Gurman: with the next iPhone 15 Pro model, Apple will continue to realize its dream of a smartphone without frames
Stories about a smartphone with a bezel-less display appear from time to time in various corners of the Internet. Whether this is a good or bad idea is hard to say yet. But Apple is still trying to move forward and is gradually reducing the bezels around iPhone displays. Another improvement in this direction should happen this year.
This is reported by Mark Gurman in his weekly Power On newsletter.
The last time Apple reduced the display bezels was in 2020 with the iPhone 12 model. Subsequent smartphones only reduced the size of the cutouts, and the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max even changed their position, “detaching” the front camera with Face ID sensors from the frame. In addition, it was successfully implemented on the software level and called Dynamic Island.
iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus will get such an improvement. But the Pro version will be more interesting this year, the frames of which should be reduced from approximately 2.2 mm to 1.5. The manufacturing technology of such screens will change to LIPO (low-injection pressure over-molding), which is also used in the manufacturing of Apple Watch displays, and is planned to be implemented for iPad screens.
But these are not the only innovations that the iPhone 15 and 15 Pro will receive. Simpler models will be released in the usual design, but replace the processors with A16, significantly improve the cameras, have Dynamic Island and change Lightning to USB-C.
Pro versions will have more interesting updates. For starters, they should replace the steel frames with titanium ones. Moreover, their shape should be slightly updated, becoming more rounded. At the same time, many changes are planned in the middle of the device, which took place in the iPhone 14 last year, which simplified the repair of gadgets.
The cameras should get new lenses, and along with that, telephoto changes are planned (it was previously reported that the iPhone should get a periscope camera).
It was planned that the “older” models will replace the usual buttons with touch ones, which will simulate “pressing”, as trackpads in MacBooks have been doing for a long time. In this way, the engineers aimed to reduce the number of mechanical elements that could fail. But due to the increase in cost, such a decision was abandoned.
However, the well-known notification mode switch can still be replaced with an Action button — a button whose functionality the user can change at will. Developer Steve Moser found in the code of iOS 17 possible options, among which there is already a familiar change of notification modes, Focus mode such as Do Not Disturb, launching the camera, turning on the flashlight, opening Accessibility functions or text translation.
With all this, Mr. Gurman does not rule out that stories about the increase in cost still can be confirmed (not only outside the US, but also in the “home” market). At the very least, the Pro models may become more expensive, given the camera upgrades and the change in case materials. But the insider also suggests that the price tags of all four models may increase.