With August upon us, the countdown is officially on. We're just weeks away from when we're expecting Apple to announce the iPhone 14 lineup. Rumors of the next iPhone start early in the year, and as a result, some details about the upcoming device sometimes get lost in the crowd.
To help MacRumors readers, we've created a list of five rumors from over the last several months about the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro that you may not have heard about.
Vapor Chamber Thermal System
As the iPhone gets more powerful with larger batteries and more CPU-intensive tasks baked into iOS, keeping the device at normal working temperature could be a challenge. According to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the high-end 2022 iPhones, the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, could adopt a vapor chamber thermal system to help address the challenge.
The system would help control device temperature under intensive tasks and can already be found in smartphones by companies such as Samsung, Razer, and LG. Kuo mentioned the tidbit in a wider report about redesigned MacBook Pros in early 2021, so it's not entirely clear if Apple has changed its plans. The iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max are rumored to be powered by the A16 Bionic chip boasting performance and battery improvements.
Better Details in Photos
The main camera on the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max will feature a 57% larger sensor compared to the iPhone 13 Pro Max, according to a rumor from earlier this year. Per the rumor, the device's sensor is said to be 1/1.3-inches in width, 57% larger in area than the 1/1.65-inch sensor of the Wide camera on the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max.
The larger sensor will lead to sharper detail in photos and improved low-light photography. This is just one of several big changes coming to the iPhone 14 Pro camera system that will "elevate mobile phone camera photography to a new level," according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Apple is also to increase the megapixels of the wide camera lens to 48MP, compared to the 12MP on the current high-end iPhones.
Upping Your Instagram Selfie Game
While the rear cameras usually get all the love and attention with every new iPhone, the front camera for the iPhone 14 will get a major boost in image quality and capabilities. The selfie camera in the iPhone 14 series is said to be a "high-end" camera system that will have autofocus capacities and a wider ƒ/1.9 aperture compared to the ƒ/2.2 aperture in the current iPhone 13.
The wider aperture paired with autofocus would allow more light to pass through the lens, resulting in overall better quality and improved low-light photography. The autofocus would also help with portrait photos, resulting in crisper and sharper bokeh and detail with the subject.
Goodbye Physical SIM Card!
In 2016, Apple famously removed the headphone jack from the iPhone. In 2017, Apple removed the physical home button from its flagship iPhone. In 2022, the physical SIM card tray could be next. According to a seemingly legitimate memo obtained by MacRumors, Apple is at least planning to phase out the physical SIM card with select US carriers later this year, presumably after the iPhone 14 launch in September.
The timeline suggests that at least some carriers and models of the iPhone 14 may feature no SIM card tray and could just entirely rely on eSIM technology that Apple has been pushing in the last several years. A previous rumor suggested that the move to eSIM as the new default would happen with the iPhone 15, so the exact timeline remains unknown.
2TB of Storage For All Your Photos
Apple introduced a new 1TB storage option with the iPhone 13 Pro Max last year, offering customers a massive amount of on-device storage for all of their photos, videos, and apps. This year, the iPhone 14 Pro Max could be offered in an even larger 2TB configuration. If true, it would be the most storage ever offered in an iPhone in history.
The larger storage space comes as Apple builds more advanced photo and video capabilities into the iPhone. For reference, just 60 seconds of a 4K video at 60FPS takes up to around 440MB of storage. For photographers and cinematographers, the larger storage option gives them the freedom to record and create without the possible constraints of limited storage. The 1TB iPhone 13 Pro Max costs $1599.
Conclusion
These are just some of the rumors and leaks about the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro. For a complete look at everything we know about the upcoming iPhone, check out our iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro roundups. What are you most excited for with the new iPhones? Let us know down in the comments!
