This is the sort of feature we hope to see on all iPhone 13 models, not just the Pro models, because it can change the way we use our iPhones. It’s unclear how this would work exactly, and what information would be shown, but this has huge potential. It’s rumored that the iPhone 13 will feature an always-on display somewhat similar to that on the Apple Watch. Some say autofocus is coming to the UltraWide camera, and Portrait Mode will be available while shooting video. The camera array in leaked schematics shows a larger camera area with bigger cutouts for the lenses, which suggests a new lens array and possibly new larger sensors underneath. That makes AR apps run a little better and portrait mode work in the dark, but it’s really not a big deal. Some rumors state that the entire iPhone 13 lineup will get the LiDAR sensor, rather than just the Pro models. We know the iPhone 13 will have improvements to the camera (every iPhone does!), but it’s not entirely clear what they may be. But in reality, unless you’re comparing them side by side, it probably won’t be a huge deal. You’ll probably hear things from iPhone 12 Pro buyers like “it’s so much faster,” because smoother scrolling and interface animations have the effect of making things seem faster.
So for those “Pro” buyers, this is an upgrade that even an average person might not notice. It’s great for reducing Apple Pencil latency on the iPad Pro, but that’s not a consideration here unless Apple also announces iPhone support for its stylus. And while 120Hz displays definitely make things feel smoother, the touch responsiveness of the iPhone is already so good you’re not likely to notice a huge change there. Unfortunately, this feature is rumored to be limited to the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max, which seriously limits its reach. If the iPad Pro is anything to go by, it makes a difference you can certainly feel when you scroll through your Twitter or Instagram feed. While we probably won’t notice the improved performance of the A15 anywhere outside of a benchmark chart, we will almost certainly feel the improved smoothness and responsiveness of a 120Hz ProMotion display. Will the A15 chip run circles around the A14? Probably not. We’ll probably only really appreciate the speed bump three years down the line when we notice that iOS 18 runs a lot better on an iPhone 13 than an iPhone 12.
Without some spectacular new gotta-have-it software feature that just doesn’t run on a lesser SoC, the A15 won’t be a game-changer for your average iPhone user. Your average person isn’t going to notice a significant difference in the things they do most (social media, web browsing, email, Messages, and so on) between a two-year-old iPhone and the one Apple releases this year. The only thing is, there’s just nothing that really taxes the A14. And the company will almost certainly lean hard into image processing and neural network performance.įaster is always better, and we have no reason to believe that the A15 will be anything other than the fastest smartphone processor anywhere. If Apple finally moves to LPDDR5 memory, then specific tasks that are bottlenecked by memory bandwidth should be significantly faster than that. The short story here is that the A15 is probably going to be somewhere around 10-15 percent faster than the A14 present in the iPhone 12.