It’s hard to believe that the iPhone is now 10 years old. Since 2007, Apple has been innovating with their technology and reshaping the mobile phone market with their influential smartphone designs. Now – after 10 years of refining – Apple could be one step closer to a completely bezel-less iPhone, according to a patent spotted by Apple Insider.
The documents of the patent feature illustrations of electronic devices which can operate with displays that have openings. This method of construction could allow a touch-screen device to mount components behind perforations in a full-face display that are almost invisible to the naked eye.
This could allow the newest generation of iPhone or iPad to feature an edge-to-edge screen, with no bezel at all. Bezel-free smartphones are already available on the market from other companies, but many still feature a small bezel, and those that don’t do not make use of the technique that Apple have been awarded patent for.
The ‘bezel’ is the casing that the screen is fitted into, and over the years Apple – as well as most other smartphone manufacturers – has been shrinking the bezel as much as they can to make full use of the space and create a larger screen within a smaller product.
This unique design could further change the way we look at smartphones and create a generation of tech with true full-face displays. Apple is – as always – tight-lipped about the discovery, but we imagine that they will be keen to show off their latest innovation once they unveil the iPhone 8 later this year.
