Apple Has Not Canceled Its 20th Anniversary iPhone Redesign

Apple Has Not Canceled Its 20th Anniversary iPhone Redesign
Image Credits: FPT

Apple is still moving ahead with a major glass-focused iPhone redesign for 2027, despite a recent analyst report claiming the company had canceled its plans. The new design will mark the iPhone’s 20th anniversary and is expected to arrive on next year’s Pro models with significantly more glass around the body.

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that Apple’s product roadmap has not changed, with the company currently testing two Pro models internally known as V73 and V74. Both devices use glass across the front and back that curves around the sides, while a thin metal band runs through the middle.

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“Glass is used on the front and back of the phones, known internally as V73 and V74, and the material will curve into the sides of the devices, with a metal band in the middle,” Gurman reported.

Apple scrapped an even more ambitious glass iPhone

Apple previously explored a more ambitious version that relied on even more glass and reduced the use of metal, but the company abandoned that design early in development after running into manufacturing problems.

According to Gurman, Apple struggled to connect the glass panels reliably while developing a design that could survive large-scale production, which ultimately led the company to move forward with the less extreme glass-centric version.

Jefferies analyst Edison Lee had earlier reported that Apple canceled its all-glass iPhone plans following supply chain checks. However, the newer information indicates Lee’s report may have referred to the more ambitious design that Apple had already dropped rather than the glass-heavy Pro models planned for 2027.

Apple’s 2027 iPhone designs are already in advanced testing and are largely locked in roughly a year before launch, although unexpected engineering or manufacturing problems can still force changes before mass production.

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