Leakers have long claimed that the 2022 iPhone 14 Pro will have two “flowing seas,” or holes, at the top of the screen, one for the front-facing camera and the other for the FaceID system. Screen consultant Ross Young called it a “hole+pill design”.
A new leak from MacRumors says that when the new iPhone screen lights up, the two holes will appear as a full pill shape. The leak originated from an “anonymous leaker”.
Later, Mark Gurman, editor of Bloomberg’s coverage of smart devices, confirmed the report and said, “It would look weird in use if it were separate.”
According to a MacRumors source, Apple will close the pixels in both scoops to create a full black area.
The source also hinted that the company “intends to visually expand the black area around the scoop to host content.” In other words, the iPhone could take advantage of this black area and could change the size of the black area depending on the purpose of its use.
9to5Mac reports that Apple plans to use the space to display the green and orange camera and microphone indicators currently located in the status bar. This could make privacy indicators more visible than they are now. 9to5 says users will be able to tap on the indicators to see a list of which apps have access to the microphone or camera. The report also mentions that the iPhone’s camera app may undergo some redesign, with the expandable control bar moving to the top of the screen rather than appearing from the bottom.
These rumors coincide with recently published patents, including a proposal to separate the phone’s infrared light emitter from the main recess. The description of the patent reads, “The infrared light emitter can be placed in a less space-constrained location and use an optical folding element to project infrared light in a specific direction. This can reduce the overall size of the imaging and sensing components, thereby reducing the size of the slots used to hold the imaging and sensing components in place and increasing the display area of the device.”
Apple’s Far Out event will be held in a week’s time and several new iPhone models are expected to be announced at the event. the Pro model is expected to get a better new chip, an autofocus selfie camera, and a more expensive price tag than the regular version.
