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iPhone 11: ‘Leaked’ renders hint at controversial design

Newly ‘leaked’ renders indicate a slightly unattractive design is in line for the nonetheless highly-anticipated iPhone 11.

SlashLeaks have posted CAD renderings from the design stage of the iPhone 11 — and images show that the wide notch is set to stay for another year, and will be joined by a chunky square rear camera module. It’s a little disappointing to see Apple clinging on to a screen design from two years ago at a time when there is so so much variety in style.

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Notches are becoming a somewhat dated adornment to smartphone displays now, tracing their origins back to the distinctive iPhone X in 2017. Since then, it’s emerged that there are multiple alternative ways to maximise display size and include a selfie camera and speaker, without a large top bezel.

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A common solution is the teardrop notch as seen on the Huawei P30 Pro, where only the selfie camera lens intrudes into the display. The Samsung Galaxy S10‘s holepunch notch is a more sophisticated alternative, where a cutout houses the selfie camera in the screen. An even more innovative – and mechanical – solution is shown off by the OnePlus 7 Pro, which has a full-screen display with a pop-up camera unit tucked away when not in use. So we’re disappointed that Apple, so often the design innovators who everyone else follows, haven’t yet led the others into another solution.

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Meanwhile, the rear camera is certainly a change away from the ordinary; we haven’t yet seen one that looks quite like this. But that could be for very good reason. Design is subjective of course, but the three circles crammed into a rounded square look more like a cartoon Swiss cheese than a sophisticated or sleek smartphone, and that might not be what you want to see when you’ve spent over £1000/$1000 on a keystone piece of tech. More worryingly, again, is that the camera bump looks like it will protrude significantly from the back panel — this isn’t ideal when you place it on a flat surface.

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We’ll have to just wait and see if this leaked design is accurate — but it certainly does correspond with the other credible rumours we’ve seen so far regarding the iPhone 11.

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