Apple has set the bar when it comes to smartphone design ever since the original iPhone was introduced in 2007. Actually, we need to amend that statement: Apple had set the bar when it comes to smartphone design ever since the original iPhone was introduced in 2007. Every rival smartphone maker experience any success today got its start by copying Apple’s designs. That’s especially true for Samsung, which literally wrote the book on ripping off Apple. Every other Android phone maker out there has also copied Apple along the way though, even newer companies like Xiaomi and Google. Remember the first Pixel? It was little more than an iPhone 6 with a piece of glass slapped on the back near the top of the phone.
Late 2017 through early 2018 is when copying Apple really peaked. Remember when dozens of Android phones looked exactly like the iPhone X? It was beyond embarrassing, but it also marked the end of an era. Apple, which had always been the design leader that every other company followed, temporarily hit a brick wall with its iPhone X design. Last year’s iPhone XS looks exactly the same as the iPhone X and so will this year’s iPhone 11, aside from a minor change with the rear camera. Meanwhile, Android phone makers have kept going, cooking up better and more creative all-screen designs that far surpass Apple. The shift should be temporary as Apple regroups and works on its next big design shift for the iPhone 12, and now a new concept video imagines an iPhone that would once again set the bar for smartphone design.
Now, before we even show you the video below, we have to point out that as silly as it looks at first glance, it’s actually not that crazy. In fact, it’s not crazy at all. We’re not quite there yet, but there will come a time when smartphones actually look like this. And no, we’re not talking 100 years in the future or anything ridiculous.
Display makers already have flexible OLED screens that can be bent into all sorts of different shapes, and they’ll get more and more pliable as time goes on. In other words, wrap-around displays will exist, and soon. On top of that, there are already phones with no visible speakers because the display itself is a speaker. Plus, companies have already figured out how to hide sensors like a selfie camera behind the screen so that it’s invisible when it’s not in use. The tech isn’t quite ready to be mass-produced just yet, but it will be in a year or two.
In other words, the “iPhone 11 Edge” concept you’re about to see in the video below isn’t some silly sci-fi vision. It’s a phone design that should end up being real in a decade or so. In fact, it might not even take that long.
With that out of the way, we turn our attention to the actual video. This more-than-all-screen iPhone 11 was whipped up by graphic designer Hasan Kaymak, and it shows an iPhone concept with a display that spills all the way down the sides and corners of the phone. This way when it’s flat on a table, 100% of the visible surface is screen. Physical buttons on the sides have been replaced with virtual buttons, and Kaymak has come up with a feat neat things that the edge displays can be used for.
Here are the iPhone 11 Edge specs that Kaymak imagines:
- 6.4 Inch Full-Edge Display
- Quad Camera, 8K@120FPS, Laser-Powered 3D Cameras
- Hidden Front 13MP Camera
- Apple 5nm A14 Chip with Up to 8x faster than A12 Bionic
- The next operating system of Apple, iOS 13
When a phone like this does become a reality, those specs will seem ancient. This is a concept created in 2019 though, so the designer had to at least base the concept on reality at least somewhat. You’ll find the full video embedded below, and you can bookmark this page to rewatch it next month so you can dream about an exciting new iPhone after Apple unveils the new iPhone 11 with a design that probably couldn’t be any more boring.
