Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Mobile
  3. News

Next year’s new iPhone could look just like the iPhone 4

By

Even though the next-generation iPhone 11 was released less than a week ago, people are already looking to the future designs for Apple’s iconic phone — and it’s looking like it could be a blast from the past. 

TF Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo — who is something of an oracle when it comes to iPhone predictions — says there are likely “significant changes” coming to the next iPhone, particularly to its metal frame. It could be very similar to previous iPhones, according to CNBC.

Recommended Videos

“The surface of the metal frame will change to be flat instead of the current curved surface, which is similar to the design of the iPhone 4′s metal frame,” Kuo said in a report released Wednesday

Apple iPhone 4
The classic Apple iPhone 4. Getty Images

Recent iPhone designs have a curved edge, but if you remember the iPhone 4, that phone had straight edges on the sides. Kuo said that the new design would be a selling point for next year’s iPhones and predicts a boost in sales for 2020. 

While it’s not a huge deal that we could go from curved edges to straight edges again, it’s interesting to see how Apple will alter the iPhone in order to support 5G network connections as networks begin to roll out 5G capabilities. The iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max weren’t released with 5G, but analysts expect Apple to embrace 5G in 2020.

The iPhone’s overall design hasn’t changed too much since its debut in 2007, but Apple has added or subtracted certain features to keep up with the modern needs of users. From the removal of the home button and getting rid of the headphone jack to a thinner body thanks to high-end OLED screens, the iPhone is still a rectangular, touch screen smartphone. 

We’ve seen iPhone’s change in color, too: From the first generation that was plain black, to the iPhone 3 that introduced white, to the iPhone 5 that left us with gold and silver finishing. There’s also 2018’s iPhone XR, which comes in orange, yellow, red, and blue.

Digital Trends reached out to Apple to comment on these design speculations. We’ll update this story if we hear back. 

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Allison Matyus
Allison Matyus
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Allison Matyus is a general news reporter at Digital Trends. She covers any and all tech news, including issues around social…
Become an iPhone video master with this powerful new app
Screenshots from the Kino app.

Avid iPhone photographers will already know the excellent Halide camera app and how it can help transform the stills you take. But they will also know it does not support video, a point the company itself has been well aware of too. That’s why it has launched Kino, a video app for the iPhone that aims to bring similar Halide-style benefits to video instead of stills.

Kino is described as a video app for beginners and experts alike, but to get the most from it, you’ll likely need to be familiar with the iPhone’s video recording modes. For example, one of the main features that makes Kino stand out is Instant Grade, which uses the Log video recording mode, which was introduced on the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Read more
Apple offers peek at how it stress tests the iPhone
Apple testing the water resistance of an iPhone.

Apple tests the water resistance of an iPhone. MKBHD

Popular tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee visited an Apple lab recently to see up close how the company tests the durability of new iPhone handsets.

Read more
Apple’s AI plans for the iPhone just leaked. Here’s everything we know
The back of a Natural Titanium iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Apple is the only major name in the world of Big Tech that hasn’t made its ambitious AI plans public yet. But that will change in a few weeks, with a focus on reimagining the iPhone experience. Bloomberg, citing internal sources, has detailed how Apple plans to integrate generative AI experiences with iOS 18, the next major build of its iPhone operating system.

The company plans to push new AI-powered capabilities not just in such in-house apps as Safari and Maps, but also in experiences like the notification system and a supercharged Spotlight search. Notably, Apple will push the bulk of AI processing to the iPhone’s silicon, and only a minor portion of it will be pushed to the cloud.

Read more