iPhone 13 Glass Panels Suggest Smaller Notches Again

Apple was one of the first phones that sported a notch (the Essential PH-1 was technically the first) and it was criticized for how large that notch was, though it still had nothing on the Pixel 3 XL's "bucket". Despite subsequent trends, from waterdrop notches to punch-hole cutouts, the iPhone notch has remained basically unchanged since 2017. It might still stay that way this year but, at least based on this latest leak, the iPhone 13 series may at least have significantly smaller notches than ever before.

The iPhone's large notch can be justified by what's really hiding beneath the cutout. In addition to the traditional earpiece speaker, it houses Apple's famed Face ID hardware. Phones with smaller notches or punch-holes, mostly on the Android side, can't really compete with the accuracy, speed, and security of Face ID anyway.

This year, however, Apple may have figured out a way to have those and still have a smaller notch. That's at least based on a photo of glass panels for the three iPhone 13 models given to MacRumors. It's probably too much to expect those notches to be extremely slim but any reduction in size means more space for screen content.

This notch reduction is attributed to Apple consolidating the Face ID components to take up less space, a rumor that analyst Ming-chi Kuo also supports. What's new in this photo is the relocation of the earpiece speaker to the top bezel, allowing the notch to shrink even further.

The slightly disappointing but not totally unexpected detail to come from the leak is that the iPhone 13 sizes will be exactly like the iPhone 12 series. Not much will change in the external design of Apple's phones but, of course, the internals will tell a different story.