The 20th-anniversary iPhone in 2027 will feature a Samsung-made custom micro-curved OLED display that is both brighter and thinner than existing panels, according to Weibo-based leaker Digital Chat Station.
Hmm, supply chain feedback indicates Apple is working with Samsung to make filterless screens, and also customizing a slightly curved quad-curved design. Trends are cyclical.
Apple is expected by many to use a totally bezel-less display, curving around all four edges of the 20th-anniversary iPhone. To achieve that aim, Apple is said to be a an equal-depth quad-curved panel design by Samsung. The display is said to use “micro-curves” to keep the curve quite shallow.
Apple is reportedly looking to create a device that feels softer in the user’s hands, while also making swipes from the edge of the display feel more natural.
Digital Chat Station, who also says that Apple wants a “pol-less” display from Samsung, meaning a panel design that does not use the polarizing layer that is traditionally used on current OLED displays.
The display will use a Samsung-developed and manufactured thinner and brighter OLED technology called COE (Color Filter on Encapsulation), which does away with the usual polarized film, istead applying the color filter directly onto the encapsulation layer of the display.
A crater-shaped light diffusion layer in the display is also expected to even out the display’s brightness. Apple has been widely rumored to be planning to celebrate the 20th-anniversary iPhone in 2027 with a high-end all-glass model, with no cutouts.
However, display analyst Ross Young thinks the display is not going to be ready to go by then, and says that while we’ll see an under-display Face ID, there will still be a tiny hole-punch cutout to accommodate the device’s front-facing camera.
