Fetching iPhone 12 concept renders highlight Apple's design strengths and weaknesses

If you were hoping for something extravagant or leftfield from Apple for the iPhone 12’s design then you might want to choose a different OEM to support. The company has become (in)famous for offering up new iterations of products with seemingly minimal changes, although in fairness often the greatest alterations have been made to the important components that make up the interior. PhoneArena has gone to great lengths to mock up some images of what the iPhone 12 could end up looking like, and while the renders themselves are impressive, the expected changes are less so.

As has been pointed out more than once, the iPhone 12 renders show off a design language that is more reminiscent of the straighter lines found on the iPhone 4 and iPhone 5 rather than more recent models. While most OEMs continue to produce smartphones with palm-friendly rounded edges, it appears Apple could be contemplating a design that would at least help the iPhone 12 standout from the ever increasing crowd of similar-looking devices. Following the beat of its own drum was often considered to be one of Apple's strengths.

PhoneArena has also decided to give the iPhone 12 a noticeable notch in the new concept renders. Although it has been rumored that Apple might finally do away with the notch for the iPhone 11’s successor, chances are it will turn up again in some form for the next series. However, it is clearly less “generous” in size in the 2020 version of the iPhone, which should be enough to please some of those that aren’t fans of the display obstacle. But insisting on the notch's continued implementation despite general critical opinion of it would demonstrate one of Apple's weaknesses - failing to meet expectations.

There’s also a very noticeable difference on the rear of the 2020 iPhone, with the triple camera setup of the iPhone 11 series being replaced by a quad-camera system. The renders show Apple sticking with the square housing format for grouping the multiple sensors, with the arrangement looking like the four-dot side of a regular die. Joining the wide camera, ultra wide camera, and telephoto camera is a ToF sensor. The render creators have admitted the latter lens would likely be much smaller in reality, but the artistic symmetry presented in the images does look tidier, even though the rear-facing camera setup itself is starting to look somewhat bulky overall.