Former Apple design chief Jony Ive always described his long-term vision for the iPhone design as “a single slab of glass.” Apple is believed to have retained that goal long after Ive left the company, with Liquid Glass representing the company’s software prep ahead of the new hardware.
We’ve already seen reports of a number of ways in which the 20th anniversary iPhone could take us significantly closer to Apple’s vision, and the latest of these may provide another piece of the puzzle …
What we’re expecting
It had initially been thought that Apple might create a standalone special edition 20th anniversary iPhone, although more recent reports suggest that it will instead be the iPhone 19 Pro that gets all the design features intended to create that glass slab look. To further complicate matters, some believe Apple will skip the iPhone 19 naming in order to mark the anniversary, calling it the iPhone 20 Pro.
This far ahead, the reports are highly speculative in nature, but the key design feature is expected to be a display which curves away from the front on all four sides in order to create the illusion of no bezel at all.
Top comment by Jason
Personally I don't really care about glass vs aluminum on the back. Or at least, it's not going to sway my purchasing decisions one way or another. That said, metal, or mostly metal, would be my preference just from a durability standpoint. My iPhones have all lived in cases since the original one back in '07 though.
Highly curved edges like what Samsung had on the Edge, that could be a deal breaker though. As I said, my iPhones all live in cases, and a highly beveled edge could cause issues there. And depending on the implementation a highly beveled edge causes handling/use issues even without a case. There's a reason why Samsung moved away from this design on their flagship phones and back to flat screens. And the all-flat screen on my Apple Watch Ultra is actually one of the things I really like about its form-factor vs the regular Apple Watch.
It’s looking near-certain that this will be the year when Apple is finally able to embed the Face ID module beneath the display, with hopes that the front-facing camera and speaker will likewise sit under the screen.
A combination of all of these would provide a very convincing single slab of glass look.
Glass back
Leaker Fixed Focus Digital now says there will be another component to the look: namely a return to a glass back instead of the aluminium seen on recent models.
For next year’s Apple iPhone 20, the preferred approach is a return to a glass back, with manufacturing quality likely on par with the first-generation Air. The production facilities have already been prepared.
While a glass back makes for a more fragile device, it would for sure contribute to that single slab of glass look. Would you consider this an acceptable trade-off for a highly futuristic design? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
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