The next iPhones will have a different look when they hit the market this September, it seems. From different screens on some models, to a new strategy for its next-generation processors, more advanced camera lenses and a new thermal design to prevent overheating, a lot will change. And now, a leak reveals that the bezels will be even thinner, to become the narrowest in the world.
iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max: Will the screen for the iPhone 16 Pro be thinner … [+]
Updated June 6 with more details of the new design, including exact measurements of the projected frame.
Leaker Ice Universe is on fire right now (if that’s not an alarming contradiction for someone with such a cold name) and has now added further details of what’s to come.
The new information begins with a claim specifically related to the iPhone 16 Pro Max, as opposed to previous posts which only referred to the iPhone 16 Pro. For the largest phone, the Ice Universe bezel on the iPhone 16 Pro Max will be just 1,153mm wide and, like every iPhone display with Face ID since the launch of the iPhone X in 2017, will be exactly the same across all four sides—unlike many smartphones that have a significantly wider bezel at the bottom edge, for example.
This is extremely thin, and it’s worth noting that there is a limit to how thin a border can get. After all, it’s what I call the Cornish pasty effect.
Mining was once a thriving industry in the English county of Cornwall, and at that time the pastries were baked by the tin miners, or their families. The pasties were made with a thick edge pinched along one side so that the miners could use the mushroom as a glove to hold while eating, thus not contaminating the meat in the pasty with their dirty hands.
I’m not suggesting your hands are dirty, but in a slightly similar vein, there’s definitely value in having an area that isn’t an active touchscreen to let you hold the phone without accidentally activating it. We’ve all accidentally made calls or opened apps by touching the screen when we didn’t mean to, and no limit at all can cause UI issues. Although, of course, Apple will have thought of this and tested it extensively.
Ice Universe describes the measurements as the closest yet with a limitless sci-fi dream factor.
And the publisher has now released images which it claims show just how much thinner the bezels will look. In a new post on X, they said, “iPhone 16 Pro Max vs iPhone 15 Pro Max: Narrower, narrower bezel is too much for my taste. But the dynamic island must be reduced.”
And the images show what an iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro should look like side by side. Even if you don’t imagine that a small reduction in the size of the bezels would make a big difference, it’s noticeable how much narrower the 16 Pro looks.
Of course, it’s still true that if you put the iPhone in a case, as many people do, then if there’s a front lip on the case, that subtle difference in bezel can be covered anyway. But maybe that’s not the point: making an iPhone look even better than last year’s model is a big ambition worth undertaking.
You can bet that if the images really do mean that the next iPhone has the thinnest bezels of any smartphone ever, it will show up in Apple’s marketing of the handset. Ice Universe, in another post on X, has also published four different images, showing different frames. It’s hard to argue that thinner ones don’t look better.
As for narrowing the bezels on an iPhone, is that possible, you may ask? Current models already have very thin blank areas around the screen itself.
But in a post on X, Ice Universe, a leaker with a strong track record, has revealed that they’ve heard slimmer bezels are on their way. The post says, “My friend confirmed that the iPhone 16 Pro will reduce the bezel, surpassing the Galaxy S24 to become the narrowest mobile phone in the world, which seems to be very close to the shape of the dream.”
As noted by Ice Universe, Samsung currently holds the record for thinnest bezels, but not for long, it seems.
All of this chimes with an earlier report of Apple using Border Reduction Structure technology to achieve the thinnest border, something that was last rumored because Apple was said to have discovered that the technology was creating problems for pertains to yield. That’s because, as 9to5Mac reports, BRS affects the build: “The wiring and circuitry near the edge of the panel must be bent down to achieve this. This is said to have caused some manufacturing challenges during the production ramp.”
It’s hard to see how the margins could get much thinner, but Apple will be happy to claim the “world’s narrowest” crown from Samsung.
However, every little bit helps. If the new Pro models are as predicted to have larger screens than before (6.3 inches and 6.7 inches for the Pro and Pro Max respectively), then the thinner bezels could make them fit more easily in the hand.
Not everyone is concerned about these things, and one person immediately told Ice Universe, “I will never understand this need. Never.” To which the leaker replied: “You don’t care about the frame, but if I give you a design of the Galaxy A54, you definitely won’t like it the first time.”
So here we are.