You don’t need to be following along with the Apple rumor mill too closely to be aware that Apple is very likely to announce not one, but four new iPhones this year. If it all goes the way we’re used to, the new handsets will all be announced this coming September, and they’ll include the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max, and a new leak has shown off an unexpected tweak.
We’ve been hearing and seeing various leaks relating to these new iPhones in recent months but we’ve yet to see anything to do with the iPhone’s MagSafe wireless charging solution. The iPhones will of course support MagSafe and Qi2 wireless charging, but new molds appear to show that they will feature a revised version of MagSafe that’s slightly smaller.
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The molds, shown off by French website ShopSystem, appear to show that the ring of magnets in the center of the iPhones’ rear panel will be smaller than in previous years. A comparison shows the iPhone 16 Pro alongside the iPhone 15 Pro and while the difference isn’t a huge one, it’s definitely there.
The website suggests that Apple may require that accessory makers make changes to their wares to accommodate the change, but we don’t expect that to be the case. Qi2 compatibility will require that the key components and capabilities remain the same, and instead, it would suggest that Apple has been able to shrink components to allow them to take up less space without impacting performance.
The leak also shows other components that we have come to expect from the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus specifically, including the rearranged camera situation on the back of the devices. Apple is expected to ditch the diagonal camera layout that has been used in recent years and instead move the two cameras above and below one another. The reason? The Apple Vision Pro.
Apple Vision Pro owners can capture 3D spatial videos using their headset, while the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max can do the same. However, the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus cannot due to the way their cameras are aligned, and Apple is going to fix that with the arrival of this year’s non-Pro models.
These molds do appear to match what we’ve been told to expect, but it’s important to remember that until Apple confirms anything, it’s all really just rumor and guesswork. We’ll find out soon enough in a few months’ time.