What you need to know
- Chinese display maker BOE has partnered with touch panel maker General Interface Solutions.
- The companies are reportedly setting themselves up to manufacture Apple's 5.4-inch iPhone 12.
- The 5.4-inch iPhone, if true, will be Apple's smallest notched phone.
The iPhone 12 has been long rumored to come in three different sizes - a 5.4-inch model, two 6.1-inch models, and one 6.7-inch model. Now, it sounds like at least one of the phones has a possible manufacturer for its display.
According to a new report by DigiTimes, Chinese display maker BOE has partnered with touch panel maker General Interface Solutions to try and win over Apple and provide the OLED display for the rumored 5.4-inch iPhone 12.
Apple is rumored to release four iPhone 12 models this fall, according to supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Each device is projected to feature 5G, OLED displays, and sport a new redesign similar to that of the iPhone 4.
A 5.4-inch iPhone 12 would mark the smallest notched display that Apple has shipped yet. The current smallest notched display, by comparison, is the 5.8-inch iPhone 11 Pro. Because of its notched display, a 5.4-inch iPhone 12 would boast even a smaller footprint than the iPhone 8.
A smaller display on a more feature-rich would be welcomed by many, as there is still a huge demand from customers for the rumored iPhone 9, the successor to the beloved iPhone SE.
That said, the 5.4-inch iPhone is predicted to be treated more like a mid-range device and will most likely lack features like the triple camera system and new time-of-flight sensors expected in the higher-end models.
Joe Wituschek is a Contributor at iMore. With over ten years in the technology industry, one of them being at Apple, Joe now covers the company for the website. In addition to covering breaking news, Joe also writes editorials and reviews for a range of products. He fell in love with Apple products when he got an iPod nano for Christmas almost twenty years ago. Despite being considered a "heavy" user, he has always preferred the consumer-focused products like the MacBook Air, iPad mini, and iPhone 13 mini. He will fight to the death to keep a mini iPhone in the lineup. In his free time, Joe enjoys video games, movies, photography, running, and basically everything outdoors.
