Apple Will Reportedly Launch Three OLED iPhones in 2020 Including Smaller 5.42-inch Model With Thinner Display

Apple plans to launch a trio of OLED iPhones next year that includes smaller and larger-sized models than the current crop of Apple's flagship smartphones, according to sources from Taiwan's supply chain.

iphone xs vs xr
DigiTimes reports this morning that Apple will release three OLED iPhones in 2020 available in 5.42-, 6.06- and 6.67-inch sizes.

Meanwhile DigiTimes' sources indicate that, as expected, this year's three models will follow the screen technologies and sizes of 2018 iPhones; namely, two OLED models with 5.8-inch and 6.5-inch screens, and a 6.1-inch LCD model.

In a noteworthy tidbit coming out Taiwan's handset component supply chain, the smallest iPhone model coming in 2020 will reportedly include Samsung or LG touchscreen tech that will allow Apple to make the display of the phone thinner than on previous handsets.

Additionally, the 5.42-inch model to be released in 2020 may come with either Samsung Display's Y-Octa or LG Display's TOE touch technology, indicated the sources, noting that both touch solutions promises to trim down the display cost.

Y-Octa is an advanced flexible AMOLED display technology that removes the film substrate and allows the touch circuit to be directly patterned on the film's encapsulation layer, making the display thinner, indicated the sources.

According to ‌DigiTimes‌' sources, Samsung will maintain its dominance as the main OLED panel supplier for Apple next year, while it remains to be seen whether LG or BOE Technology can gain OLED panel orders from the company.

The same supply chain sources estimate that Apple will ship between 80 and 82 million iPhones in the first half of this year and around 180-190 million units for all of 2019.

Previous rumors suggest 2020 iPhones will feature triple-lens rear camera arrangements, improved photo capturing tools, and more powerful processors. Bloomberg has suggested it could be a prelude to an AR headset, and past rumors have indicated Apple could launch that device as early as 2020.

Related Forum: iPhone

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro Render Front Page Tech

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 10 New Features

Sunday March 23, 2025 10:00 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. iPhone 17 Pro's alleged design via Front Page Tech Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of March 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone...
iCloud General Feature Redux

iPhone Users Who Pay for iCloud Storage Receive a New Perk

Thursday March 20, 2025 12:01 am PDT by
If you pay for iCloud storage on your iPhone, Apple has a new perk for you, at no additional cost. The new perk is the ability to create invitations in the Apple Invites app for the iPhone, which launched in the App Store last month. In the Apple Invites app, iCloud+ subscribers can create invitations for any occasion, such as birthday parties, graduations, baby showers, and more. Anyone ...
iOS 18

Top 5 New Features Coming in iOS 18.4

Friday March 21, 2025 3:26 pm PDT by
We're not getting new Siri Apple Intelligence features in iOS 18.4 as expected, but the upcoming update does have quite a few new additions that will be worth upgrading for. We've rounded up the five best features to look forward to, and if you're not running the beta, you can expect to get access to these in early April. Priority Notifications If you have an iPhone or iPad that supports...
Generic iOS 19 Feature Mock

iOS 19 Coming in June With These New Features

Thursday March 20, 2025 2:04 pm PDT by
While the first iOS 19 beta is still more than two months away, there are already plenty of rumors about the upcoming software update. Below, we recap the key iOS 19 rumors so far. visionOS-Like Design In January, the YouTube channel Front Page Tech revealed a redesigned Camera app that is allegedly planned for iOS 19. According to Front Page Tech host Jon Prosser, the Camera app...
Generic iOS 18

Apple Seeds iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 Release Candidate With Priority Notifications, Ambient Music and More

Monday March 24, 2025 10:07 am PDT by
Apple today seeded the release candidate versions of upcoming iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 updates to developers for testing purposes, with the software coming a week after Apple released the fourth betas. iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 can be downloaded from the Settings app on a compatible device by going to General > Software Update. With iOS 18.4, Apple is adding the Priority Notifications...
airpods max 2024 colors

Don't Buy Into Apple's Hype About AirPods Max Gaining Lossless Audio

Monday March 24, 2025 4:24 pm PDT by
Apple today announced that AirPods Max with a USB-C port will be gaining support for lossless audio and ultra-low latency audio with a firmware update next month, alongside the release of iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, and macOS 15.4. For context, audio files are typically compressed to keep file sizes smaller. There are lossy compression standards like MP3, and Apple's own Advanced Audio Codec...
Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature Iridescent Search

Foldable iPhone Expected to Launch Next Year, Costing Around $2,000

Monday March 24, 2025 3:43 am PDT by
Apple will launch its long-rumored foldable iPhone next year with a ~$2,000 premium price tag attached, expects well-connected Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman. Gurman's comments on Apple's launch plans for its first foldable device appeared in the Q&A section of his latest Power On newsletter. Earlier this month, the reporter said Apple's foldable iPhone could be arriving "as early as 2026,"...
Generic iOS 18

iOS 18.4 Coming Soon With These New Features for Your iPhone

Tuesday March 25, 2025 6:45 am PDT by
Apple is expected to release iOS 18.4 to the general public as soon as next week, following more than a month of beta testing. Apple's website says some iOS 18.4 features will be released in "early April," so the update should be out as early as Tuesday, April 1. Apple this week seeded the iOS 18.4 Release Candidate, which is typically the final beta version, barring the discovery of any...

Top Rated Comments

ondert Avatar
78 months ago
iPhone SE X?
Score: 52 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MacFather Avatar
78 months ago
Deleted.
Score: 47 Votes (Like | Disagree)
fokmik Avatar
78 months ago
Who th **** will trust Digitimes again after they said 2 times that airpower mass production started and its comin late March ?!?!?
Score: 26 Votes (Like | Disagree)
0Jannik0 Avatar
78 months ago
Okay, so while these display sizes might seem weird at first, I think it might all make sense. I did some thinking, math and photoshop.

(1) Let's look at the two larger sizes first, 6.06" and 6.67". These seem strange at first, but only because they're accurate to two decimal digits. While Apple uses 5.8" and 6.5" in their marketing for the Xs and Xs Max, these actually have screen diagonals of 5.85" and 6.46". Comparing this to the rumored sizes, this corresponds to additional 0.21" in each case. So I pretty sure these two devices correspond to the Xs and Xs Max 2020 versions, so

Xs 2018 with 5.85" -> Xs 2020 with 6.06" (probably 6" screen diagonal in marketing)
Xs Max 2018 with 6.46" -> Xs Max 2020 with 6.67" (probably 6.7" screen diagonal in marketing)

(2) How exactly could these devices look like? Okay, so assuming the display ratio stays at 19.5:9 as it is currently, then using the new screen diagonals and Pythagoras this corresponds to a 3.59% increase in screen width and height for the Xs and a 3.25% increase for the Xs Max. Suppose the devices stay roughly the same size, specifically we keep the device height exactly the same and just scale the screen size accordingly to the new numbers. Then we get this (rough) mockup:



So the new screen sizes would correspond to pretty much the exact same device size but with pretty much zero bezels!

(3) Lastly, what's up the small version with 5.42" ? Again doing some math and assuming a display ratio of 19.5:9 this corresponds to a 127mm screen height, compared to a screen height of 142mm for the 6.06" device in a 144mm height case. Assuming the same (super thin) bezel of 2mm, this would indicate a device with height 129mm. A little bit larger than the SE with a height of 124mm. So this seems to be a new SE size device with OLED screen and thin bezels.

Conclusion: It seems there is a major redesign in the pipeline for the 2020 iPhone lineup. This fits to rumors from 2017/2018 of a slowed down upgrade cycle with major redesigns every 3 years instead of every 2 years. So my assumption is we will see a similar lineup to Xs, Xr and Xs Max in 2019. In 2020 the "cheap" LCD option will be dropped and we will see three OLED devices.

Small: Roughly SE size device with 5.42" OLED screen (5.4" screen in marketing)
Medium: Roughly XS size device with 6.06 OLED screen (6" screen in marketing)
Large: Roughly XS Max size device with 6.67 OLED screen (6.7" screen in marketing)

All three with ultra thin bezels and I guess we could possibly see a smaller notch and maybe an iPad Pro style redesign.

Happy to hear any thoughts to this.
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
G3Blue Avatar
78 months ago
Goodbye to Apple from me if new iPhones are oled only
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Superhappytree Avatar
78 months ago
Hopefully these weird screen sizes means the notch will be gone and will instead be filled with screen.
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)