New 2019 iPhone details: 120FPS slo-mo video selfies, revamped Taptic Engine code-named “Leap Haptics”

Taptic Engine, Apple’s marketing name for a custom vibration motor that delivers unique and subtle vibration patterns, should undergo a redesign because the iPhone models coming down the pike this year are expected to ship without 3D Touch.

A report by 9to5Mac doesn’t make it clear if a revamped Taptic Engine would make its way into new iPhones or other devices as well. For context, the Taptic Engine motor also provides tactile sensations in the form of vibrations to users of Apple Watch, Mac notebooks and Magic Trackpad 2.

Other details from the report:

According to people who’ve seen the devices, all three iPhone 11 models will still feature a Lightning port, contrary to some speculation that they would be moving to USB-C after the change on iPad Pro last year.

The ‘iPhone 11’ models are known as D42 (iPhone12,3) which will replace the iPhone XS; D43 (iPhone12,5) which will replace the iPhone XS Max; and N104 (iPhone12,1) which will replace the iPhone XR. D42 and D43 will have a 3x OLED Retina display, while N104 will still feature the 2x Liquid Retina display just like the current generation. All three iPhones will feature the same screen resolution as their predecessors.

Aside from a reworked Taptic Engine, a trio of new Apple smartphones coming in September should bring slow-motion video capture at 120 frames per second to the front-facing camera, making possible super-smooth video selfies at four times the frames than currently.

These handsets should boost your selfie game with an upgraded front camera sensor, going from the current seven-megapixel module to a twelve-megapixel selfie sensor, reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said in April. For what it’s worth, Indian website CompareRaja reported in January that the next iPhones would feature a ten-megapixel front camera and a fourteen-megapixel rear setup.

TUTORIAL: How to adjust hold duration for 3D Touch

As for a redesigned Taptic Engine, that bit doesn’t come as a surprise. We already saw expanded use of Haptic Touch in iOS 13, which is Apple’s marketing name for a tap-and-hold + haptic feedback combo on non-3D Touch devices. Apple also raised eye-browse by releasing an iPhone without 3D Touch last year, the XR. Prior to that, the company was caught removing 3D Touch features from iOS only to bring them back a few updates later.

Taptic Engine was refreshed for iPhone 7 two years ago with a range of way subtler vibration patterns than before. Apple also released a Taptic Engine API so developers could implement custom tactile sensations in their own apps.

According to Barclays, Apple could move to a fullscreen Touch ID sensor in 2020 iPhones.