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Image of 'iPhone 12' shows smaller notch, widgets on Home screen

Notch on an existing iPhone 11 Pro

A new image appears to depict the "iPhone 12" with a significantly smaller notch, while simultaneously hinting that the rumored widgets being added to "iOS 14" could take up the same space as multiple Home screen icons.

Apple is rumored to be working on adding widgets to iOS, a development that would allow users to see more information from looking at their iPhone's Home screen without needing to navigate to another area. In an image shared by leaker @choco_bit on Twitter, the widgets will seemingly be available in a variety of different sizes.

The image shows representations of icons on the Home screen, but with some being rectangular and taking up the space of two icons, and others being larger and consuming four icon spots. While the image doesn't specify what these elements are, the most likely answer is that they are widgets.

Widget rumors in "iOS 14"surfaced on Sunday, with the feature allegedly known internally as "Avocado." Unliked pinned widgets as used in iPadOS 13, the rumored widgets will be repositionable by the user, similar to an app icon.

The latest image also involves another rumor, that Apple will be including a smaller notch in future iPhones. There has been speculation on this development since July 2019, which would involve Apple using a smaller TrueDepth camera array in the "iPhone 12" to enable Face ID, and the image proposes a notch that is roughly two thirds of the size of the current iteration.

As with another image posted on Sunday by @choco_bit relating to LiDAR, it is unclear what the source is for the image. If accurate, the most probable sources would be internal design documents or draft service manuals, though this cannot be verified.

The account is claimed to be operated by a former Apple Authorized Service Partner, which has also provided leaks on Apple products in the past.



33 Comments

seankill 15 Years · 566 comments

I always found widgets to be lacking and dis organized in iOS. 

avon b7 20 Years · 8046 comments

Notches are quickly looking more dated. If this is for a phone which is to cover the best part of 2021, it won't fare well on the design front with so many phones out there with tiny notches, holepunches etc. It will fare far worse if those bezels are representative of the screen to body ratio. 

Hopefully it is simply a basic mock-up and far from the real thing.

ravnorodom 8 Years · 721 comments

In 10 years, the notch would disappear and blend into bezel..... I hope.

DAalseth 6 Years · 3067 comments

We've had our iPhone 11s for about five months now. Honestly I hardly ever even notice the notch. It doesn't cause any problems. 

charlesn 11 Years · 1193 comments

avon b7 said:
Notches are quickly looking more dated. If this is for a phone which is to cover the best part of 2021, it won't fare well on the design front with so many phones out there with tiny notches, holepunches etc. It will fare far worse if those bezels are representative of the screen to body ratio. 

Hopefully it is simply a basic mock-up and far from the real thing.

Even as an iPhone loyalist, I would say that it has been a long time since iPhone was the slickest looking design out there. But year after year, Apple continues to dominate where it matters most: handset profits. It took 66% of them globally last year... compared to distant second place Samsung at 17%. And every other handset maker fighting for the remaining scraps. This matters most because it shows that people around the world are willing to pay a premium for iPhones for one simple reason: the overall user experience of hardware, OS and apps together is the best. The iPhone remains a beautiful handset, no doubt, but delivering the best user experience--which may at times mean compromises like "the notch" for its industry-leading facial ID system--will always take precedent over slickness and useless features.