Wonderlust (a word outside the dictionary that we could define as “amazing”) is the title that Apple has given to its September event, the date on which it announces the new generations of iPhone. Perhaps that is why, unlike other presentations, the one in 2023 will be very focused on mobile phones, without flashy news that could take away its prominence, as happened in June, when it showed its amazing Vision Pro extended reality viewer during its conference. developers annual. This is iPhone. Pure iPhone.
So the most amazing thing that will be announced in the video recorded by Apple, projected in the Steve Jobs Theater at Apple Park and broadcast over the Internet to the whole world (7 p.m. in Spain) will be the new generation of Apple mobile phones, presumably with four models: iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. Apple is going to focus a lot on the heart of its business, the iPhone, which with its Apple Watch accessories and its AirPods headphones and its associated services host a powerful ecosystem with hundreds of millions of users around the world.
One of the great novelties of the new generation of iPhone will be the adoption of the USB-C connector that has been forced by European Union regulations. Apple still had one more year of margin to adapt, but it has decided to take that step now, which many users will appreciate for its convenience. One cable for everything. When company vice president Phil Schiller announced in September 2012 the replacement of the 30-pin connector that all iPhones had had since their appearance in 2007 with the current one, called Lightning, he commented that it was a connector “for ten years”.
Well, eleven years have passed since the arrival of Lightning, which will begin to say goodbye in 2023. Replacing the connector is not just a simple hardware change. It involves many decisions on the cables and inside the device. Data transfer speed will be one of the keys. Will Apple enable the fastest connection in all its models? Another will be the fast charging power that the iPhone 15 will support (or that which will be available in each of its models). The company’s experts will explain it in the coming days, but it is possible that the full option is in the most expensive models.
Everything indicates that the most basic models (if they can be called that) of the new generation of Apple mobile phones will be the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus. These will have aluminum side bezels and glass backs. Its brothers iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max will replace the shiny steel side bezel with titanium, which will give them even greater rigidity and lighten their weight compared to previous generations. The screens will likely keep the same size ratio as the iPhone 14: 6.1 inches on the iPhone 15 and 15 Pro and 6.7 inches on the iPhone 15 Plus and 15 Pro Max, although the Pro models look slightly larger. large because Apple has used a new manufacturing method that makes the black edges thinner.
One of the significant changes to the entry models will be that they will adopt Dinamic Island, an interface that in the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max takes advantage of the dark area that houses the front camera and the FaceID recognition sensors as an alert point. and the software that runs in the background. Following the pattern of the last generations, the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus will inherit the excellent A16 Bionic chip from the iPhone 14 Pro, while the Pro of the new generation will have an A17 Bionic, the features of which are still unknown.
The A17 Bionic will be manufactured with 3 nanometer technology, compared to 4 nanometers for the A16 Bionic. This reduction in the size of the transistors – a nanometer is one billionth of a meter – will allow more speed and less resistance to the passage of electricity and, as practical consequences, more efficiency, less heating during demanding tasks and greater autonomy, because It will consume less energy. The big performance numbers will be given by Apple in the video, although given the evolution of Apple’s chips it can be assumed that it will be a very powerful chip.
Photography, one of the strongest points of the iPhone, will also offer new features. Most likely, the main camera of the iPhone 15 and 15 Plus will become 48 megapixels, like those of the iPhone 14 Pro. In the new Pro models, larger sensors are expected in the ultra-wide-angle camera and in the zoom, although the most notable is the long-awaited periscopic zoom lens on the iPhone 15 Pro Max, which would allow you to go from x3 to x6 magnifications using hardware, of much higher quality than those made digitally. It is the first time that there is such a significant jump in the two Pro models, which until now only differed in size. It is also possible that the price difference between them will increase.
In addition to USB-C, another “historic” change in the Pro models will be the replacement of the side mute switch that all iPhones have had since their launch 16 years ago with a customizable action button, which will allow each user to decide what it does, from muting the phone, to opening the camera, turning on the flashlight, taking a voice note, starting the digital magnifier and other functions.
iPhones are also expected to be equipped with a new ultra-wideband (UWB) chip called U2 that will replace the U1 used by many Apple devices released from 2019 onwards. This component is used for location functions. Wireless charging could also be faster than current models. As the latest notable development of the iPhone, it is expected that the normal models will be launched in pink, black, white, blue and yellow, and that the Pro will be available in white, black, gray and dark blue.
In the turn for watches, the Apple Watch Series 9 will maintain the two current sizes, 41 and 45 millimeters. The most extreme watch in the house, the Apple Watch Ultra, reaches its second generation and could even adopt some color change. Apple usually gives its products time to settle, without sudden changes, so now it’s time to improve overall performance. This implies a new, faster chip that consumes less energy to give them greater autonomy.
Apple watches have long been expected to have an optical, non-invasive system for measuring blood sugar. This would be a breakthrough for millions of diabetics around the world, but it is not expected for the 2023 presentation. This time, heart rate sensors could be new to improve their efficiency. No major developments are expected, such as the detection of traffic accidents or satellite connectivity for emergency messages in areas without coverage.
The Wonderlust presentation could include some more changes, such as the adoption of USB-C in other devices from the brand, such as AirPods and AirPods Max. Once the change in the iPhone has been decided, and also in the case of the connector used by the latest generations of iPad, it does not make sense to extend the life of Lightning.
