iPhone 14 leak: Welcome aboard the hole punch train, Apple

If you've bought a new Android phone in the past two or three years, chances are your phone has a hole in the display where the front-facing camera lives. If a leak is to be believed the iPhone 14 will finally get on board.
The Holey Grail of iPhones.
Yes, this is an Android website where you can learn all about the latest Android news and the best Android phones, and maybe even learn a thing or two you didn't know about how your phone does stuff. But here we are, and we're going to talk about the iPhone 14 and how Apple decided to copy borrow steal innovate copy the design of so many Android phones made by so many other companies.
First, in case you have no idea what I'm talking about, a leak suggests that the iPhone 14 — the model to be released next year — will forego the deep notch in favor of a central hole punch in the display. It will also be thicker to hide the camera bump and look a lot like a great big iPhone 4. Remember, this is a leak and not anything official. Sometimes leaks are wrong. Sometimes they are right. I have no idea if this particular leak will turn out to be true or false.
We expect to see new iPhones that closely resemble the current iPhone very shortly because that's how iPhones work. That and tiny little gnomes to power them. Or maybe it's powerful little processors. One of the two. The current iPhone looks a lot like the last iPhone, and that one looks a lot like the one before it. That's because Apple has been successful and sold a bajillion of the things. It has no reason to change the formula just for the sake of changing it.
Most iPhones look like the iPhone before it. Most.
Every few years, though, Apple does like to shake things up for a generation. Maybe it's making cheap ugly plastic iPhones that everyone hated. Maybe it's dropping the fingerprint sensor everyone loved. These aren't about the design; they are a byproduct. The iPhone X had such a god-awful Pixel 3 XL-esque bathtub notch because it needed to be there to house the Face ID tech Apple wanted to use. The iPhone 5c was plastic because it needed to be cheaper.
So why is now the time for a change? Maybe Apple found a new way to hide the Face ID stuff under the display and decided, "Gee, Samsung has it right. Let's steal that idea." That isn't as crazy as it seems, and the hole might just be the final evolution of the notch. Don't ask me because I still think an eighth-inch bezel is better than either. But I don't design phones and don't get to decide on their level of notchiness or number of holes.
Source: Android Central
The hole punch versus notch debate was silly, but because of how Android works, it was necessary. Every company that makes an Android phone is free to put notches or holes or even a combination of both (don't do it, Samsung) in the display because Google gives Android away without any rules about it. And on some of those phones, it was easy to see why a notch is bad and why a hole is equally bad: both can take away things you want to see.
More important than the notch or the hole is how little disruption it causes.
On the other hand, some companies can build in something like a hole into the software and have very little disruption. Think about how bad some phones from companies not called Samsung handled the placement of the interface compared to how the company that is named Samsung does it. See what I mean? On a Galaxy S or A or Z phone, the hole doesn't cover anything it shouldn't. You also don't have a giant notch that pushes things to the left, to the right, and down. A hole, in these cases, is a win.
Apple can see it's a win. Apple also has complete control over every bit of the iPhone interface and the apps installed on one. It can build the tools to build an app that "knows" if your iPhone has a notch or a hole, make rules about it all for the App Store, and force every single developer to follow them or be banished. Apple can do a hole the right way even better than Samsung can because it holds everything in a single iron fist.
Apple can copy Samsung and do it just as well, or even better.
Apple also knows that its customers have seen a new phone like the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra with a better display that also has more usable space and less notch. Maybe nobody in Cupertino is saying it out loud, but the company knows it could make the change and make customers happier and even more likely to buy another new iPhone. It could even make old iPhones have a different colored bubble in iMessage to drive the point home. OK, even Apple wouldn't go that far.
Really, if this leak is real, this isn't something Apple just did on a whim. The software part is easy enough to sort out, and as long as the Face ID components can be shifted under the display, there is no reason for it to keep that big notch. We should know all the details in 13 months or so.
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Jerry is an amateur woodworker and struggling shade tree mechanic. There's nothing he can't take apart, but many things he can't reassemble. You'll find him writing and speaking his loud opinion on Android Central and occasionally on Twitter.
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The way I see it is Apple going with the punch hole after a couple yrs. Unlike, Android manufacturers as soon as Apple releases a new feature, product, design they rush with a copy /clone version within the next 6-12 months. If this leak is accurate now that iPhone 14 will no longer have a camera bump you'll see how the rest of other manufactures will follow in doing the same.
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It's gone both ways. They copy each other. Please try and keep up.
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We can but hope, camera bumps suck.
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Nah, Apple is just late, very late. Android is already half way to full screen smartphones.
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This leak was almost 100% guaranteed rushed out to "counter" the looks of the Flip3. You know, the brand new Android phone without a fugly camera hump. The reality is, you're doing the classic RDF thing. Setting Apple as year zero, no matter what actually happened in the real world.
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I can't wait for the Pixel 6 pro.
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Apple are inventing a hole in the screen for the camera? So innovative, so brave!
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Sometimes I wonder if the answer for why companies follow each other is more simple. Like for example Samsung starts producing a bunch of displays with holes and OEMs now have the option to also order these displays for their specifications, so they do. A small set of companies make the phone parts so copying certain designs are bound to happen.
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As usual, they're years behind Samsung and other Android brands :-D
What's next on their list of "awesome stuff we'll innovate".... New colours maybe. -
Say what you will about the Sony Xperia line of phones but the fact remains that their choice to keep top and bottom bezels is the ONLY way to go! No punch holes, tear drops, or notches! There's phones out there with dual punch holes...well one elongated punch hole for two selfie lenses. They are all UGLY! I suppose of a punch hole is necessary then I do prefer to see it centered. That way the various icons are far left and right. I use a dark wallpaper so it hides mine anyway. Still, Sony has the right idea in this department despite any other shortcomings.
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Wow! Awesome! Sorry what was that? Just admiring the hole punch in my screen..... Redmi note 10 pro.
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Maybe it is Apple figuring out how to do what they do in a different way, and getting it right before they release it. There is a lot of stuff that current notch supports. I'd be unhappy to see the functionality and security of FaceID to be lost to screen vanity.
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Yeah. I just can't see Apple losing any gains it has made with Face ID. I'm hoping they figured out how to put everything under the panel.
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I'd be happy to see Google go back to the face id. I love it on my 4xl, so sad they've removed it. If Google could copy face id hidden under the screen, I would be on board.