2019 iPhone wish list: Is there anything you want?

The days when Apple's entire company's fate was tied to the iPhone are over. The tech giant now has multiple product lines including the iPad, Mac, Apple TV and Apple Watch, and its services business is also growing rapidly. Of course, the iPhone is Apple's most famous product, and for most people, the iPhone is a crucial entry point into the Apple ecosystem. From this point of view, the iPhone is still a very important existence among Apple's many products.

Although Apple claims that the iPhone XS series is the fastest and most advanced iPhone model to date, this series is just an S upgrade. It uses the design and most of the features of the iPhone X, while upgrading the hardware and improving performance. Obviously, Apple fans hope that Apple can go a step further in 2019. This week, foreign media Macworld listed a series of wish lists for the 2019 iPhone. Let's take a look.

A more powerful neural engine

If nothing unexpected happens, the 2019 iPhone will use a new A-series processor (probably A13), but Apple's chip supplier is unlikely to provide 5nm chips next year, and TSMC is not expected to mass-produce 5nm chips until 2020. In other words, the 2019 iPhone will still use 7nm chips.

We may not see a big performance and battery life boost on next year's iPhone, but Apple could increase the transistor count and push the Neural Engine up to 10 teraflops from the A12's 5 teraflops. Given the increasing importance of artificial intelligence and machine learning to iOS, apps, and Apple services, speeding up the Neural Engine makes sense.

Better cameras

Judging from previous iPhone updates, the camera of each new generation is better than the previous one. Macworld believes that in addition to improving image processing, it is time for Apple to do something else, such as adding a third rear camera, a front wide-angle camera, and introducing new shooting options, etc., to provide users with more options for shooting with iPhone.

For users who like to take selfies, if the 2019 iPhone has an additional wide-angle camera, it will allow them to include what they want to shoot when taking selfies. In addition to new hardware, Apple may also need to make improvements in software functions, such as converting normal shots into slow-motion shots. This technology can be used with the upgraded neural engine.

Second Generation TrueDepth Module

Although the Face ID of iPhone XS is faster than that of iPhone X, the TrueDepth module itself has not really been improved. Macworld pointed out in the article that it hopes to see the addition of the second-generation TrueDepth hardware module in the 2019 iPhone.

It may be a bit too much to ask Apple to upgrade the TrueDepth module while removing the screen notch, but we hope that it can achieve more functions in the existing size, such as allowing Face ID to recognize user facial data in any direction. We all remember how amazing it was when Apple introduced the second-generation Touch ID in the iPhone 6s, and we hope that the second-generation Face ID can also be greatly upgraded.

Switch to USB-C

The idea that Mac laptops charge via USB-C and iPhones and iPads charge via Lightning is no longer accurate after the iPad Pro switched to USB-C in 2018. It’s time for Apple to unify the charging standards for its products.

Macworld said that although replacing Lightning with USB-C on the 2019 iPhone may require Apple to provide a slightly thicker body to accommodate the new interface, the 1 mm change is still within an acceptable range, and there are some other benefits to the thicker body.

A bigger battery

As mentioned above, the switch to USB-C in 2019 may require the iPhone to be thicker. Macworld said that currently few users complain that the iPhone is not thin enough. On the contrary, many people hope that the battery life of the iPhone will be improved.

If the 2019 iPhone is thicker, it will have more internal space to accommodate a larger battery, thereby increasing the battery life of the iPhone. At the same time, the thicker body can also make the rear camera no longer protruding.

Fast charger

Currently, the iPhone XS Max, which starts at 9,599 yuan, still comes with a 5W USB power adapter. The phone can charge faster, but you need to buy a new fast charger separately.

Earlier this year, there were rumors that Apple would replace the 5W USB power adapter with an 18W USB-C charger in the box of the new iPhone. But it turns out that Apple did not do so. Macworld said that it was time for Apple to put a fast charger in the box of the iPhone. It was a bit stingy for Apple to not be able to get the best experience for such an expensive phone.

Always-On Display

Technically, Apple could add the Always On Display feature to any OLED iPhone model via an iOS update, but it wouldn’t be too surprising if Apple included the feature as a new feature in the 2019 iPhones.

With the Always On Display, iPhone users can check the time, date, weather, number of unread messages, and other simple information by just glancing at the phone on the table, which can help users reduce the number of times they wake up the screen and further extend the use time of the iPhone. In this regard, the Always On Display plays the same role as the Screen Timer.

Small iPhone is even smaller

This year, Apple launched three iPhones of different sizes: the 5.8-inch iPhone XS, the 6.1-inch iPhone XR, and the 6.5-inch iPhone XS Max. If Apple still plans to use the same strategy next year, making the smallest iPhone a little smaller might not be a bad idea.

For users who are looking forward to the release of the new iPhone SE, the current 5.8-inch iPhone XS may not meet their needs for a small-sized phone. Some users may really only like small-sized phones, but Macworld believes that Apple does not need to launch a 4-inch phone specifically for these users. It would be a good idea to reduce the 5.8-inch model to about 5.2 inches.

The battery of a smaller iPhone may be smaller, but the screen is also relatively smaller, so the battery life may not be affected much. In addition, as mentioned earlier, if the body of the 2019 iPhone becomes thicker, it will be able to carry a larger battery.

Price reduction

We can’t be sure what pricing strategy the iPhone will use in 2019, but Apple’s pricing has been increasing from iPhone X to iPhone XS Max, and there is no sign that Apple will revise its iPhone pricing strategy. Despite this, Macworld has included price cuts in its wish list for the 2019 iPhone, and said that if the starting prices of the successors to the iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max can be reduced to $699, $849, and $949, ​​more people will be able to afford these high-end phones.

If Apple still uses the same pricing next year, then providing more practical accessories in the box is another manifestation of price reduction, such as re-adding a 3.5mm headphone jack, a faster USB-C power adapter, or increasing the storage space of the basic model to 128GB, etc.