Photo of glass shards "confirms" change coming to the Apple iPhone XR sequel

Last weekend, we told you about a report out of Japan claiming that Apple will replace two color options for the Apple iPhone XR sequel that will be unveiled this coming September. Again, we will call this device the iPhone 11R, which seems like the most logical choice. The report noted that Apple will replace the coral and blue color options with green and lavender. That would give consumers purchasing the iPhone 11R the option to choose from one of six colors: white, black, yellow, green, lavender and (PRODUCT)Red.

This was corroborated late Monday by a tweet sent from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman (via The Verge). Gurman's tweet included broken shards of glass that could have been parts that were discarded because they didn't pass through Apple's Quality Control. The colors included black, white, yellow, green and purple shards. The missing color is the (PRODUCT)Red hue, but that seems to be a given for Apple. It is unclear where the shards were obtained from.

So far, the iPhone 11R is shaping up to be similar to this year's model with a 6.1-inch Liquid Retina (LCD) display. The unit will be powered by the Apple A13 SoC designed by Apple and manufactured by TSMC. While the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Max will have a triple camera setup on the back, the iPhone 11R will feature a dual camera setup rumored to consist of a 12MP primary camera and a telephoto camera with 2x optical zoom. The additional camera found on the other two more expensive units is believed to offer ultra-wide-angle shots. All of the current evidence suggests that the 2019 iPhones will have their rear cameras housed in a square-shaped module found in the upper left corner on the back. There is a slight camera bump since these modules do not lie flush with the rest of the rear cover.

The iPhone XR has the longest lasting battery life in iPhone history and TF International analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says that if Apple raises the battery capacity on the new model, it will just be a 5% bump to 3089mAh. The company is expected to raise the size of the batteries for all of its 2019 handsets because of a feature that is new to the iPhone, reverse wireless charging. First seen on the Huawei Mate 20 Pro, reverse wireless charging is known as PowerShare on the Samsung Galaxy S10 line. This will allow the iPhone 11R to act as a wireless charging pad, siphoning power from the phone's battery and sending it to the AirPods carrying case, an Apple Watch, or another phone that supports wireless charging.

Besides the color options, Apple is also changing the antenna system on the iPhone 11R (and the other two 2019 models); this will improve indoor navigation on the phones. In addition, Apple will replace the Liquid Crystal Polymer (LCP) it uses with modified polyamide (MPI) on three of the four antennas inside all of the new handsets. This will make it easier to manufacture the 2019 iPhones since LCP causes issues in production that reduce the manufacturing yield.

The Apple iPhone XR was the most popular phone in North America during the first quarter (January through March) making up 13% of smartphone shipments on the continent. It was followed by the Samsung Galaxy S10e and Samsung Galaxy S10+, each with a 6% slice of the pie. The retail price of the phone starts at $749 for the 64GB model, although several carriers are offering deals on the device from time to time. Apple itself has a trade-in offer that takes the price of the iPhone XR down to as low as $299 or 24 monthly payments of $12.49, depending on the iPhone model that you hand over.