I know the iPhone 12 only came out around 6 months ago, but with Apple’s release history, that means it’s time to start thinking about the next generation iPhone. At this point, it is almost all rumors and speculation with regard to the new iPhone. But, that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun to look at some rumors, check out our crystal ball and talk about a few things that we might see in the next version of the iconic iPhone.  

iPhone 13?

For the most part, everyone is calling the next iPhone the “13”, but honestly, we don’t know if that will be the name. Maybe Apple decides to avoid the so-called unlucky number entirely. Maybe we get an iPhone 12S or the 21 for 2021? We’ll stick with calling it the iPhone 13 until we know better.

Battery Life

One of the rumors out there about the iPhone 13 will have a bigger/better battery. While the iPhone 12 battery life was an improvement over the 11 and is able to deliver a solid 15-17 hours of fairly consistent use on a full charge, there are mobile phones from other manufacturers with significantly better battery performance (20+ hours). So, a stronger and possibly even a larger battery seems like a solid bet for the iPhone 13.

New Camera

Improvements in the camera and lenses in recent iPhones have been pretty amazing. It started with the iPhone X and then continued with each subsequent release. So, it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume we will see more upgrades in the iPhone 13. What might those improvements include? New lenses and possibly new camera sensors. Keep an eye out for a larger sensor, that is currently included in the iPhone 12 Pro Max, bringing that advanced tech to the new iPhone. A telephoto lens is also a likely candidate. 

Improved Screen

How about an OLED screen with a high refresh rate? It will be no surprise if the next iPhone delivers a 120Hz screen in at least some models. Multiple manufacturers already offer higher refresh rate screens and this would be a good opportunity for the iPhone to play catch up in one area where it may lag a bit.

Portless?

We already saw the iPhone do away with the headphone jack years ago (way back with the iPhone 7) so it wouldn’t be a big stretch to also go away from the remaining lightning port. It sounds like there would still be some technical challenges in this decision (MagSafe charging, better wireless charging, a wireless or bluetooth data sharing solution, etc.)

User Recognition

Having everyone wearing facemasks since early 2020 revealed one challenge of Apple’s Face ID system, so a return of some sort of fingerprint reader could make sense. But, possibly a more powerful in-screen fingerprint reader would make sense. 

Stay tuned as we begin to get real details on the next iPhone release as we get later into 2021.