iPhone 13 could have the one big upgrade we've been waiting for

iPhone xiii could take the one large upgrade nosotros've been waiting for

(Epitome credit: Future)

The iPhone 13 could fix one of the most annoying iPhone flaws since we've all started wearing masks. But it might not be ready for launch.

Apple's Confront ID is arguably the all-time confront-unlocking engineering available on phones, as information technology can handle secure mobile payments as well as unlock your handset. But Face ID hasn't fared particularly well during the coronavirus pandemic.

Because Apple tree'due south confront recognition feature needs to meet your whole face — including the parts you lot should be covering with a mask when you're out in public to slow the spread of COVID-19 — y'all're reduced to entering in your passcode if you want to use Apple tree Pay or unlock your iPhone. But Apple could be working on a more permanent set up, a prominent leaker claims.

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Jon Prosser writes that Apple is currently testing out revamped Confront ID hardware that would exist able to work with masks. Prosser'southward study, which is attributed to unnamed sources, claims that the hardware is being tested out using a prototype example that slips over the iPhone 12 to mimic the new Face ID sensors coming with this autumn'due south iPhone 13.

"By our measurements, the prototype array matches the same layout that we saw in the iPhone 13 CAD files that we made public back in June," Prosser writes at Front Page Tech, which also includes a CAD rendering of the image array reportedly existence used to test out the new version of Face ID.

iPhone 12 FaceID prototype — A CAD rendering of what Apple'due south Face ID prototype allegedly looks like (Image credit: Front Page Tech)

If the written report is true — and Prosser has a mixed record when information technology comes to his Apple forecasts — it would exist a very big bargain for Apple and its future iPhones. Such a feature would allow iPhone users to unlock their phones while staying masked up, with no additional hardware or work-arounds required.

In the 18 months since the coronavirus pandemic introduced usa to a world of confront masks and social distancing, Apple has fabricated a few attempts to make unlocking your iPhone less of a hassle when you lot're wearing a mask. That includes bringing up the passcode screen when Confront ID detects a mask every bit well equally an iOS fourteen.5 feature that lets you unlock your phone if y'all're also wearing an Apple Picket.

Of course, not anybody ones an Apple Watch (though Apple tree would love it if they did), and fifty-fifty then, the iOS 14.5 update only works with unlocking, not with verifying Apple Pay payments. Apple's going to need a more permanent solution, and that appears to be what the company is testing right now, based on Prosser's report.

What nosotros don't get in the Prosser report is whatsoever sort of time frame equally to when an updated Face ID feature could launch. With the iPhone 13 gear up to debut next calendar month, that doesn't go out a lot of time for Apple to perfect what would seemingly be a pretty complicated feature.

Of class, the revamped Face ID doesn't necessarily have to debut at the same time equally the iPhone 13. Assuming the new iPhones take the necessary sensors already in place — and the Prosser report suggests that they will — turning the feature on could be a affair of a future software update afterwards the phones are already on auction.

That said, we'd take any study of an unannounced iPhone feature with a healthy amount of skepticism, no matter what the source. Until more than details emerge, rumored Face up ID improvements are closer to the "wishful thinking" stop of the spectrum than they are to "almost certainly a reality."

Still, Apple tree clearly has an incentive to brand its Face ID applied science capable of working with masks. The rise of COVID-19's Delta variant suggests that masks are going to remain a role of the affliction-fighting arsenal for some time. And it's going to exist necessary for the smartphones we tote around to recognize that new fact of life.

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Philip Michaels is a senior editor at Tom'south Guide. He has potent opinions about Apple tree, the Oakland Athletics and old movies. Follow him at @PhilipMichaels.