After months of anticipation (and weeks of delay), the full iPhone 12 lineup was finally released this month – so it's only reasonable to start thinking about the iPhone 13, right? Believe it or not, the leaks have already begun, with the latest focusing on the battery.
Renowned Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reports that Apple's next iPhone could adopt brand new tech to enable it to produce smaller batteries – or squeeze more capacity into the current size. Our best camera phones roundup features various iPhones, but if there's one thing that could improve them all, it's better battery life.
The iPhone 13's battery could be smaller yet more effective than the iPhone 12's (Image credit: Apple)
According to 9to5Mac, Kuo says the "iPhone 13 will be the first iPhone model to adopt battery soft board technology, which will help save internal space and reduce costs". With fewer layers than the current batteries used in iPhones, soft board batteries can be much thinner. Could we be in for an even slimmer iPhone as a result?
It seems Apple could choose to go one of two ways with the new tech. If it does indeed decide to reduce the size of its batteries, we could end up seeing smaller iPhones with unchanged battery life. But if the company decides to maintain the current same shape and size, users could soon be getting much more juice out of their devices.
While this could mean incredible battery life for larger models with big batteries such as the Pro Max range, perhaps the news is most exciting for those who prefer the small form factor of the new iPhone 12 mini. If there's one criticism levelled against the mini in recent reviews, it's that the battery life simply can't compete with that of its larger siblings. If we end up with an iPhone 13 mini featuring a soft board battery, perhaps that complaint could soon become a thing of the past.
Could a soft board battery fix the iPhone 12 mini's main shortcoming? (Image credit: Apple)
Of course, improved battery life can only be a good thing for creatives (there's nothing like having to run for a plug socket to kill your creative flow). And if the Pro Max models end up with even better battery life, perhaps users of the largest iPhones could end up forgetting what their charger even looks like. (Too far?)
While this will by no means be the last iPhone 13 rumour of the next few months, it sounds like the next generation of iPhone is off to a good start – from a battery perspective, at least. But it's likely to be a while until we find out for sure (what with the iPhone 12 being, you know, brand new). If you're looking for all of the best Apple deals in one place, check out our Apple Black Friday page – and if you're after the best of the best right now, you can find today's best iPhone 12 deals below.
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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.
