While the iPhone 13 won't get as dramatic of an exterior redesign as the iPhone 12, there are quite a few updates expected and one that will have a significant visual impact.
The iPhone 13 has long been rumored to finally see a reduction in the size of the notch and new leaked photos posted by DuanRui, a Twitter account that aggregates content from Chinese social media, show an alleged iPhone 13 screen protector with an iPhone 12 illustrating how much smaller the notch could be (via BGR).
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This isn't the first purported leak of iPhone 13 screen protectors that we've seen, but these are much higher quality than the previous packaged photos and offer a clearer comparison being held up to a current iPhone.
As with previous rumors, the key to the size reduction is Apple shifting the speaker up above the Face ID components. Specific measurements weren't given, but measuring the images shows almost exactly a 25% reduction in the width of the notch. The height is a bit harder to discern, but if anything, it appears to be just slightly taller.
pic.twitter.com/KfHhh1fNBoApril 17, 2021
Despite some previous rumors of a second front-facing camera, the four holes for the Face ID and front-facing camera components all appear to be unchanged from the iPhone 12, suggesting that it will be just a single front-facing camera.
While Apple reportedly has plans to eliminate the notch entirely in 2023, this would be a nice start on that path. It would give considerably more room for status bar items at the top of the display, so you could possibly even see your iPhone battery percentage again.
As always, it is important to take these leaks with a grain of salt. While producing a fake screen protector is more impressive than a render, it is still possible to do. However, the image aligns with a number of rumors from credible sources like Ming-Chi Kuo, so even if it is faked, it seems likely that this is a reasonable approximation of what the final design will look like.
