Apple’s iPhone 20 is shaping up as the company’s most dramatic redesign in years, with reports pointing to a fall 2027 launch and a front that could finally lose every visible cutout. The anniversary model is said to be built around curved glass, a return to a glass back and a cleaner display that would carry Face ID and the selfie camera beneath the panel.
That is why the rumors are drawing attention now. Apple’s 10th anniversary iPhone X reset the phone in 2017 by dropping the Home button and stretching the screen edge to edge, and the 20th anniversary model is expected to push the design language much further. ’s Mark Gurman has described it as a mostly glass, curved iPhone without any cutouts in the display, a phrase that neatly captures the appeal and the difficulty of what Apple is said to be trying to build.
The display plan is where the story gets technical. Apple is said to want an equal-depth quad-curved panel with very shallow curves rather than the aggressive waterfall edges seen on some phones, and one report said the effect could depend on optical refraction, light-guiding structures and a carefully engineered visual illusion. Another report even floated the name Liquid Glass Display. A separate mock-up went as far as showing a bezel of just 1.1mm, which would make the device look almost like one continuous sheet of glass.
But the cleanest version of that idea may still be out of reach. Apple reportedly wants both Face ID and the selfie camera under the display, and one report described a spliced micro-transparent glass window that would let Face ID’s infrared sensors pass through the panel. Ross Young of DSCC has said that the under-display technology is unlikely to be fully ready for 2027, which leaves open the possibility that Apple keeps a small hole-punch or a reduced Dynamic Island-style cutout on the front of the phone.
Size may change too. Apple is reportedly planning two anniversary models at roughly 6.3 inches and 6.9 inches, with the larger version possibly marketed as a 7-inch device because the bezels are expected to shrink enough to make the screen feel fractionally bigger. The frame is expected to be a thin polished band, and some rumors point to a move away from the aluminum used on current models, though Fixed Focus Digital has said aluminum remains the likely material. For Apple, the real question is whether the iPhone 20 arrives as the no-cutout statement the company appears to want, or as a bridge design that still leaves one small opening on a phone meant to mark a new era.
