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Apple's 20th Anniversary iPhone: What We Know So Far

I upgrade just about every year. I like the improvements they make year two year. The move to 12 GB of RAM, better cameras, better thermal control, all sound very appealing to me. I use Apple Intelligence daily, so I would expect improvement there to delight me as well.

I would definitely be one of the first in line to get a 20th anniversary phone as described. I am not so sure about a folding phone, however. The main drawback to me is going back to fingerprint ID, which never works well for me.
 
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2+ years out. We don’t really “know” anything yet, everything can change in that timeframe.
Every single component will be different/upgraded, and the folks here will complain that Apple can’t innovate and is behind. Smartphones are mature, 2 form factors (slab and foldable), pick the one you like and use it as a tool.
 
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darngooddesign said:
Can't believe people are still complaining about AirPower.
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Because it was really the start of the overconfident "big ideas" era, where they thought they could swagger in anywhere with money and people and make the impossible happen. And instead of learning the lesson the first time they kept repeating it.

So not complaining, more like cringing at them really swinging for the fences, on a novelty feature for their most important product. Just hope it get announced as "Available today", versus months or quarters ahead (or worse, for preorder) when production hasn't been figured out yet.
 
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Sippincider said:
Because it was really the start of the overconfident "big ideas" era, where they thought they could swagger in anywhere with money and people and make the impossible happen. And instead of learning the lesson the first time they kept repeating it.

So not complaining, more like cringing at them really swinging for the fences, on a novelty feature for their most important product. Just hope it get announced as "Available today", versus months or quarters ahead (or worse, for preorder) when production hasn't been figured out yet.
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I would argue they have always done that, we just don't know about most of it.
 
MacRumors said:
With the 10th anniversary of the iPhone, Apple unveiled the all-display iPhone X with no bezels at the top or the bottom for the camera or the Touch ID home button. It marked the debut of Face ID, and dictated the next decade of iPhone design.
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It’s very common for critics to deride how similar each successive iPhone has been, but to Apple’s credit, Tim actually told us during the iPhone X reveal that it’s design would “set the path for technology for the next decade”.

We weren’t paying attention!
 
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Radeon85 said:
Can't believe the iPhones X is getting close to 10 years old, that went by fast.
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The best iphone by far, in terms of features and build. The next anniversary is up for some real stiff competition to beat the X.

Changes to camera bumps, buttons are not counted as upgrades in other words Cook must deliver after 20 years of nada.
 
MacRumors said:


2027 will mark the 20th anniversary of the iPhone, and Apple is planning to celebrate with an all-new iPhone design. With the 10th anniversary of the iPhone, Apple unveiled the all-display iPhone X with no bezels at the top or the bottom for the camera or the Touch ID home button. It marked the debut of Face ID, and dictated the next decade of iPhone design.

All-Screen-iPhone-2027-Feature-1.jpg

For the "iPhone XX," Apple needs to do even better, and rumors suggest that the company has some big ideas that it's aiming for.

Apple wants to create an all-glass iPhone that doesn't have cutouts in the display, so there could be a high-end iPhone 19 Pro model that fulfills that requirement. Apple wants a true edge-to-edge display

Design

The 20th anniversary iPhone that Apple is planning for 2027 could feature a radical design, offering a display that has no visible frame or bezels. An early rumor suggests that Apple is aiming for a display that curves around all four edges of the device, for a borderless visual experience.

Beyond-iPhone-13-Better-Triad.jpg

Apple wants a mostly glass iPhone with a curved display and no cutouts, which would necessitate under-display Face ID and an under-display camera.

An all-glass iPhone with a wraparound display that covers all four edges of the device would be less durable than current iPhone models that have titanium or aluminum frames, so Apple may need to come up with more durable glass before such a device is a possibility.

Battery

Apple is developing new battery technology that could make it into the 2027 iPhone models. Apple is looking into using pure silicon anode batteries, which are able to store more lithium ions per gram than current batteries, resulting in significant increases in battery life without major increases in battery size.

RAM

Apple could use advanced AI memory technology for the 2027 iPhone models. Apple is rumored to be considering Mobile High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), a type of DRAM that stacks memory chips vertically and connects them through tiny vertical interconnects to boost signal transmission speeds.

In smartphones, the technology would provide high data throughput while minimizing power consumption and the physical footprint of RAM dies.

Name

Technically, the 20th anniversary iPhone lineup would be the iPhone 19 lineup, but in 2017, Apple released a surprise "iPhone X" alongside the iPhone 8 models. This year, Apple could have similar plans for the high-end device, though what it might be called is unclear.

Apple could decide to call it the iPhone 20, like the decision it made for the iPhone X in 2017, or the company could stick with the iPhone 19 naming. Alternatively, the all-display device could have an entirely new name, like iPhone Ultra.

The iPhone that Apple has planned could be a replacement for the iPhone Pro models, or it could be sold alongside them. With plans for a foldable iPhone in 2026, though, it may not make sense to add yet another phone to the lineup.

Launch Date

The 20th anniversary iPhone would presumably come out in the fall of 2027.

Article Link: Apple's 20th Anniversary iPhone: What We Know So Far
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This is so cool!
 
LoveTo said:
The only innovation I’m waiting for is being able to get rid of the hideous camera bump. I miss being able to set the phone down flat, without a case. I’m fairly certain it’s not happening anytime soon. Fingers crossed for iPhone XXX!!
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Agree. Doesn’t sit flat with most cases either so that could fixed as well.
 
The all screen display sounds good but the foldable will be similar with likely no punch hole either. as it will be full screen in outer display even next year.
 
Spongmincer said:
Agree. Doesn’t sit flat with most cases either so that could fixed as well.
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There is a technical reason for the camera bump ... you need a certain size (depth) in the camera optics to get good image quality and you can imagine the reaction if Apple's latest iPhone camera had worse image quality than the previous generation! Size matters in optics (why do astronomers build bigger and bigger telescopes?) and no amount of "AI" will compensate for the limitations imposed by physics 101. The alternative is to make the whole phone thicker.

If Apple had some imagination (they don't), they could have a folding phone, total thickness say 10mm, with a top bar housing the rear-facing cameras that did not fold. Or some other novel form factor that ensured great image quality. But no, next years models are incremental improvements on this years models, maximising Apple's profit. The most we might get is a new colour.
 
jwolf6589 said:
Hey I use Dynamic Island for sports, timers, among other things!!!!!!!!!!
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The nice thing about the Dynamic Island is that it can be retained even after moving the Face ID and camera hardware under the glass.
It’s such a good feature and it deserves to be kept.
 
ThomasJL said:
Cook is too clueless to know how to count. The only counting he knows how to do is bean counting.
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Steve Jobs’s Apple went from FinalCut Pro 7 to 10, name the second generation iPhone the 3G, name the fifth iPhone the 4S and kept macOS at version number 10.X for basically his entire second run at the company.
Not to mention going from iLife 2006 to 2008 (despite it being released in 2007), then from iLife2009 to iLife 2011 (again despite the fact it was released in 2010)..
To act as if Apple’s weird naming started under Tim and hasn’t been a thing since the 80s is delusional.
 
I
ChrisMac47 said:
There is a technical reason for the camera bump ... you need a certain size (depth) in the camera optics to get good image quality and you can imagine the reaction if Apple's latest iPhone camera had worse image quality than the previous generation! Size matters in optics (why do astronomers build bigger and bigger telescopes?) and no amount of "AI" will compensate for the limitations imposed by physics 101. The alternative is to make the whole phone thicker.

If Apple had some imagination (they don't), they could have a folding phone, total thickness say 10mm, with a top bar housing the rear-facing cameras that did not fold. Or some other novel form factor that ensured great image quality. But no, next years models are incremental improvements on this years models, maximising Apple's profit. The most we might get is a new colour.
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Most critics of the camera bump understand this and are not asking for worse image quality but simply to make the whole phone thicker so the bump disappear and there is a lot more space for better battery life.
 
I have a hard time seeing how Apple will introduce 3 new high end iPhone formats at the same time essentially...super thin iPhone, all glass bezel free iPhone and foldable iPhone, all predicted to be newly introduced within a year or two of each other. It will really split the niche, early adopter, price is no object crowd and canabalize their own sales, so none of these products will appear to sell well. I wonder if perhaps the foldable will actually be an iPad instead, and maybe the super thin model will not be a premium tier product so the choice will be more clear.
 
MrRom92 said:
That was another catchup because they previously doubled up on numbers.
iPhone X actually was the 11th iPhone, they were still behind the count despite skipping a number.. we are STILL behind. And if the 21st iPhone is iPhone XX, for the first time they will actually be ahead of the count.


1 - Iphone
2 - 3G
3 - 3GS
4 - 4
5 - 4S (uh oh)
6 - 5 (now we have a problem)
7 - 5S (oh dear)
8 - 6 (we are still behind the count)
9 - 6S
10 - 7
11 - X
12 - XS
13 - 11
14 - 12
15 - 13
16 - 14
17 - 15
18 - 16
19 - 17
20 - 18
21 - XX
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They should rip off the bandaid and just name the iphones after the year (like samsung did when they switched to S20 in 2020)

iPhone 2027, iPhone 2028 Pro Max, iPhone Fold 2029 etc.

Though probably a big reason why they won't do this is because they release a phone late in the year; so for much of the lifecycle of the phone; they're a year behind.

E.g. iPhone 2026 released in sep 2026, but will live most of it's life being the new iphone in 2027.

Samsung doesn't have this issue because they release their galaxies early in the year; so the S25 is the newest model for most of 2025
 
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