Ahead of its launch later this year, the upcoming iPhone 14 Pro has reportedly entered trial production at a Foxconn facility. The supplier will mass-produce the higher-end models of the iPhone while another Apple partner, Luxshare, will cater to the demand for lower-end models.

A report from the Taiwan Economic Times claims that Foxconn will commence trial production of the iPhone 14 Pro to ensure it meets the Cupertino giant’s standards when mass production begins later this year. The report emphasizes that Luxshare hasn’t yet commenced trial production. This year, it could become Apple’s secondary supplier relegated to producing the more affordable iPhone 14 models that won’t bring in as much profit as the Pro models would.

Reportedly, Luxshare produced about 3 percent of iPhone 13 Pro units for Apple last year after winning the orders for the first time ever. However, this year, it has lost the orders to Foxconn/Hon Hai and would only be assembling the non-Pro models.

According to industry analysts, Apple starts the production process by introducing foundries to the product plan for the year, after which the foundries draw up a bill of materials (BOM) to understand the production and testing machinery required and the requisite processes to ensure Apple’s desired levels of quality. It is typical of Apple to start trial iPhone production sometime in February after their physical form and internal layout of components have been finalized. The trial run will reportedly be used to collect data, evaluate the production process, correct any abnormalities, and evaluate whether the process is acceptable.

The iPhone 14 lineup is expected to feature four variants. Two of the phones are said to have a 6.1-inch display, and two others will have a 6.7-inch screen. Additionally, Apple is expected to ditch the “mini” moniker with the iPhone 14 series.

Rumor has it that the iPhone 14 range will do away with the notch and replace it with a pill-shaped cutout for Face ID hardware and a hole-punch cutout for the selfie camera. The phone could also be upgraded with a 48MP primary camera, up from the 12MP sensor used in the iPhone 13 series. The RAM capacity could also be bumped up from 6GB to 8GB on the Pro variants. Another speculation suggests the iPhone 14 will not have a physical SIM card slot and have as much as 2TB of storage.

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