From www.macworld.com
Image: Chris Martin / Foundry
2027 is the 20th anniversary of the iPhone, and it appears that Apple has some big plans in store. The Information and Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported that Apple is going to dramatically redesign the iPhone with a mostly glass, curved iPhone (that will follow the release of Apple’s first folding phone). On Wednesday, a report by Electronic Times sheds a little bit of light on the display that will be used.
Apple plans to use “four-sided bending display technologies” that would allow the display to wrap around the edges of the iPhone so that the phone would not have a bezel. Apple also plans to implement an OLED display driver chip that is based on a 16nm fin field-effect transistor (FinFET) process, a change from the 28nm planar process currently used. Implementing FinFET will improve power efficiency, but it is not clear if this results in longer battery life or if the power demands of a four-sided bending display and AI processing offset any gains.
One way Apple may address the power demands of the new phone is by using new battery technology, according to the Electronic Times report. Current lithium-ion batteries have a graphite anode, but the 2027 iPhone could use a battery with a silicon anode instead. Silicon anodes store more lithium ions, resulting in higher energy density and longer battery power capacity.
Previous reports have stated that Apple is making an effort to design this iPhone without any screen cutouts or minimize its use. The Information and analyst Ross Young have previously reported that Apple plans to most of the Face ID sensors underneath the display. The Information has also reported that the phone would have a small cutout for the front-facing camera, a cutout that would be smaller than the pill-shaped one in the current iPhone. It’s not clear whether Apple would still offer the Dynamic Island feature if the camera cutout shrinks.
Author: Roman Loyola, Senior Editor, Macworld
Roman is a Macworld Senior Editor with over 30 years of experience covering the tech industry, focusing on the Mac and other products in the Apple ecosystem. He is also the host of the Macworld Podcast. His career started at MacUser, where he received Apple certification as a repair technician (when Apple did that kind of thing). He’s also worked for MacAddict, MacLife, and TechTV.
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