This iPhone 12 leak shows big design changes to Apple's flagship

The Apple iPhone 12 could offer a compelling new look for Apple's flagship phone, with a fairly straightforward look that shows how Apple's thinking could be changing after the departure of design wizard Jony Ive. 

The below renders show a shared DNA with Apple's own iPhone 11 Pro, but include rumoured changes like a return to flat sides — shown here with a gorgeous metal finish — and a much smaller top notch.

• This Apple iPhone 12 design is absolute genius
• Apple iPhone 12 Pro video shows the flagship phone fans deserve

Curved edges are often viewed as more comfortable to grip on to if you spend a lot of time with your phone, but the change is a bold one and should help the phone look much cleaner, whether you slap a case on it as shown in the renders, or keep it bare in your pocket. 

Meanwhile, the rumoured shrinking of the top notch is less about a change in design and more about a change for components: that notch packs in the selfie camera and a bunch of different sensor tech for Apple's Face ID system. As the tech in cameras and Face ID gets more advanced, the thinking is that that notch can be made smaller. Here, the speaker has been moved up and the notch looks much cleaner and the screen has more real estate. It's a winner, especially if Apple does drop LCD panels for OLED this year, as is expected. 

The renders are below. 

The above images were published by PhoneArena, and have been sourced from information at the Romanian phone case outfit MobileDirect. The fact this information has come from a case maker is good: it explains the clear case around the outside of the device, and while you should always look at unofficial releases with a pinch of salt, case makers are often given the schematics on phones early so they can have cases ready for you to protect your brand new fondleslab. This gives it a slight ring of truth.

However, one big disparity is the number of cameras on the render and the rumours about what Apple will be packing into their phones: this render has three cameras packed into the camera bump, while the popular theories around the iPhone 12's feature-set is that the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Max will pack two cameras and the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max will have four cameras.

In addition to the changes seen here, these iPhones are expected to be the first to make utilise 5G, and will pack in a new A14 Bionic chipset.

Expect the iPhone to be unveiled in an event this Autumn. Due to the ongoing pandemic, it's unclear whether the iPhone's release will be slightly delayed, or even what shape the event might take, although it wouldn't be surprising to see the event presented from home as we've seen from a recent Microsoft Xbox Series X reveal.

• Best phones