Latest Apple iPhone 12 leaks: 120Hz ProMotion, 5G, larger batteries, improved cameras and more

The latest leaks pertaining to the 5G 2020 Apple iPhone 12 family have been disseminated by XDA's Max Weinbach and EverythingApplePro and the most important news is that 120Hz ProMotion will be included with the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max. ProMotion is the name that Apple has given to the 120Hz refresh rate that it has offered on the iPad Pro since 2017. At 120Hz, the display is refreshed 120 times per second. Apple reportedly was aiming for 120Hz or 60Hz and 90Hz was not considered an option.

With the ProMotion system, the display on the "Pro" models will switch between 60Hz and 120Hz depending on the content. This is done to save battery life although Apple is planning on increasing battery capacity some more for this year's models. From personal experience, yours truly can tell you that the battery life on the iPhone 11 Pro Max is incredible. Usually, there is anywhere from 30% to 50% battery life remaining when we shut down at 3 am after a full day of moderately heavy to heavy usage. The combination of 5G and ProMotion is going to require more battery power and Apple is expected to pack the iPhone 12 Pro Max with a 4400mAh battery providing a 10.9% hike from the 3969mAh battery inside the iPhone 11 Pro Max. The logic board on the iPhone 12 Pro models will be split into two parts according to tipster Jon Prosser. A ribbon cable will connect the two parts and it is believed that this is being done to help accommodate the larger battery used in each "Pro" unit.

We expect Apple to offer four new iPhone models for 2020. There should be a 5.4-inch iPhone 12, a 6.1-inch iPhone 12 Plus, a 6.1-inch iPhone 12 Pro, and the 6.7-inch iPhone 12 Pro Max. All four will be powered by the A14 Bionic chipset which could be the first 5nm chip found inside a smartphone. With 15 billion transistors inside (compared to the 8.5 billion in the A13 Bionic), the A14 Bionic could deliver a nice jump in performance with improved energy consumption. 6GB of memory will reportedly be deployed on the Pro models with 4GB on the other variants. All four phones are expected to work with both high-band mmWave 5G signals and the low to mid-band Sub-6GHz 5G signals.

The camera lenses on the new phones will be 5mm larger in length and width. With that said, we could see an improvement in low-light photography on the 2020 iPhones with 2 to 3 times faster autofocus. Image stabilization will also be improved and earlier this year TF International analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that the iPhone 12 Pro Max would have a new technology called Sensor-shift image stabilization. This adjusts the sensor to remove the "shakes" instead of the lens. The latest word is that there is a chance that this will be included in the 6.1-inch iPhone 12 Pro as well.

The iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Plus will include Wide and Ultra-wide cameras while the Pro models will add a telephoto lens delivering 3x optical zoom, and the LiDar depth sensor introduced on the latest iPad Pro models. The LiDar sensor uses time of flight technology to improve AR capabilities and could be used for enhanced Portraits on the iPhone 12 Pro units. The LiDar sensor will be found on the bottom right of the camera. Apple was testing a 64MP camera for the upcoming series, but engineers were not happy with the outcome so you should expect 12MP sensors for this year. Apple has also improved the microphones on the iPhone 12 series including the audio zoom feature.

The design of the new phones will be reminiscent of the iPhone 5 with flat sides replacing the rounded ones. The new design is said to be holding up well in Apple's internal drop testing according to Weinbach. And for those who despise the notch, on this year's models they are going to be smaller. Face ID, says Weinbach, will have wider field-of-view allowing it to unlock an iPhone 12 series handset from different angles.

Apple will also be adding a new color option for the iPhone 12 Pro series and that is Navy Blue. Unfortunately, it will be replacing Midnight Green which turned out to be a hit among iPhone 11 Pro buyers.