Kuo: iPhone 13 lineup will get 120Hz screens, smaller notch, and more

iPhone 12 Pro review
iPhone 12 Pro review (Image credit: Daniel Bader / iMore)

What you need to know

  • Kuo says that the 120Hz ProMotion display will be part of the iPhone 13 Pro models.
  • All iPhone 13 models will have smaller notches, however.

Apple's iPhone 13 lineup will all ship with smaller notches than previous models according to a new research note penned by Ming-Chi Kuo. The iPhone 13 Pro models will also benefit from a new 120Hz ProMotion display.

In a research note seen by iMore, Kuo backs up previous claims by the likes of Jon Prosser that 120Hz screens will finally come to the iPhone lineup in 2021. There had been strong rumors that last year's iPhone 12 Pro would offer such a feature – although that ultimately didn't happen. Some had suggested that power consumption was a concern, something that might have been dealt with by the use of a new low-power LPTO technology. Rumors of such a move circulated late last year.

Similar to iPhone 12 Pro, Kuo believes that the two iPhone 13 Pro models will be the only ones with a LiDAR scanner included. Screen sizes will also be the same as last year's models, according to the report.

The inclusion of a smaller notch is another point that has been bandied around in recent weeks and continues to gain traction. What Apple will do with the extra space afforded by a smaller notch isn't clear, if indeed it will make any functional difference to how iOS 15 handles itself.

Apple will likely announce four new devices; iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Pro, and iPhone 13 Pro Max in or around September. There is also the suggestion that the names will instead follow the 'iPhone 12s' convention given the relatively small changes compared with last year's models.

Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.