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Apple is reportedly making a 5.5-inch entry-level iPhone

Apple is reportedly making a 5.5-inch entry-level iPhone

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Apple was already rumored to release a 4.7-inch model

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Photo by James Bareham / The Verge

Apple is reportedly planning to launch a new 5.5-inch entry-level iPhone, according to evidence found in iOS 14 by 9to5Mac. It has been rumored for some time that Apple would soon release a new 4.7-inch LCD phone that reuses the iPhone 8 design with updated internals, but this is the first indication that Apple may release a “Plus” version — and given the apparent 5.5-inch screen size, this new phone will presumably reuse the iPhone 8 Plus’ design.

The new phones will also apparently have a solid state home button like the original iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, rely on Touch ID instead of Face ID, and come with Apple Pay’s Express Transit feature, which lets you just hold your phone near a transit terminal to pay for transit. The new phones will also apparently be able to scan NFC tags without requiring a user to open up an app, a feature that’s only currently available on the iPhone XS, iPhone XR, and iPhone 11.

The new 4.7-inch entry-level iPhone will start at $399, will be available with either 64GB or 128GB of internal storage, and will come in gray, silver, or red, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. It’s unclear what the pricing of this new 5.5-inch model will be, but previous “Plus”-sized phones have cost $100 more than the comparable 4.7-inch version. Kuo said in October that Apple will launch the new 4.7-inch entry-level phone at the end of March, and this rumored 5.5-inch model would presumably launch at the same time.