that also rely on the same metal.
An impressive car crash detection system is said to be in the pipeline for the 2022 iPhone lineup, while satellite connectivity is also among the rumored features of the next-gen Apple smartphones. The Pro models could get the bump up to Wi-Fi 6E standard, while the physical SIM slot might be on the chopping board to pave the way for an eSIM-only iPhone.