Samsung reportedly preparing for ‘notchless’ Apple iPhone 14 Pro – Times of India

This week we saw reports from known analyst Ming-Chi Kuo and Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman predicting Apple’s lineup for 2022. While both the reports mention the next generation of iPhone SE, a product that various analysts and reports, including the ones mentioned above, have revealed a lot about is the Apple iPhone 14 series. We have seen multiple leaks and rumours around the upcoming iPhone series since the tech giant launched the iPhone 13 series in September. Although the company is not known to reveal the plans related to upcoming devices, its suppliers often hint at what users can expect. This time, new details about the upcoming Apple iPhone 14 series have been shared in a report by TheElec. According to the Korean publisher, Apple is getting rid of its display notch on the upcoming iPhones.
As per the report, the company may only remove the notch from the Pro models of the iPhone 14 series. The report further suggests that the company is planning to use a punch hole camera at the front of the devices. As Samsung Display is one of the main suppliers of OLED panels for Apple iPhones, the company has now, as per TheElec, acquired new manufacturing equipment to produce OLED panels for Apple iPhone 14 models with a punch hole. The report also reveals that a low-temperature polycrystalline oxide (LTPO) thin-film transistor (TFT) is also applied to the OLED panel of the iPhone 14 Pro models that feature a punch hole display.
For those who don’t know, Samsung used a punch hole display in the Samsung Galaxy S10 series for the first time in the industry in 2019. Since then, the display style has been extended to the Galaxy Note series and other affordable products by the company.
A similar prediction about the next generation iPhones was shared by analyst Ming-Chi Kuo in September. He also mentioned that the upcoming devices can also sport a 48-megapixel wide lens for the rear camera system which would be an upgrade from the 12-megapixel wide lens on iPhone 13 Pro models. Various reports have also hinted that with the iPhone 14 series, Apple may finally shift to USB-C port. The upcoming Apple iPhone 14 series is rumoured to have four models – iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Max, iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max.
Several other reports also suggest that the new iPhone SE will replace the ‘mini’ smartphone in the iPhone 14 lineup. The mini series was first launched along with the iPhone 12 series and now the iPhone 13 series also has a mini smartphone. Apple will reportedly kill the segment in the coming year as the device was not able to create the desired response from the buyers. The iPhone SE 3 is rumoured to have a similar design as the current generation model but with 5G connectivity. The device will reportedly launch in the first quarter of 2022.