Apple iPhone 14: All the rumors we’ve heard so far

As soon as the iPhone 13 family was released, the iPhone 14 range, expected September 2022, started to leak. Here we round up the most likely to be true tip-offs – it’s all change at Apple, according to these phone rumors…

Launch date is likely to be September 8 2022 

We know Apple will unveil the new iPhone 14 family next month and had been expecting to see the new phone range be unveiled on September 13. This date has always seemed incredibly likely as the Californian tech giant tends to hold its iPhone launch events on the second Tuesday of September (the 13th this year) and then open pre-orders on the Friday (which would be September 16) and then go on sale a week later (September 23rd). 

But now Apple has confirmed its next event will take place on September 8.

New design with no notch! 

There has been a plethora of leaks alleging to Apple replacing the notch design on the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max and employing a punch “hole + pill design” instead. The circular punch hole will allegedly house the Face ID dot projector and the pill-shaped cut-out will contain both the front camera and Face ID infrared camera. This news that probably won't please some die hard Apple fans, but there's no arguing the notch was an antiquated design feature, that's been ditched by all other manufacturers to date. 

Back in March, a sketch of the iPhone 14 Pro was shared by a leaker on Chinese social media site Weibo and that was the best we had to go on for a few months, until Apple leaker Jon Prosser stepped in with some beautiful authentic-looking renders, that we can see here. The renders are based on a consolidation of all the likely-to-be-true rumors that have been doing the rounds that we will discuss in this piece. 

Both the sketches and renders that have been leaked to date show the new cut-out sitting slightly lower than the notch which disappointingly doesn’t look to give much more, if any, screen space. 

Size matters 

Reliable leaker @shadow_leak tweeted some screen specifications for the eagerly awaited iPhone 14 series and, like the no notch design, they might upset some Apple fans. If you were expecting the upgrade to the iPhone 13 series to follow suit with newer versions of the iPhone 13 Pro Max with its giant screen or the iPhone 13 mini with its teeny screen, you’ll be disappointed as sizing is alleged to be more midway across the series. Allegedly, the iPhone 14 and 14 Pro will both feature 6.06-inch displays, while the 14 Max and 14 Pro Max will feature 6.68-inch displays. This means that the screens on both new iPhone 14 Max models will be a little bit smaller than those seen on the iPhone 13 Pro Max – 6.68-inches compared to 6.7-inches. 

Purple colorway 

Apple releases at least one exclusive color with each iPhone generation – we saw the iPhone 13 released in Alpine Green and the iPhone 12 released in Pacific Blue. According to whispers online the iPhone 14 Pro will come in a stunning purple color and we’re sure you’ll agree it looks great in Prosser’s renders. 

No USB-C despite looming legislation

A new report by Mark Gurman for Bloomberg says that according to his sources (which remain anonymous) Apple is testing future iPhone models that replace the Lightning charging port with USB-C connector. The report states that: “if the company proceeds with the change, it wouldn’t occur until 2023 at the earliest. Apple is planning to retain the Lightning connector for this year’s new models,” which comes as a bit of a blow as it was generally felt that with European legislation looming, Apple may switch to USB-C for the iPhone 14 launch. Better luck next year!

A16 Bionic chipsets

Both the iPhone 14 Pro and the iPhone 14 Pro Max are said to have the new A16 Bionic chipset and LPTO screens, which provide a variable refresh rate. The non-Pro models are leaked to have the older A15 Bionic chip and 60Hz displays. The information from @shadow_leak also tells us that all four new iPhone 14 models will come with 6GB of RAM and flexible OLED screens. 

See you later SIM card 

When Brazilian site BlogdoiPhone published the tip-off that, in 2023, Apple will remove the iPhone’s physical SIM card slot for the iPhone 14, instead leaving the new range entirely reliant on digital eSIMs, we took it with a pinch of salt. however since then this has been corroborated by both a MacRumors source and reliable then leaker @dylandkt, giving it much more weight and interestingly both of these say we will see the back of the SIM card this year, meaning the iPhone 14 launch. 

Always-on display

WWDC 2022, Apple's yearly developer conference, which runs in June, has seen the company use its keynote to announce iOS 16, as well as macOS13, and more. Apple didn’t just announce iOS 16 either, they released a developer beta of the software and although no mention of an always-on display was made at the conference itself, 9to5Mac has found several mentions of it in the beta code. This means it’s incredibly likely that the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max will feature an always-on display – result! 

Camera sensor upgrade to 48MP 

Informed by a TrendForce report detailing camera module shipments, the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max models are rumoured to include a new main sensor, with a significant upgrade from 12MP to 48MP. It’s said that Apple will support both 48MP and 12MP shooting modes to allow for 48MP images to be captured in well-lit conditions and 12MP images in lower light, giving users the option to choose. The 48MP sensor will likely be limited to only the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max models. 

While Samsung's 108MP sensor may have higher resolution, this new Apple sensor could actually be the best one on the market. Samsung's sensor possesses 2.4-micron pixels, while the rumored Apple version is said to be 2.5-micron pixels. Together with Apple's market-leading appetite to produce clean images, this is sure to see the iPhone 14 soar in popularity amongst photographers. 

Serious selfie-power 

An exciting new leak points towards Apple finally taking the front-facing selfie camera seriously and equipping the upcoming flagship with a higher tech unit. This phone rumor comes courtesy of Korean site ET News who has published a series of reports on the Apple supply chain.

The most exciting part of this leak is the mention of the swich to LG Innotek meaning the iPhone 14’s selfie snapper will at last feature autofocus – a missing feature which has seriously let Apple down in the past. This ties in with the information provided by prolific Apple analyst, Ming-Chi Kuo – he tweeted that the upcoming series of iPhones will feature two key upgrades to the front-facing camera: autofocus and a bigger aperture on the lens.

No iPhone 14 Mini 

A new leak by reliable leaker @shadow_leak, just like several previous leaks, has pointed towards there being no iPhone 14 mini. However, it looks like this has really just been replaced by Apple’s new Phone SE (2022), which is the company’s most affordable phone to date. The iPhone SE (2022) comes in a compact design with iOS 15 delivering a seamless user experience and features impressive upgrades including the performance of the A15 Bionic chip, which makes user experience better across the board, including advanced camera capabilities. Exactly as we would have been expecting from the iPhone 14 mini. 

New Plus model

A new leak courtesy of @duanrui1205 on Twitter, via 9to5mac, points towards the addition of a Plus model to the new line-up. The leaker shared an image of the iPhone 14 cases, which includes the iPhone 14 Plus model, from a post on Chinese social media platform, Weibo. This new leak confirms previous rumours that Apple is ditching the iPhone Mini for the new line-up, there’s no iPhone 14 Mini case to be seen. The iPhone 14 Plus looks to be a larger-sized non-Pro device – it was thought this model would be called the iPhone 14 Max but more recent leaks have said it will be called the iPhone 14 Plus too. 

iPhone 14 Max delay likely 

Analyst Ross Young reported via a Super Followers tweet, brought to our attention by 9to5mac, that production of the iPhone 14 Max is behind schedule, making it the first 6.7-inch iPhone that isn’t a Pro model to cause some supply chain issues. 

In his tweet, available only to Super Followers of his account, Young said that panel shipments are still “way behind” where they should be this close to launch and he also shared that panel shipments for the iPhone 14 Max are still lagging far behind the iPhone 14 Pro Max. This means that it looks like the iPhone 14 Max might the same early September launch date as the other iPhone 14 variants.

Faster RAM for the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max

According to a new report, the higher-end iPhone 14 models, namely the iPhone 14 Pro and the iPhone 14 Pro Max, will be getting a significant RAM upgrade. The DigiTimes writes that Apple will equip the higher-end iPhone 14 models with 6GB of LPDDR5 RAM, which is a significant upgrade over the LPDDR4X RAM found in the current iPhone models. The non-Pro iPhone 14 models (iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Max) are expected to still feature LPDDR4X RAM.

While the iPhone 13 series starts at 4GB of memory, the new iPhone 14 series will all feature 6GB of RAM, albeit different types. The LPDDR5 RAM upgrade in the iPhone 14 Pro and the iPhone 14 Pro Max will essentially mean better and more energy-efficient performance for these models, compared to the standard models. 

Price hike for iPhone 14 Pro models

How much the new flagship smartphones will cost, due to the increased costs Apple is facing through its whole supply chain, remains a hot topic. The tech giant will face the decision of whether to take a financial hit themselves or pass the increased costs on to the consumer. industry insider Ben Wood of CCS Insight said: “Apple will have some tough decisions to make on pricing on iPhone 14. There is no question that production and component costs continue to rise for all consumer electronics makers, and in the case of the UK, exchange rates are a factor too. These elements would suggest a price rise may be necessary but given the cost of living head-winds Apple may decide that increasing prices could be counterproductive,” said industry insider Ben Wood of CCS Insight. 

Speaking to The Sun, another tech industry insider, Dan Ives, of Wedbush Securities said: “We believe a $100 price increase is coming for the iPhone 14." Dan continues; "Prices have been increasing across the whole supply chain, and Cupertino needs to pass these costs to the consumer on this release."

Price freeze for the iPhone 14 base model 

While, as above, it had been widely accepted that Apple would add a bump of about $100 across the whole iPhone 14 series, now a new leak has surfaced that goes against the grain. According to the leaker, lanzuk, who posted on the forum pages of South Korea's number one search portal Naver (via PhoneArena): "Apple (has) decided to freeze the launch price of the iPhone 14 base model through a decision at the top executive level."

The source, who PhoneArena says claims 90% accuracy of information related to the iPhone, although unverified does have a pedigree in commenting on releases from the big manufacturers, which gives him a bit more credibility. We'd like to think this one is true and indeed it would be a smart move by Apple to swallow the increased production costs for the iPhone 14 base model to keep pricing in line with the iPhone 13for several reasons. These include a gesture of goodwill to consumers during hard economic times and of course to generate as many sales as possible. If the South Korean insider turns out to be correct, the price of the vanilla iPhone 14 will be $799. 

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