iPhone 12 will be released at a different time, is Apple bowing to the market again?

It’s been a week since the grand launch of iPhone SE, but as if Apple and the supply chain had discussed it, news about iPhone 12 has started to explode, and some of the news has been initially certified by multiple parties, becoming “real hammer”.

According to Xiaolei's experience, there are less than 5 months before the launch, and the authenticity of the iPhone 12 is already relatively high. And due to the epidemic, Apple and factories have more online reports, and the probability of leaks has greatly increased.

Among these news, Xiao Lei has verified them from multiple sources and selected the most likely iPhone 12 news reports for you to choose from.

More variety

This year's iPhone 12 is likely to change Apple's product strategy from previous years.

What we can confirm at the moment is that the fall iPhone 12 series will be the largest product line ever: four iPhone 12s will be launched at the same time, three with OLED screens and one with LCD screen.

According to the news, compared with the iPhone 11 series, the changes of iPhone 12 are as follows: iPhone 12 Pro is enlarged from 5.8 inches to 6.1 inches, the same as iPhone 11, and Pro Max is enlarged from 6.46 inches to 6.7 inches. At the same time, the iPhone 12 series will add a 5.4-inch iPhone, which will be equipped with an OLED screen. The LCD iPhone 12 has no changes.

In addition to the change in size, the new iPhone's bangs are also expected to be smaller. Judging from multiple product supply chains and leaked information about iOS 14, the iPhone 12 will not remove the bangs, but will reduce them. However, the expected iPhone 5-style square design is still unclear.

The entire iPhone 12 series also uses the 5nm A14 chip. According to TSMC's report, the performance of 5nm has been improved by 20% and the energy consumption has been reduced by 20%, which is a rare significant improvement in recent years. This means that the A14 will have better performance load when running games.

Although the iPhone 11 was exposed to the "heat dissipation scandal" when it was first sold, a few months later, its game frame rate and stability still exceeded those of the Snapdragon 865 model. This is because Apple changed the chip scheduling strategy with the A13. Xiao Lei has reason to believe that the A14 will make Apple's performance and temperature control a big improvement, completely getting rid of the "three minutes of real man" law.

In terms of RAM, the regular and small-screen versions of the 12 still have 4G RAM, while the Pro and Max have become 6G, which is a big blow to the 12. After all, with the improvement of cameras and apps, the lifespan of Apple's 4G RAM may only be about two years.

In terms of photography, Apple has not made many improvements. The iPhone 12 will still have dual cameras, but the Pro series will have a triple camera and will also have the LiDAR laser scanner on the iPad Pro. However, Apple is not making much progress in AR at present, and LiDAR is still under development.

Cheaper?

According to some media reports, the price of the 5.4-inch iPhone 12 will return to the price of the iPhone 11, which is about $600-700. Referring to the $699 price of the iPhone 11, Xiao Lei believes that this is in line with Apple's pricing expectations in the past two years, and it may be priced at $649 (5299 yuan or 4999 yuan).

The reason why the iPhone 12 lowered its price is that it hopes to crush its competitors through a more detailed product layout. After all, the starting price of Samsung, Google, and OnePlus has reached US$799. The iPhone 12, which is at least US$100 cheaper, will be very competitive in the US market.

However, the cheapest iPhone 12 may disappoint some consumers. As BOE begins to be included in Apple’s OLED product array, the 5.4-inch iPhone 12 may be "specially supplied" with BOE screens because BOE provides lower costs, which is also the core element that enables the iPhone’s OLED screen to be reduced in price.

We all know that Apple, as an "exception", uses Samsung's first-class screen manufacturer, relying on its excellent product bargaining power and generous orders. According to the disassembly report, the cost of the iPhone's OLED screen is about US$80, accounting for one-fifth of the cost of the entire machine. Considering the tens of millions of sales of the iPhone Pro series, Samsung is also happy to do this business.

It is undeniable that although domestic OLEDs have made rapid progress in recent years, their pure indicators are still not comparable to Samsung OLEDs. I hope that Apple and BOE can work together to improve the output problems of domestic OLEDs.

With the 5.1-inch iPhone priced at $600, the successor to the iPhone 11 will have to return to $749, the same price as the XR. This is undoubtedly bad news.

But there is no need to worry. In the past two years, Apple has been paying attention to the price in the Chinese channel market. The prices of XR and 11 were quickly reduced by 500 yuan, and the new iPhone SE has reached 2,899 yuan on Pinduoduo.

Even if the new iPhone is really sold at the same price as the XR, 6499 yuan (in fact, it won’t, Apple has already lowered the exchange rate for conversion), Apple will directly lower the price to channel dealers by around 500 yuan. The longer the time, the bigger the discount will be, so stay tuned for Double Eleven.

This year's Pro models can be said to have the least surprises. The 12 Pro and Pro Max are likely to maintain their original prices of $999 and $1099. Although the 11 Pro Max has dropped by thousands of yuan, it is still too expensive for domestic users. The good days of buying a real Apple flagship for five or six thousand yuan are gone forever.

What about 5G?

With the impact of the epidemic this year, the new infrastructure plan to drive my country's economic recovery has been launched, and 5G construction has become the top priority today. It can be expected that this year, 5G construction in first- and second-tier cities will be fully rolled out, and the first and second phases of bidding have been completed. If it was acceptable for last year's iPhone 11 not to have 5G, this year Apple must come up with a 5G iPhone to cope with the Chinese market.

We have previously said that 4G cards can be used directly with 5G without purchasing a package, but the only problem is that you will be queued behind 5G package users when the network is congested. However, the high speed and low latency of 5G are more important now. As the software supporting industry gradually lands, if you plan to hold this generation of iPhone for a long time, 5G can be said to be a must.

Another good news is the signal. The signal of iPhone 12 can finally be "saved" by Qualcomm. The entire iPhone 12 series is equipped with Qualcomm X55 5G baseband. Judging from the current performance, the power consumption and performance of X55 are acceptable. This may be the generation with the best signal strength among the three generations of iPhone.

However, in order to cater to the US market, Apple has to add some new features to the iPhone Pro. Due to the epidemic and the need for millimeter waves in the United States, the 6.7-inch iPhone that supports millimeter waves may not be shipped until December. In fact, 5G's ability to penetrate walls is quite worrying. It requires more base stations to maintain signal strength. Xiao Lei is pessimistic about the effect of higher-frequency millimeter waves.

Or is it just the processor and iOS?

In the final analysis, judging from the current news about the iPhone 12, Xiaolei still does not have high expectations for this year's iPhone. It may have a different design and be more affordable, but the "sense of surprise" of Apple fans is probably gone forever.

Of course, we are all tired of Apple's pace in recent years. Although the sales of iPhone in China are not very good, the new design and price are still the killer. As long as Cook does not think crookedly about the price of the affordable iPhone 12, the sales of 5G iPhone this year will be guaranteed, not to mention the 5nm A14 as an endorsement.

But if you hope it can be equipped with a telephoto camera, a high refresh rate, and 6G RAM for the entire series - sorry, these are unlikely to be available. We can only pray that the iPhone 12 Pro series can bring surprises, because from a hardware perspective, there is no problem at all for the Pro series to have a high refresh rate - not to mention that Apple has already used ProMotion technology that automatically adjusts the refresh rate on the iPad.

However, due to the epidemic, Apple is two months behind schedule. The 5.4- and 6.1-inch 12 regular versions will still be available in September, but the Pro series will most likely not be available to us until November or December.

It has to be said that Cook knows what the general consumers want, but Lei did not see how to meet the needs of higher-level users on the iPhone 12 Pro.