Four years after the original iPhone X was announced, the iPhone 13 brings with it the first changes to Apple’s controversial notch. Here’s how the new version compares to the old one.
Apple’s new notch is 20% smaller in width, but a little taller
Apple didn’t spend much time talking about its updated notch design, despite the obsession before the event. It instead revealed that it’s 20% smaller and swiftly moved on to more interesting iPhone 13 features.That size decrease can be attributed to the repositioning of the in-ear speaker, which now sits along the edge of the frame leaving more room in the middle of the notch for Apple’s TrueDepth camera system.
Overall, the updated notch sees a significant reduction in width, though that comes at the expensive of a little increase in height. The difference is barely noticeable in the images but superimposing the iPhone 12 on to the iPhone 13 highlights the change.
Interestingly, iOS 15 doesn’t seem to have been designed to take advantage of the extra screen real estate on either side of the notch. In other words, those of you hoping Apple would start displaying the battery percentage are out of luck.
Further down the road, perhaps as soon as 2023, Apple may remove all camera cutouts entirely and go for an all-screen iPhone. That’s dependent on under-display technology being ready for the masses, though.
