Apple's next iPhone X is not just a "four-curved surface" phone.

In 2027, the iPhone is about to celebrate its 20th birthday.

Apple is internally brewing a 20th-anniversary edition iPhone - just like the 10th-anniversary iPhone X, it will have obvious innovations in form and interaction, and will be very different from the products in the previous nine years.

Some third-party sources claim that this is likely to be an iPhone with an integrally formed glass body. Ifanr also obtained similar information during WWDC, which is quite credible.

This phone is codenamed "Glasswing", a kind of butterfly with transparent wings.

The Glasswing butterfly metaphorically represents the two trends of thinness and glass in the iPhone.

However, what the specific form of this epoch-making iPhone will be and what value it can provide are still a mystery.

Until this week, Apple finally announced a patent for a glass phone, which is full of all kinds of sci-fi fantasies but also has relatively more practical solutions, allowing us to catch a glimpse of the true appearance of the "iPhone XX".

Is the glass iPhone a curved-screen iPhone?

In fact, long before the release of the iPhone X, Apple had already released a patent related to a similar all-glass phone. At that time, the adopted solution was the "envelope style": components such as the motherboard and screen were stuffed into a glass envelope like a letter paper and then sealed.

The "envelope" is also an image very characteristic of Apple: among all past product launches, the moment when the MacBook Air was taken out of the envelope was regarded as a classic.

This new patent shows more implementation solutions, among which several "cover plate styles" may be the most feasible.

It is too difficult to shape the iPhone body with a single piece of glass. Apple is likely to divide it into two pieces of glass: the front screen glass is like a curved lid, covering components such as the phone's motherboard and connecting with the second piece of glass on the back. A mechanical structure will be used to make the glass components fit tightly, presenting a "seamless" appearance as much as possible.

Thicker glass materials will also be used at the four corners to enhance the strength of the integrally formed glass body.

Therefore, the front of the phone really looks like a single integrally formed piece of glass. The traditional metal frame of the phone will be replaced by glass.

This design does not only serve a simple aesthetic purpose. Instead, it extends the original glass display on the front to the device's frame.

That is to say, after the Android camp has abandoned curved screens one after another, Apple's thinking about the next-generation smartphone is a "four-curved" iPhone.

Since the screen almost completely extends to the back of the phone, the screen of the Glasswing can visually present a more amazing "borderless" overflow effect, similar to the "waterfall screen" of the Huawei Mate 30 Pro, except that it also covers the top and bottom borders.

Huawei Mate 30 Pro

The expanded screen can of course be used not only to display more content. Apple also explores using the side screen as a touchable interaction area in the patent. In some patent pictures, in addition to displaying traditional phone side buttons such as the "volume button", there are also button styles for Wi-Fi and flight mode on the side of the phone to control device functions.

The patent shows that these side buttons can be static images or dynamic icons that change with the situation, giving the phone buttons a visual characteristic.

If the final product is really similar to the patent drawing, then the once-fanciful "iPhone" meme pictures from a few years ago will become a reality.

The long-rumored "buttonless" iPhone may finally take the form of the Glasswing, using the screen to replace the original mechanical buttons. The force sensor that hasn't appeared on the iPhone for a long time is expected to make a comeback, combined with Apple's proficient vibration motor to simulate the feedback of mechanical buttons.

Regarding the openings, Apple's attitude is rather ambiguous. The patent shows both an opening solution specifically prepared for the Dynamic Island, speakers, and microphones, and a more radical "true integration" body where all components are hidden under the glass.

However, many leaks claim that Apple is actively exploring an under-screen 3D facial recognition solution and is expected to implement it in products between 2027 and 2028.

Therefore, it is very likely that the first-generation glass iPhone will still retain the openings and hide them under the screen in subsequent iterations.

Apple is very likely to directly cancel the USB interface at the bottom of the phone and go fully "wireless".

So, what kind of new interaction can a smartphone with a smooth surface and no openings bring? Apple conceived a rather interesting scenario in the patent: an iPhone without a distinct "top" and "bottom".

Components such as speakers and microphones are symmetrically distributed top and bottom. No matter how you pick up the phone, the phone can automatically rotate. Just like when we use an iPad, we don't need to care about the orientation and can start using it right away.

However, this solution has obvious challenges: where should the camera be placed? It seems that there is no suitable place. The patent's idea is to place the camera symmetrically like the microphone and speaker, but obviously, it is not realistic. Therefore, this approach is more of an exploration and assumption.

This patent is full of such imaginative solutions and concepts. There are no less than five design drawings for the "all-glass body" solution. The device forms discussed in the patent are not limited to the "four-curved" type. There is even a "six-sided screen" design with dual screens on the front and back.

Moreover, the thinking about "all-glass" is not limited to phones. The patent document also shows an "all-glass" watch with the screen covering all four sides of the watch body.

If Apple wants to launch the "glass iPhone" for the 20th anniversary of the iPhone in two years, the most technically mature solution at present may still be a "four-curved" iPhone. After all, suppliers such as Samsung explored the relevant technologies several years ago.

The Ideal Form of Smartphones

Apple, especially during the era of Steve Jobs, particularly adhered to a product philosophy:

People only know what they want when you show them the product.

However, a "four-curved" phone is not something the public has never seen. It is a product form that the Android camp has widely experimented with and even abandoned.

The Huawei P40 Pro has a "four-curved screen", but the curves on the top and bottom are more of the glass curves rather than the display effect. Image source: CNBC

At first glance, Apple's decision to bet the next "iPhone X" on the curved screen seems to be less significant in value and meaning than leading us into the full-screen era ten years ago.

Technically, it may be similar, but the "all-glass smartphone" essentially belongs to a different product definition and can bring more possibilities.

Past curved-screen phones mainly tried to create a novelty in the form of the phone screen. The purpose was relatively simple, which was to achieve a higher screen-to-body ratio and a different product form from the iPhone. Although there were some new interactions, they didn't ultimately leave a lasting impression.

The "curved edge information bar" of the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge. Image source: Android Central

Why does Apple want to make an all-glass phone? It can be traced back to when Steve Jobs and former chief designer Jony Ive were exploring the "iPhone". Their ultimate vision for the smartphone was a "magic glass":

We make progress by simplifying and removing the superfluous.

Can today's full-screen phones be considered magic glass? It can be said so, but it is only limited to the front. The middle frame on the side of the phone is a wasted area with only a few buttons corresponding to specific functions. Obviously, it is not the most ultimate form.

The iPhone's departure from physical buttons doesn't mean that the buttons don't exist or are unimportant. Instead, the buttons have become part of the system interaction, connecting users, the screen, and applications. In essence, it is a further "sublimation" of the buttons, realizing the product philosophy of "less is more".

A screen that covers everything and the metaphor of an integrally formed body mean that everything is very simple and intuitive. Without any need for thinking, users can shape it into what they need through the App Store.

These ideas mainly originated from the concepts of Jobs and Ive more than a decade ago. Standing at the present moment when we are about to fully enter the era of spatial computing, an iPhone with an all-glass design has more symbolic meanings.

We still have to wait two years for the