Rumor: iPhone 5 to have Teardrop Shape Design and Edge-to-Edge 3.7-inch Screen

Submitted by lalit on April 22, 2011 - 5:06pm.

Joshua Topolsky, who has some very good sources when it comes to Apple rumors, is reporting for This is my next that the design of the iPhone is set to radically change with next update. Joshua’s sources say that iPhone 5 will have the following design changes:

  • The phone will be thinner than the iPhone 4, and may have a “teardrop” shape, which goes from thick to thin (something along the lines of the MacBook Air profile).
  • The home button is doing double duty as a gesture area; this falls in line with testing we’ve seen for gestures on the iPad, and gestures are definitely coming in a future version of iOS.
  • The screen on the device will occupy the entire (or near to it) front of the phone, meaning almost no bezel. Apple is doing very “interesting things” with bonded glass technology, and has been exploring designs where the earpiece and sensors are somehow behind the screen itself, making for a device where the display is actually edge-to-edge.
  • The screen will go up to 3.7-inches while keeping the current resolution, and at that size, pixel density goes from 326 to 312 (a drop of 13ppi).
  • There’s also a “swipe area” that appears to be on the bottom and / or top of the device – that could very well be an NFC point, but that’s pure speculation.

The above mentioned information posted by Joshua and what we have been hearing from our sources about complete internal redesign indicate that iPhone 5 will be more than just a simple update.