iPhone 20 Rumors: Radical All-Glass Design for 2027?

Apple may be preparing its most dramatic iPhone overhaul in a decade, potentially aligning a groundbreaking hardware design with the device’s 20th anniversary in 2027. While the company is also rumored to be working on a foldable iPhone for release as early as late 2026, a separate, more futuristic project is reportedly underway.

The “Glass Wing”: An All-Screen Vision

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple engineers are internally prototyping an iPhone under the codename “Glass Wing.” The standout feature of this device is a display that takes the concept of an edge-to-edge screen to an extreme: a “waterfall” effect that curves not just down the left and right sides, but also wraps over the top and bottom edges.

This radical design would create a nearly seamless, all-glass front, eliminating traditional bezels entirely. Gurman described the concept as the “iPhone X design but on steroids,” referring to the 2017 model that ditched the Home button and introduced the notch.

Achieving this borderless look requires advanced display technology. Reports from South Korea suggest Apple is exploring “four-edge bending” OLED panels to make such a quad-curved screen possible. Furthermore, the vision for a “mostly glass, curved iPhone without any cutouts” hints at the potential integration of under-display technology for components like the selfie camera and Face ID sensors.

Leaping to “iPhone 20” for the Anniversary?

To mark the significance of such a potential redesign and the 20th anniversary year (2027), Apple could reportedly choose to brand this device the “iPhone 20,” potentially skipping a traditional “iPhone 19” model number. This naming leap would echo past Apple strategies that signaled major shifts, such as the jump from the iPhone 8 to the iPhone X and, more recently, the anticipated sequential jump in operating system numbering.

The Software Link: iOS 26 and “Liquid Glass”

The rumored “Glass Wing” iPhone for 2027 is linked to iOS 26. While the iPhone 20 is years away, details about iOS 26 provide insight into the software experience Apple is developing.

iOS 26 is expected much sooner, likely debuting in late 2025. Despite the number, it’s effectively the next major iPhone operating system following iOS 18 (released in 2024), aligning with a likely new year-based naming scheme.

One of the most significant rumored features of iOS 26 is a major design overhaul, internally codenamed “Liquid Glass.” This redesign aims to unify the look and feel across all Apple platforms, including iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS. “Liquid Glass” is described as a fluid, glass-like interface utilizing rounded corners, transparent layering, and dynamic, moving elements. This visual refresh is anticipated to be the most substantial since iOS 7 in 2013 and could potentially complement the radical physical design of a future all-glass iPhone.

Beyond the design, iOS 26 is also expected to heavily integrate artificial intelligence features across core apps like Photos, Messages, and Siri, potentially including generative AI tools. Other rumored software enhancements coming in iOS 26 include:

Message Screening: Automatically filtering spam messages.
Hold Assist: Managing waiting on hold during phone calls.
Enhanced Vision Pro Integration: Closer ties with Apple’s spatial computing platform.
Live Translations: Potential real-time translation capabilities via AirPods.

New Games App: Replacing Game Center with a more social platform.

While these software features are likely to arrive well before the rumored 2027 “Glass Wing” hardware, they paint a picture of the evolving Apple ecosystem that this futuristic iPhone would inhabit.

A quad-curved, bezel-free screen featuring hidden components would indeed represent the most dramatic physical transformation for the iPhone since the introduction of the notch, signifying Apple’s ambition for the device’s third decade.