Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Phones
  3. News

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Apple’s next big iPhone display experiment could be its biggest yet

The company may be testing a 6.96-inch panel for a future flagship, although one leaker’s post is currently the only source for the exact measurement

Add as a preferred source on Google
iPhone 17 Pro Max
iPhone 17 Pro Max Unsplash

Apple may be testing a 6.96-inch display for a future iPhone, bringing its largest handset within a whisker of the 7-inch mark.

Leaker Digital Chat Station claims the experimental panel retains the same aspect ratio as Apple’s current Pro Max display. The post mentions the iPhone 20 Pro Max as a possible destination, but doesn’t connect the screen to a finished device. Apple could be exploring the size without putting it anywhere near a production line.

How big is the display jump

The rumored panel would move Apple closer to the 7-inch threshold while preserving the familiar shape of its largest iPhone.

Keeping the same aspect ratio means the screen would grow both taller and wider. The phone itself wouldn’t necessarily expand by the same amount, since thinner borders could accommodate some of the difference. The leak doesn’t provide enough design details to know either way.

Recommended Videos

Buyers would gain more room for videos and games, but the Pro Max is already a considerable slab. Even a modest increase could make Apple’s largest phone less comfortable to hold and harder to squeeze into a pocket.

How it fits Apple’s 2027 plans

Bloomberg previously reported that Apple is developing two 20th-anniversary iPhones for 2027. Digital Chat Station has also claimed that Samsung is developing a shallow quad-curved, polarizer-free display for Apple.

Those reports give Apple plenty of reason to experiment with a more ambitious screen. They don’t connect the 6.96-inch panel to either anniversary device, but 2027 would be an obvious year for the company to push beyond another routine display upgrade.

What the leak doesn’t tell us

A panel under evaluation isn’t a finished iPhone. Apple could change its dimensions, move the display to another model or abandon the idea before production.

The exact measurement also comes from one leaker and hasn’t been independently confirmed. Apple may be exploring its first nearly 7-inch iPhone display, but the device surrounding it remains a much bigger question. The next thing to watch is whether another source connects this panel to a specific 2027 model.

Paulo Vargas
Paulo Vargas is an English major turned reporter turned technical writer, with a career that has always circled back to…
You don’t need a document scanning app. Your iPhone has you covered
Skip the app store, your iPhone already has a scanner built right in.
iPhone document scanning feature

Whether you are trying to keep your invoices organized for tax season or just want a digital backup of important papers, scanning documents on your iPhone is one of those small habits that pays off later. 

That’s why document scanning apps have become so popular on the App Store. But what most people don’t realize is that you do not need to download a single third-party scanner app. Your iPhone already has several built-in tools that do the job well, and today I will show you how to use them.

Read more
Apple’s latest refurb drop brings cheaper MacBooks, iPhone 16 Plus, and Apple Watches
More M5 MacBook Air and Pro models are now available through Apple’s refurbished store
Computer, Electronics, Laptop

Apple has added several new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro configurations to its Certified Refurbished Store, alongside more iPhone 16 Plus models and Apple Watches.

The MacBook Air additions arrive at a particularly useful time. New M5 MacBook Air models are currently running in short supply across Apple’s retail network, with some configurations facing delivery estimates stretching into late August or September. Apple also raised MacBook Air prices in June, so students shopping before the new school year are being asked to spend more while potentially waiting longer to get one.

Read more
Android 17 is getting a feature iPhone users have had for years
No more nosy friends snooping through your texts when you hand over your phone.
Electronics, Mobile Phone, Phone

It happens to all of us. You hand your Pixel phone to a friend to show off a meme, and before you know it, they are swiping through your messages. Android 17 QPR2 Beta 3 finally gives Pixel users a way to stop that, with a native App Lock feature baked right into the system. It's the kind of small addition Pixel fans have wanted for ages.

How does the new app lock actually work?

Read more