The notch has been… unpopular. Having a bezel-free device is great, but not when it comes with an ugly protrusion into your videos and games. No one wants a bite taken out of their screens. But a smaller bite? That’s… better? I mean, it’s definitely better to have a small bite than a large bite, but no bite at all would be preferable.
Still, we’ve heard a rumor that the upcoming iPhone 12 would have a smaller notch. How will they manage that without removing anything? The notch is for Face ID, which includes a variety of sensors, infrared lights, and lasers. How do you shrink that? You don’t. As it turns out, you shrink the notch by moving the speaker.
Moving Speakers, Shrinking Notches?
The two images above seem to originate from the same leak, with the clearer one at the top extrapolating on the information on the blurry one here. I tried to clear it up, but you likely don’t know exactly what every part is for. Still, Apple’s tactic here is clear.
With the speaker relocated to the antenna band, Apple can squeeze the other elements together. This won’t change the capabilities of Face ID, as the cameras will still be far enough apart to create a 3D scan of your face. Knowing Apple, sound quality likely won’t suffer much either. I’d rather a smaller notch than a better sounding speaker anyway.
The smaller notch will allow more information to show up on the iPhone status bar, which has been crowded since they introduced the notch. It’ll also allow the iPhone to feature a smaller screen, like the rumored 5.4″ screen. Let’s hope with the next iPhone, at least one model makes everything a bit smaller.
Sources:
- Luke Dormehl, Cult of Mac
- Tim Hardwick, MacRumors