If you’re an Android phone user, 2019 is shaping up to be a very exciting year. If you’re an iPhone user, well, not so much. Apple took the design idea LG first introduced back in 2015 and created the biggest smartphone trend we’ve seen in years with the iPhone X’s notch in 2017. Dozens of Android phone makers copied the design so closely that it was embarrassing. But then toward the end of the year last year in 2018, they began shifting away from the large notch on Apple’s iPhones and releasing smartphones with nifty new designs. After all, the notch on the iPhone X, iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max is so big because it houses multiple sensors tied with Apple’s advanced TrueDepth camera for Face ID. None of the Android phones that stole Apple’s iPhone notch design used advanced 3D facial recognition like Face ID — they were just copying Apple for the sake of copying Apple. When they realized they could make phones with even better screen-to-body ratios with solutions like teardrop notches and pop-up selfie cameras, they moved on.
In 2019, better all-screen smartphone designs are leaving China and moving into the mainstream in other big smartphone markets like the United States. Samsung’s just-released Galaxy S10e, Galaxy S10, and Galaxy S10+ feature a new hole-punch design that eliminates the notch and places cameras behind tiny holes cut out of the screens themselves. Other upcoming phones this year like the OnePlus 7 will sport selfie cameras that pop up out of the top edge of the phone only when you need them. But while all this is happening elsewhere in the industry, Apple’s upcoming iPhone 11 series phones are expected to look just like the last two generations of iPhone, with a big notch at the top of the display.
If everything plays out like we think it will this year, it’ll mark the second time Apple has used what is essentially the same iPhone design for three consecutive years. The iPhone 6 series, 6s series, and 7 series were all practically indistinguishable from each other. The same can be said of the iPhone X and XS series phones, and new the iPhone 11 will reportedly use the same design but with a relocated camera on the back. This is based on leaked renders and information from Ming-Chi Kuo, the world’s most accurate source of early Apple intel, so it’s as close to confirmed as it will be until Apple announces its next-generation iPhones in September.
The realization that Apple will reuse its iPhone X design yet again this year naturally has people thinking about what might come next. Graphic designer Miloš Toman did more than just think about it, however, he actually envisioned it in a series of renders on his website.
Toman calls his creation the “iPhone X 2020” concept, and it’s referred to as the “iPhone 12” in an accompanying video. It’s fantastic. The phone looks a great deal like Apple’s current iPhone X and iPhone XS models, but everything is improved. You’ll also notice that there’s no notch at the top of the display — the designer envisioned an iPhone were Apple dumps Face ID in favor of an in-display fingerprint sensor. This allows for a true all-screen design that is absolutely stunning, and it actually might resemble an iPhone that Apple releases in the coming years. Apple has no plans to ditch Face ID though; instead, the company is working on technology that will allow it to embed the different sensors utilized by Face ID beneath the screen.
Here are a few images of this stunning all-screen iPhone 12 concept:
You can check out more images of this gorgeous iPhone 12 concept on Toman’s website, and here’s video showcasing the design that was put together by a YouTube channel called ConceptsiPhone:
