iPhone 7 concepts

published 31 August 2016

Picture of a leaked iPhone 7 backplate originating on Chinese social media. The Weibo poster claims this is a photograph of the actual backplate, not a case mock-up or dummy phone, of the 4.7ins handset.

iPhone 7 case leak showing four separate speaker holes.

The software fault is caused by a bugged character

Marek Weidlich shows how the phone may look if Apple gets rid of the home button on its next handset, which many tech experts believe is on the cards for the iPhone 7.

Leaked iPhone 7 CAD rendering. This would appear to be the 4.7 inch device.

This leaked picture, picked out earlier in 2016, shows a larger device with the much rumoured dual camera setup. It's impossible to validate the authenticity of the image.

Designing a new iPhone is an irresistible challenge for many budding artists engineers. Sahanan Yogarasa's design is closer in shape to the iPhone 6, but slimmer and sleeker. Others have been much more adventurous...

Jan-Willem Reusink's iPhone 7 concept design envisages a sharp-edged, all-metal frame. That could prove problematic for getting a radio signal, but the finish is crisp and smart.

The finish of the model is in keeping with the new Apple MacBooks, although the laptops incorporate more curves.

The most innovative – and unlikely – aspect of this iPhone 7 concept from Scavids is that it runs Android, not a move that either Apple or Google would ever countenance. For some users, though, it might provide the best of both worlds: sleek, desirable Apple hardware with the flexibility of Google's operating system.

Design-wise, the Android iPhone is not a radical departure, but it adds an edge-to-edge screen, a favourite of Apple concept artists.

The rear of the phone protrudes, allowing more space for addition battery capacity – something iPhone users have often requested. But Apple has been faithful to flat-backed designs since its first smartphone.

Long before reports suggested that Apple was working on a buttonless iPhone, Martin Hajek had come up with a concept model that achieves a similar end, on his design, the screen extends to the edge of the frame, transforming the iPhone's home button – one of the few features that has remained constant since the first model. Instead of a mechanical push-button, Hajek imagines it as an indented, touch sensitive spot, which would incorporate the TouchID fingerprint reader.

This iPhone concept fits somewhere in between the standard and Plus-size handsets, with a 5.1-inch screen. Designed by Joseph Farahi, the model looks impossibly slim, but at 6.1mm it is only 0.8mm slimmer than the iPhone 6. Combining elements of the previous two concept models, it takes the bright silver edge detailing and applies it to a handsome flat slice of aluminium.

Yasser Farahi takes a more conservative approach, making only a few structural tweaks to the iPhone 6. He imagines that Apple will instead focus on extending the iPhone's colour palette, opting for more subtle shades than it chose for the iPhone 5C.

A bolder choice of colour is on show is in evidence in another design from Sahanan Yogarasa, which envisages a splash of primary colour on the back panel and edge of a super-slim iPhone 7.

As well as green, Yogarasa suggests that the phones will come in a range of other bright colours too.

And an updated version of the video applies Apple's newer, more metallic colour pallete, to the iPhone 6.

Federico Ciccarese's design is rigid, but curved imagining a phone that looks much like the iPhone 6 from the front, but which bulges out at the rear, much like the HTC One M9.

Before the launch of the iPhone 6, Lewi Hussey took a larger leap in imagining a flexible version of the device. The concept is a tweaked version of the iPhone 5S, with one major difference – the glass screen and metal frame can be bent out of shape (without causing the damage that occurred when the real iPhone 6 did start to bend in skinny jean pockets).

Martin Hajek, a regular creator of iPhone concept models, has mocked up of a rose gold handset, imagining how the 18-carat gold shell of the Apple Watch Edition might be applied to the frame of the iPhone 6S or 7.

There's more inspiration from the Apple Watch in this imaginative iPhone 7 concept from ADR Studio, who have dared Apple to transfer the "Digital Crown" from smartwatch to phone. The idea is that it will give you "deep control" of the device.

Grisha Serov's concept is also inspired by the Apple Watch, but in a more subtle way. His design retains the existing profile of the iPhone 6, but adds the gentler curves of the new smartwatch, and replaces Apple's trusted aluminium frame with one made from the stainless steel alloy it developed for the watch.

Serov also challenges Apple to improve the aesthetics of the broad stripes that run across the back of the iPhone 6. They're necessary to provide network reception, but the concept model suggests that they could be given a more appealing finish.

Hasan Kaymak's design keeps the physical home button, but removes the side bezels and stretches the screen around the phone's frame – much like the Samsung S6 Edge. The result is a 5.5-inch iPhone 7 Plus, but built around a significantly smaller chassis than the current 6 Plus.

Kaymak is not the only designer keen to see an iPhone 7 Edge. This design, published by globalnews.ca, presents an 4.7-inch iPhone 7 with the screen extending over the curve of the frame.

There's no curve on the screen of this concept, produced by Smartphone Alerts, but it does cover the entire front of the handset

The iPod Nano has provided the inspiration for Jackson Chung's slick design for a small, unibody iPhone 7. He also proposes a small, low-power electronic display at the top of the handset to reduce clutter on the main screen.

Another model from Martin Hajek, who produced this design before the launch of the iPhone 6. He imagined (or hoped) that Apple would extend the screen to the very edge of the frame, minimising the size of the handset while maximising screen area.

Hajek adopts a similar approach for this iPhone 7 concept, in which the screen meets all four edges of the frame. As a result, he says, the overall dimensions of the phone can shrink.

There's nothing conservative about Nickolay Lamm and Matteo Gianni's work. They envisage an iPhone 7 with a curved, wraparound screen that would certainly stand out from the crowd - but might prove difficult to hold.

Martin Hajek's latest iPhone 7 concept, released last month, looks at first glance barely different from the iPhone 6. But as you'll see on the next slide, its sleek minimalist lines are hiding a more significant development...