Next iPhones to sport 5G, new FaceID tech: Report

5G is considered the next big thing in the smartphone industry and several major names from the Android universe have already jumped in on the bandwagon with 5G- ready smartphones waiting to go on sale within the next few months. Therefore, you would also expect Apple to be amongst the early adopters of the faster spectrum. Sadly, that won’t be the case.

A recent report from Fast Company states that Apple’s next- generation iPhones won’t be featuring support for 5G spectrum. Apple is relying on Intel’s chips for bringing 5G to their stable as the spat with Qualcomm last year resulted in the former looking to reduce its dependence on the latter.

However, Intel’s 5G modem for smartphones isn’t reportedly fairing well with Apple’s expectations. Apple is presently testing several prototypes with the Intel 8060 modem chips and has ruled out using it on the next iPhones due to issues regarding heat dissipation and power consumption. Therefore, the company will rather skip 5G next year and could opt for Intel’s 8161 modems for its 2020 batch of iPhones ahead.

If Intel’s modem doesn’t get prepared by the 2020 batch of iPhones, Apple is believed to have been directed MediaTek for supplying 5G modems for their smartphones. However, none of this information has been confirmed by Apple as of now.

With the infrastructure under construction, manufacturers are getting ready to embrace 5G technology on smartphones, with Xiaomi already been confirming a 5G Mi MIX 3 and Samsung rumoured to debut the Galaxy S10 with soon- to- be- launched Snapdragon 8150 chip. But that’s not all, according to the popular Apple analyst Ming- Chi Kuo, the next- gen iPhones will get an upgraded Face ID camera system to make it faster, accurate. The Cupertino- based tech giant unveiled its facial biometric authentication system with the 2017 iPhones and same the tech was followed on the 2018 iPhones. First reported by MacRumors, Kuo believes that the 2019 iPhones will make use of an upgraded sensor and will feature a new flood illuminator with increased power. The sensor will help illuminate one’s face “to lower the impacts from visible lights of an environment in order to improve the Face ID user experience.”

“We believe that Apple will raise the output power of the flood illuminator VCSEL to lower the impacts from invisible lights of the environment in order to improve the Face ID user experience. The higher power VCSEL with higher ASP needs increased requirements of design and production, increased materials for array design, and longer testing times. Therefore, the VCSEL supply chain can add higher value,” Kuo said.

Furthermore, the Analyst also indicated that 2019/ 20 iPad models would feature a Time of Flight ( ToF) 3D camera and might be expanded to the iPhone by H2 2020.

The Verge explains, “this type of sensor measures time in which a light dot travels between the camera and subject and can capture 3D images.”