Rumors for Apple’s upcoming 2022 iPhone refresh are persevering with to roll, with Twitter leaker DylanDKT claiming that the iPhone 14 Pro lineup will function a pill-shaped hole-punch design for its front-facing digital camera, with the majority of Apple’s Face ID {hardware} being positioned below the show (as a substitute of an eyesore of a notch).

The report corroborates earlier rumors from well-regarded Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo from late final yr, which additionally claimed that the 2022 iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max can be shifting over to a hole-punch cutout for the digital camera.

Apple made its first main change to the iPhone’s Face ID notch with final yr’s iPhone 13 lineup, which featured a barely smaller notch than the unique design that Apple had used since 2017’s iPhone X.

And shifting the Face ID array beneath the display screen whereas retaining a cutout does make a whole lot of sense: Face ID’s IR-based setup can be much less impacted by the haziness and weak colours that exist for present under-display front-facing cameras, and decreasing the iPhone 14 Pro’s notch to a smaller cutout would put Apple again on even footing with Android opponents, who’ve lengthy since left Apple’s outsized notch within the mud with years of diminutive digital camera cutout designs.

That mentioned, it appears that evidently Apple could be trying to the slimmed-down notch as a design differentiator between the pricier iPhone 14 Pro lineup and the usual iPhone 14 fashions, that are mentioned to be retaining the present Face ID notch.

Additionally, it appears that evidently Apple’s under-display ambitions will nonetheless solely prolong to the Face ID digital camera array: Kuo’s late 2021 report claimed that Apple’s long-rumored plans to convey again its Touch ID sensor within the type of an under-display fingerprint scanner gained’t occur till 2023 on the earliest.

DylanDKT also claims that Apple might be launched an up to date iPhone SE mannequin in 2022, which is able to maintain the identical broad design as the present 2020 SE however add 5G and improved specs. Meanwhile, a foldable iPhone is still said to be within the prototyping section, with Apple reportedly “playing the long game to see how the technology progresses” earlier than it commits to a shopper machine — a declare that’s additionally in keeping with Kuo’s earlier stories.