Word on the street is that the iPhone 20’s all-glass revamp recently moved from “maybe” to “the factories are literally getting ready for it.”
Seems like anyone ready for Apple to shake up iPhone design can look forward to 2027.
iPhone 20 glass design: what the leaker is actually saying
Apple went down this road before. The iPhone 4 introduced a striking glass-front-and-back design in 2010, and Apple kept it for the iPhone 4s. In 2012, however, the company switched to an aluminum unibody with the iPhone 5, making the handset lighter, thinner and more shatter-resistant. But then Apple returned to glass backs with the iPhone 8 in 2017 to enable wireless charging.
Recently, however, multiple rumors indicate that a redesign of the 20th-anniversary iPhone will take the material much further, using glass as the defining element of the phone’s overall design.
The latest claim comes from Weibo leaker Fixed Focus Digital, who has a decent-but-not-perfect track record on Apple gossip. A Weibo post from Sunday hints that Apple’s “preferred option” for the iPhone 20 is an all-glass look. The leaker also says manufacturing quality should be similar to what we saw on the first-generation iPhone Air.
Here’s the part that’s getting people’s attention: The leaker claims the production facility is already renovated and is waiting for equipment to start machining parts.
That’s a bigger deal than the usual “insider says Apple might do X” post, hinting that Apple’s supply chain is already prepping for the next big iPhone redesign. As of now, nobody has named the exact supplier tied to the freshly renovated facility. But some reports point to Biel Crystal as the lead on the glass work, with BYD and Lens Technology also in the mix. All these names regularly show up around the iPhone’s cover glass and enclosure production.
This fits the ‘slab of glass’ picture
No, this isn’t happening in a vacuum. Former Apple design chief Jony Ive spent years talking about his dream iPhone — a device he envisioned as a single, seamless piece of glass. Apple seems to be still chasing that vision, with the translucent Liquid Glass user interface laying the software groundwork ahead of the hardware.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman also reported in May that Apple wants a “mostly glass, curved iPhone without any cutouts in the display” for the 20th-anniversary model. He says the phone will have glass wrapping around all four edges, with no visible notch or Dynamic Island.
Is the new look worth the trade-off?
Glass looks stunning, but it’s far more fragile than aluminum. If you’ve ever cracked an iPhone back, you know exactly what this trade-off feels like. But Apple still thinks the aesthetic payoff is worth it for a milestone iPhone.
And Apple has a long history of marking major anniversaries with products that break from the usual upgrade cycle. The company often uses these milestone devices to introduce bold new designs or technologies that point toward the future of its product lineup.
The 20th Anniversary Macintosh, released in 1997 to celebrate two decades of Apple, showcased an unusually slim all-in-one design and premium materials years ahead of their time. A decade later, Apple celebrated the iPhone’s 10th anniversary with the iPhone X, which ditched the Home button in favor of an edge-to-edge OLED display and Face ID, establishing the design language that still defines the iPhone today.
A credible iPhone 20 leak
It’s worth noting to anyone harboring doubts that Fixed Focus Digital correctly guessed the iPhone 16e name, but wrongly predicted the iPhone 17 would get a 120Hz display without ProMotion. You should take the latest rumor as credible-sounding factory chatter, not confirmation.
Still, the “factory is ready and waiting on equipment” is a very specific and checkable kind of claim. It also lines up with everything else we’ve heard about Apple’s 2027 plans.
If the iPhone 20 ends up looking like a single, curved piece of glass, it’ll be the phone many Apple fans have been dreaming of since the Ive era. A few extra cracked backs will feel like a small price for finally getting it.
Anurag Chawake is a tech-focused writer specializing in smartphones, apps and consumer technology. His interest in computers began during the Windows 98 era, eventually leading him to explore everything from operating systems to mobile devices and PC hardware. Anurag previously contributed to The Indian Express, covering Apple, Android, gaming and the broader technology landscape.
