iPhone 13 rumors suggest smaller notches, bigger battery

We've been waiting for Apple to jack up the iPhone's refresh rate for a while now. If the latest round of iPhone 13 rumors are to be believed, we won't have to wait much longer.

The new claims come courtesy of MacRumors, who got their hands on research notes from market analyst and popular Apple prognosticator Ming-Chi Kuo. By Kuo's estimation, the 2021 iPhone (which we'll call the iPhone 13) will have smaller notches on the front and bigger batteries. Some of them could also have a 120Hz display.

If you aren't up on tech lingo, the refresh rate is how often a screen can refresh itself, or "blink," in a second. Up until now, iPhones have shipped with 60Hz screens, meaning they refresh 60 times in a second. Going up to 120Hz would obviously double that, with the tangible benefit of making everything look way smoother than before.

According to the research notes, Apple will likely stick with releasing four new iPhones this year, similar to how 2020 brought us the iPhone 12 with Mini, Pro, and Pro Max variants.

Kuo says every iPhone 13 model should have an improved battery, while 120Hz refresh rates will only make it to the Pro models. That would be mildly disappointing if true, as flagships from rivals like Samsung have included high refresh rates for the past couple of hardware cycles.

Perhaps a bit more juicy are Kuo's predictions for the 2022 iPhones. Yes, we unfortunately need to start thinking about 2022 as a real year that will happen soon. When it does, Kuo says Apple could adopt hole-punch displays like those seen on the front of the aforementioned Samsung flagships, replacing the notch entirely. No word yet on how (or even if) Apple plans on keeping Face ID sensors inside the hole-punch display, but hey, that's a problem we can worry about a year and a half from now.

We won't find out if Kuo is right until Apple has its official showcase this fall.

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