iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max just tipped for record-breakingly thin bezels
One of the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max's most impressive engineering features could be their displays' borders, according to claims from leaker Setsuna Digital on Weibo.
After taking their own measurements, Setsuna claims there will be a 1.2mm bezel around the iPhone 16 Pro's display, and a mere 1.15mm bezel around the Pro Max's. To demonstrate the difference, they also say that the iPhone 15 Pro has 1.71mm bezels, which would make the iPhone 16 Pro's bezels 30% smaller.
These figures apparently make the iPhone 16 Pro models' bezels the "narrowest in the world," beating the Galaxy S24 Ultra and its 1.5mm bezels. Perhaps the Galaxy S25, or more specifically the Galaxy S25 Ultra, will beat this record, but the iPhone will at least get to hold the title for a few months if this turns out to be true.
We had been expecting news of shrinking bezels from the iPhone 16 Pro thanks to previous rumors of Apple ordering its suppliers to adopt the Border Reduction Structure process, which makes the copper wiring beneath the screen more compact. However, this technique has proven difficult to get right in sufficient quantities, which is perhaps why only the Pro models will get it, and not the vanilla iPhone 16 or iPhone 16 Plus.
The case of the disappearing bezels
Shrinking the borders around the new iPhone's display is perhaps not as meaningful an update as other rumored upgrades, such as photography improvements like a 48MP ultrawide camera and larger main sensor, a new Capture button and a refreshed chipset.
But minimizing the bezel width does mean more display in the same-sized frame. And since the iPhone 16 Pro models are rumored to be growing to 6.3 and 6.9 inches respectively, narrower bezels will reduce how much the phones' bodies need to be enlarged. Plus we can't ignore how it's great for iPhone vs. Android bragging rights.
Our iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max rumor hubs are the best place to read about rumors for the next-gen iPhones ahead of their anticipated September debut. But we've got rumors about the announcements we should see at WWDC 2024, coming up next week, if you need more Apple announcements stat.
