Apple is reportedly preparing a bold redesign for its 20th anniversary iPhone that would eliminate visible camera cutouts entirely. The company is said to be developing advanced under-display camera technology capable of maintaining image clarity while keeping the screen seamless.
According to reports, Apple is planning a significant design change with its 20 th anniversary iPhone, that would drop all the apparent display cutouts and instead set the selfie camera under the screen. Digital Chat Station, a trusted leaker on Weibo, and the recent news by JP Morgan indicate that the company is striving to have an under-display front camera system which would have the display being one hundred percent continuous. This is a technology that should come in 2027, when Apple is making the milestone release of the iPhone.
This is not the first interest that the company has in this approach. And a number of Android manufacturers have tried under-display cameras in the last few years, yet most of the realizations have poorer image quality due to the penetration of light through display layers before reaching the sensor. This is the reason that Apple has supposedly delayed the implementation of this feature, and invested in a long-term solution that can ensure its front-facing cameras remain as sharp and bright as customers want them to be.
There have been reports that LG Innotek, which is one of the suppliers of Apple, has been creating a freeform optical system that incorporates multiple lens elements to constrain distortion and also counteract the loss of light. The technology would enable the screen to be continuous in the case when the camera is not in use and enhance the image fidelity during the operation. Should it be successful, the development would include one of the largest flaws in the existing under-display camera constructions and offer a working basis to Apple to implement.
Although it is still unclear that the technology used by LG Innotek will be directly implemented in the first foldable iPhone, JP Morgan has reported that Apple is already considering a 24-megapixel under-screen camera on the inside display of the first foldable iPhone, and this is way beyond the more conventional 4 or 8MP seen in current designs. It is also believed that the iPhone 2027 will have a radical redesign due to which the screen will be bezel-less, and will curve on all four sides. Following the history of naming its products, the company could possibly not even use the title, i.e. iPhone 19, like it did in case of the product 10th anniversary with the iPhone X in 2017.
This design, paired with an under- display camera and Face ID system would be the next major visual innovation to the iPhone that would create a smooth panel with no visible sensors or holes. Like most of the future Apple technologies, their time frame might be changed according to the development course. Analysts reckon that the under-display Face ID may come in as early as 2026 with the iPhone 18 Pro models, and then the full camera integration a year later. As Apple tends to be conservative and dependable in embracing a new technology, there is likelihood that the company will not release the product until the image quality and uniformity in display satisfy its production requirements.
