Apple is purportedly gearing up to unveil its next-generation iPhone. If you have been thinking about upgrading your smartphone for a little while now, it’s worth postponing that purchase for a few more days to see what the latest model has in store. But how long will you need to wait? When is the big launch event coming?
Well, Apple hasn’t revealed the details of its next hardware event quite yet, so Express.co.uk has donned a deerstalker and tried to work out when that all-important date will fall. Apple usually reveals the new iPhone, launches pre-orders and delivers the first units to stores in September. However, the event didn’t take place until October 13 last year due to pandemic-related delays.
According to prominent (and very reliable) analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple is back to its usual September release window this year.
A screenshot from a popular e-commerce app in China saw the successors to the iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12 mini, and iPhone 12 Pro Max listed with an order date of September 17. That date falls on a Friday, which lends a little more weight to the leak as Apple usually opens pre-orders and opens general sales on two consecutive Fridays following its keynote presentation.
Another report from YouTube show Front Page Tech, which has had a pretty solid track record with details of unannounced Apple products, corroborates the above date. According to sources speaking to the show, iPhone 13 will arrive on store shelves worldwide on September 24, with pre-orders starting online a week earlier, September 17.
Looking back on previous iPhone launch events, it’s easy to spot the pattern…
- iPhone 6s launch: Wednesday September 9, 2015
- iPhone 7 launch: Wednesday September 7, 2016
- iPhone X launch: Tuesday September 12, 2017
- iPhone XS launch: Wednesday September 12, 2018
- iPhone 11 launch: Tuesday September 10, 2019
- Apple Watch 6 / iPad launch: Tuesday September 15, 2020
Provided the leaked dates for the pre-order and in-store launch are accurate – and admittedly, there’s no guarantee – we’d expect Apple to hold its next announcement on Tuesday September 14 or Wednesday September 15, 2021. Pre-orders would then become available a few days later, with those with the fastest-fingers in the online store taking delivery of their shiny new iPhone orders the following Friday.
From September 24, customers would be able to head into store to get their hands on the new models, trade-in older devices, sign-up for the iPhone Upgrade Scheme, and more.
And what about the iPhone itself?iPhone 13 is widely-tipped to have the same overall design as the iPhone 12, with flat highly polished edges and a glass back. The Face ID system has purportedly shrunk, so the notch will take up less space from the all-screen design.
The iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max will have the same 120Hz high refresh-rate as seen on the iPad Pro range, while the two cameras on the back of the iPhone 13 will be positioned diagonally, sources claim. New colours, including pink, are rumoured but there’s no consensus on what the line-up would include yet.
As always, the latest iPhone models will arrive with the next iteration of Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS 15. First announced during Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference on June 7, the successor to iOS 14 boasts an update to notifications, that lets you change which apps can bother you depending on whether you’re at work, at home, or at the gym, for example. These categories, known as Focus, will sync across all devices, so your iPad won’t start ringing with work calls at the weekend either.
iOS 15 also allows iPhone owners to make FaceTime calls to Android and Windows via a web link, noise-cancellation to stop background noise ruining your FaceTime Audio or video calls, photographs are grouped into albums in Messages, and new customisation for Memoji characters.
