The 5.4" iPhone 12 5G display leaks in the flesh, guns for the ‘best small phone’ title

This would be a brand new form factor for Apple, sitting right smack between the 4.7″ iPhone SE, and the 6.1″ iPhone 12 models, but will offer powerful hardware in a package a tad smaller than the SE. 

Want to look at Apple’s brand new display size? Look no further than this leak post uneearthed by Seekdevice, apparently coming directly from the assembly lines in China, that allegedly depicts the 5.4″ screen panel of the upcoming iPhone 12.

As you can see from the second image, the panel is rather small indeed, and the tipster, who has a good track record of leaking stuff before it’s official, mentions that the screen could very well be used “one-handed.”

Expected Apple iPhone 12 5G specs and price:

• Apple iPhone 12 dimensions: 5.15 x 2.51 inches (131 x 64 mm)
• Apple iPhone 12 display size and resolution: 5.4″, 960 x 2079 pixels OLED display w/ integrated touch
• Apple iPhone 12 processor: 5nm Apple A14
• Apple iPhone 12 cameras: 12MP main + 12MP ultrawide
• Apple iPhone 12 battery capacity: 2227mAh
• Apple iPhone 12 price range: $699-$749

Other than that expected revelation, the 5.4″ iPhone 12 display doesn’t look out of the ordinary and will be a good fit for the design language Apple introduced every since it came out with the iPhone X, notch and all. If there is a notch shrinkage, as rumor has it, it is very minimal, and the top bezel protrusion still occupies a significant space at the top.

Recently, the expansion of Apple’s Digital Zoom feature in iOS 14 to encompass 5.8-inchers like the iPhone 11 or 11 Pro, tipped that it may be preparing to scale the iOS interface for smaller form factors with a notch, and that’s exactly the one it does it for that you are seeing in the pictures here. 

Said scaling is done for a new 960 x 2079 resolution which is shaping up to be the one on the rumored 5.4″ iPhone 12. For comparison, the 5.8″ iPhone X, XS, or 11, have 1125 x 2436 pixels displays, returning the same aspect ratio.

Whoever takes part in the iOS 14 beta testing, may have noticed the Display Zoom menu appearing on the iPhone X, XS, and 11 Pro that didn’t have it before, simply because the iPhone X was released with a 5.8″ screen size and a notch, and Apple hasn’t had to scale the notch-y interface below that diagonal so far. 

The 6.5″ XS Max or 11 Pro Max have Digital Zoom setting that simply scale the interface to what you would see on the 5.8-inchers, enlarging everything in the process. Thus, the arrival of the Digital Zoom option on the 5.8-inchers with iOS 14 hints that there might be a smaller iPhone with a notch in the works. Moreover, just like in 2018 when the iOS 12 beta tipped the new XS Max screen resolution in Apple’s Xcode iOS Simulator, now the only resolution below that of the 5.8-inchers that iOS 14 beta 3 runs on, is 960 x 2079 pixels.

The 424 pixels-per-inch density that our calculations return for the 5.4″ diagonal and 960 x 2079 pixels resolution is way above Apple’s Retina Display standards, so, at least in that respect, the iPhone 12 may prove to be superior than the 6.1″ iPhone 12 Max, if the latter again ships with an HD+ screen, albeit of the OLED variety. 

That one has 324 PPI density and the graininess in its display is rather visible for today’s standards, so we are curious to see if Apple has upped the iPhone 12 Max resolution a bit, now that it is reportedly moving the whole fall crop to the OLED display bandwagon for the first time in its phone-making history.