No more buttons?! iPhone 20 design just leaked

In 2027 Apple will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the iPhone with the "iPhone 20" and the Cupertino giant could be planning something special for the phone's 20th birthday.

We're already expecting an all-glass edge-to-edge display thanks to a recently discovered patent, but a new rumor claims the phone could also feature no physical buttons. Instead, it would utilize solid-state buttons and haptic feedback.

"Apple's iPhone solid-state button solution has completed functional verification and is scheduled for mass production on the 2027 iPhone 20," reads a [machine-translated] post from tipster Instant Digital on Weibo . "By then, the power button, volume rocker, action buttons, and camera control buttons will all be upgraded to solid-state buttons with localized vibration feedback!"

They went on to say that camera buttons will be simplified next year on iPhone 18 using pressure sensing. "Subsequent iterations will introduce piezoelectric ceramics for localized vibration feedback, replacing the demo," they said.

It's all a bit reminiscent of the rumor mill from before the launch of the iPhone 16 series. At the time, a supply chain report claimed the iPhone 16 lineup would ditch mechanical buttons in favor of solid state ones.

A big design swing on an anniversary device isn't much of a surprise. The iPhone X was a huge shift, for example, ditching the Home button and Touch ID in favor of facial recognition. The screen was nearly bezelless with an edge-to-edge display plus the new TrueDepth camera.

What we know about the iPhone 20 so far

Beyond today's rumors, not much.

Like the iPhone X, which skipped over the iPhone 9 moniker to mark an anniversary, we expect something similar with the iPhone 20 that will leap over the 19. However, the release might be split with the vanilla iPhone 20 launching in the first half of 2027, while the Air, Pro, Pro Max, and Fold 2 are supposed to release in the fall.

It's not clear from Instant Digital's rumor if the vanilla model will feature the wraparound glass display and solid-state buttons or if that will be relegated to the higher-end models.

The unfortunate rumor we've seen is that the iPhone 20 might be the most expensive iPhone ever. This may be due to the introduction of more glass, which has been described by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman as "extraordinarily complex."

Let us know in the comments how you feel about Apple potentially ditching mechanical buttons and an edge-to-edge display for the 20th anniversary iPhone.

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