Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro Max might just have the slimmest bezels ever seen on a smartphone, if a new rumor turns out to be true.
This statement was made by Ice universe (opens in new tab)a known leaker on Twitter who believes that the iPhone 15 Pro Max bezel width will be 1.55mm.
iPhone 15 Pro Max will break the record of 1.81mm black frame edge held by Xiaomi 13, and we measure that the width of the cover black frame is only 1.55mm.（S22 and S23 ≈1.95mm， iPhone 14 Pro 2.17 mm) photo twitter.com/9TBrVCGSCoMarch 17, 2023
As Ice Universe points out, this compares to the current record holder for thinnest display bezels, which is the Xiaomi 13 at 1.81mm – a fact that helps make this phone look very sleek indeed.
MacRumors (opens in new tab)who spotted the tweet clarifies that the Xiaomi 13 actually has 1.61mm bezels on all three sides – 1.81mm just at the bottom end – but in any case Apple is still set on the best measurement (in theory).
If the 1.55mm bezel width comes to fruition, given that the iPhone 14 Pro is 2.17mm, it will mean that Apple will have slimmed down its smartphone by almost 30%, not bad.
It certainly won’t hurt the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s quest to look even more premium, and will undoubtedly make for some good bragging rights in marketing materials.
The source here is fairly reliable, and of course, we’ve already heard from the rumor mill that both iPhone 15 Pro models may get slimmer bezels (with curved edges), adding weight to this speculation.
Analysis: A seriously smart looking phone – but at what cost?
Assuming that’s Apple’s intention, bezels that are almost a third thinner – and indeed, the thinnest in the world – will obviously make a PR advertising point, as mentioned. But do we really need it?
It’s a pretty subjective thing. Some may worry that the incredibly polished bezels might not help on the fragility front. Others may feel that the iPhone already has pretty thin bezels and that this is an unnecessary “upgrade.” To be fair to Apple, though, reducing the bezels to near-vanishing-point levels would probably raise the aesthetic appeal in terms of premium expectations. And this is where we get a little worried that it might have something to do with the premium pricing to match.
Recently, rumors from the grapevine indicated that Apple intends to increase the prices of the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max (which, at least in the US, will be the first price increase for Apple’s highest-end phones since the iPhone X debuted back in 2017 d.).
And this news of a record-breaking bezel-less display is yet another hint that the material spec for iPhone 15 Pro models will be bumped up — and that the retail price could follow that lead.
Other rumors that point to the premium nature of the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s display include speculation that it could use Samsung’s next-generation panel, which could be super bright and seriously high quality. And we’re also hearing about a much faster A17 Bionic SoC, more RAM (8GB, up from 6GB) for the iPhone 15 Pro versions, plus a periscope camera (for better optical zoom). Oh, and there’s the small matter of that titanium frame, which also weighs in to increase manufacturing costs…
So, will the price of the iPhone 15 Pro models go up? Yes, we can believe that, especially when you factor in the specter of inflation and the fact that there hasn’t been a price movement at the high end of Apple’s smartphones in six years (in the US, anyway).
Indeed, the more we hear on the grapevine about Apple pushing for this new feature or improving this or that element of the chassis, display or camera, the more it seems that price hikes are starting to look not just likely, but quite very much inevitable, at least for the Pro versions of the next generation iPhone. The vanilla flavors may be a different story – but either way, we’ll almost certainly have to wait until September to find out.