Unless you've been living under a rock (and we wouldn't blame you for that after the last couple of years), you've probably heard that there's a new iPhone due for release next month. We've seen plenty of leaks regarding the new device – and for a moment this weekend it looked like the latest could have arrived courtesy of none other than Apple itself.
Eagle-eyed viewers of Apple TV+'s Ted Lasso (aka The Most Wholesome Show on TV) spotted a rather unusual iPhone in the most recent episode, apparently without a notch. And given the amount of notch-related rumours over the past few months, it's unsurprising that many jumped to the conclusion that we could be looking at the iPhone 13. But did the probable future contender for our best camera phones list really just appear on TV?
Briefly appearing in two separate scenes, the apparently notch-less iPhone looks rather like, well, an iPhone 12 without the notch. Which, if certain rumours are to believed, could well be pretty much what we're getting. But there are also plenty of leaks suggesting that the iPhone 13's notch will simply become narrower rather than disappear completely.
So, what are the chances of Apple accidentally revealing an upcoming iPhone by literally showing it on TV? Yeah, probably zero. And while there are plenty of theories out there this week, the most likely explanation seems to be that the iPhone display was inserted using CGI in post-production. Indeed, Twitter users have already spotted more examples of less-than-perfect screen alignment:
Devices in movies, are turned off. And the image we see is after editing with green screen on devises. And if you will make a screen recording you can see square video. Look another shot, where you can see the angle of video on the edge of iphone. its after editing green screen pic.twitter.com/s7rmQPQkTYAugust 30, 2021
Which begs its own questions – was the notch omitted by accident? Did Apple deliberately cut it out because it is deeply and devastatingly ashamed of the blight on its supposedly all-screen design? In short, we'll probably never know – but chances are we're very much not looking at an iPhone 13 here.
A notch-less iPhone 13 like this fan-made render could still be a long while away (Image credit: Ben Geskin)
Whether or not the notch is finally out the way out, there's no denying that the iPhone 13 is sounding a worthy upgrade over the iPhone 12. And the latter is, of course, no slouch – check out today's best deals below, and be sure to visit our main Apple deals page for more offers.
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Daniel John is Design Editor at Creative Bloq. He reports on the worlds of design, branding and lifestyle tech, and has covered several industry events including Milan Design Week, OFFF Barcelona and Adobe Max in Los Angeles.
