Apple plans to launch a trio of OLED iPhones next year that includes smaller and larger-sized models than the current crop of Apple's flagship smartphones, according to sources from Taiwan's supply chain.
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DigiTimes reports this morning that Apple will release three OLED iPhones in 2020 available in 5.42-, 6.06- and 6.67-inch sizes.
Meanwhile DigiTimes' sources indicate that, as expected, this year's three models will follow the screen technologies and sizes of 2018 iPhones; namely, two OLED models with 5.8-inch and 6.5-inch screens, and a 6.1-inch LCD model.
In a noteworthy tidbit coming out Taiwan's handset component supply chain, the smallest iPhone model coming in 2020 will reportedly include Samsung or LG touchscreen tech that will allow Apple to make the display of the phone thinner than on previous handsets.
Additionally, the 5.42-inch model to be released in 2020 may come with either Samsung Display's Y-Octa or LG Display's TOE touch technology, indicated the sources, noting that both touch solutions promises to trim down the display cost.
Y-Octa is an advanced flexible AMOLED display technology that removes the film substrate and allows the touch circuit to be directly patterned on the film's encapsulation layer, making the display thinner, indicated the sources.
According to DigiTimes' sources, Samsung will maintain its dominance as the main OLED panel supplier for Apple next year, while it remains to be seen whether LG or BOE Technology can gain OLED panel orders from the company.
The same supply chain sources estimate that Apple will ship between 80 and 82 million iPhones in the first half of this year and around 180-190 million units for all of 2019.
Previous rumors suggest 2020 iPhones will feature triple-lens rear camera arrangements, improved photo capturing tools, and more powerful processors. Bloomberg has suggested it could be a prelude to an AR headset, and past rumors have indicated Apple could launch that device as early as 2020.
Top Rated Comments
(1) Let's look at the two larger sizes first, 6.06" and 6.67". These seem strange at first, but only because they're accurate to two decimal digits. While Apple uses 5.8" and 6.5" in their marketing for the Xs and Xs Max, these actually have screen diagonals of 5.85" and 6.46". Comparing this to the rumored sizes, this corresponds to additional 0.21" in each case. So I pretty sure these two devices correspond to the Xs and Xs Max 2020 versions, so
Xs 2018 with 5.85" -> Xs 2020 with 6.06" (probably 6" screen diagonal in marketing)
Xs Max 2018 with 6.46" -> Xs Max 2020 with 6.67" (probably 6.7" screen diagonal in marketing)
(2) How exactly could these devices look like? Okay, so assuming the display ratio stays at 19.5:9 as it is currently, then using the new screen diagonals and Pythagoras this corresponds to a 3.59% increase in screen width and height for the Xs and a 3.25% increase for the Xs Max. Suppose the devices stay roughly the same size, specifically we keep the device height exactly the same and just scale the screen size accordingly to the new numbers. Then we get this (rough) mockup:
So the new screen sizes would correspond to pretty much the exact same device size but with pretty much zero bezels!
(3) Lastly, what's up the small version with 5.42" ? Again doing some math and assuming a display ratio of 19.5:9 this corresponds to a 127mm screen height, compared to a screen height of 142mm for the 6.06" device in a 144mm height case. Assuming the same (super thin) bezel of 2mm, this would indicate a device with height 129mm. A little bit larger than the SE with a height of 124mm. So this seems to be a new SE size device with OLED screen and thin bezels.
Conclusion: It seems there is a major redesign in the pipeline for the 2020 iPhone lineup. This fits to rumors from 2017/2018 of a slowed down upgrade cycle with major redesigns every 3 years instead of every 2 years. So my assumption is we will see a similar lineup to Xs, Xr and Xs Max in 2019. In 2020 the "cheap" LCD option will be dropped and we will see three OLED devices.
Small: Roughly SE size device with 5.42" OLED screen (5.4" screen in marketing)
Medium: Roughly XS size device with 6.06 OLED screen (6" screen in marketing)
Large: Roughly XS Max size device with 6.67 OLED screen (6.7" screen in marketing)
All three with ultra thin bezels and I guess we could possibly see a smaller notch and maybe an iPad Pro style redesign.
Happy to hear any thoughts to this.