A new industry report claims that Apple intends the 2027 iPhone to have a much thinner, brighter, and longer-lasting display, that will also help battery life.
The new display is a development of OLED that Apple and others have been working on for at least three years. It removes the polarizing layer of OLED, which currently prevents light blurring across the screen.
According to ET News, the new design relies on Color Filter on Encapsulation (COE) technology. This is a filter that reduces reflection, and reportedly removes the need for the polarizing layer.
Consequently, a display using COE would be thinner, and it is said to also make for brighter screens. At present, the polarizing layer dims OLED screens, so more battery power is needed to compensate.
That means the new display gets to be thinner, brighter, and also consume less power. Previously Apple has been said to be researching this with the iPhone Fold in mind, and that may yet be the case.
However, the new report specifies that the technology is to be applied to the non-folding iPhones.
"Apple plans to apply COE to bar-type smartphones in 2027 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the iPhone launch," said an unspecified official in the industry.
That same source, however, claims that Apple will not be first to market with the new screen technology.
While the source is not identified, he or she appears to work for Samsung, given what they said next. "We are trying to apply new technology to the top-level model to emphasize that Samsung applied it before Apple."
Samsung has already used COE in its Galaxy Z Fold 3, which was released in 2021. However, the company is now expected to expand COE to the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, due out in early 2026.
It's previously been reported that the iPhone Fold would get a thinner display made by Samsung. But those reports specified that it was a new type not yet used by Samsung itself.
