There have been persistent rumors that Apple will be pulling out all the stops for the 20th anniversary iPhone in 2027. It’s been suggested this will be the year the company will finally achieve its long-held ambition of turning the iPhone into “a single slab of glass.”
What’s meant by this is that there will be no visible bezels and no Dynamic Island or cutout of any kind on the display. While this is already technically achievable, it would involve one significant compromise …
The ‘single slab of glass’ vision
Former Apple design chief Jony Ive was first to use the phrase to describe what he saw as the ultimate iPhone – where the only thing we see when viewing the iPhone from the front is glass and nothing but glass.
No bezels, no Dynamic Island, not even a camera punch-hole. All the front-facing tech would be embedded beneath the display. While Ive is long gone, it is widely believed that Apple retains that vision.
The iPhone X was, of course, the first significant move toward it, eliminating the chin with its Home button. The notch for the selfie camera and Face ID tech was later replaced by a smaller Dynamic Island, and it’s rumored that next year’s iPhone 18 will embed the Face ID module beneath the display, leaving only a small punch hole for the selfie camera.
The 20th anniversary iPhone
While we would normally expect the flagship 2027 iPhone to be called the iPhone 19 Pro, there have been suggestions that Apple would jump straight to iPhone 20 naming to mark the 20th anniversary – or perhaps use a standalone name in the same way it did with the iPhone X and iPhone Air.
If Apple does opt for a name rather than a number, the most commonly speculated one has been the iPhone Ultra. While I could definitely see this, my own thought is that Apple might pull together hardware and software branding by naming it the iPhone Glass.
With the iPhone 18, the one remaining piece of visible interruption to the display will be the front-facing camera. Removing this would mean embedding the camera beneath the display alongside the Face ID tech.
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