The iPhone 20 Pro's megalomaniacal ambitions could ruin all Android phones if they copy it

The iPhone 20 Pro is a ghost. It doesn't exist. But I know it will be pretty special, even though it is roughly a year until we get to see it in the flesh. After all, it's the twentieth anniversary of the iPhone—the pocket-sized device that changed everything.

Apple has to push the envelope with this one. It will surely push the price, too.

I'm not here to talk about the iPhone 20 Pro's specs in detail or its price, as I'm sure I'll be doing that numerous times in the next 350 days.

Instead, today I want to focus on a single rumored feature of the iPhone 20 Pro that might ruin all Android phones next year if they decide to copy Cupertino once again.

The Apple factor

Apple isn't exactly the company pushing the boundaries of smartphone hardware anymore. It entered the foldable phone race seven years (!) after Samsung and Huawei. Furthermore, as cool as the iPhone 18 Pro Max is, it simply doesn't pack the biggest batteries around. Also, Apple has shown little interest in chasing the enormous camera sensors that have become common on Chinese flagships.

Yet, when Apple does something, the rest of the industry still pays very close attention. Like, too close.

That's the Apple factor for y'all. What Cupertino does, other manufacturers often "get inspired by" sooner rather than later. Sometimes it's a genuinely useful change, sometimes it's something that makes you wonder why everyone suddenly decided it was a good idea.

Rumors, rumors, rumors

We're hearing that Apple's anniversary iPhone could feature a quad-curved display next year, with the glass bending toward all four edges. The idea is easy enough to understand: Apple wants the iPhone 20 Pro to have virtually no bezels… and a curved panel could help create that edge-to-edge look.

The tradeoff

Curved screens are a tradeoff in my book. I've had a phone with a quad-curved screen. Yes, one adapts, but those curved edges make accidental touches more likely, particularly when you're holding the phone one-handed. Phones with such panels are also more exposed to damage than a traditional flat edge. And don't get me started on screen protectors, as these are often more awkward than not. And then there's the color or brightness "bleeding" toward the edges, especially when you're looking at the screen from a funky angle.

No need for this

I don't think the iPhone 20 Pro actually needs a quad-curved display to feel special. Apple could keep the screen flat, give me today's reasonably sized bezels and spend its engineering effort somewhere that would make a much bigger difference in everyday use.

Give me a genuinely giant battery. Give me 100W charging, for crying out loud. Let me plug the thing in while I'm taking a shower and never resort to overnight charging again. At that point, I couldn't care less if there are a couple of millimeters of bezel around the display.

Remember what Michael Corleone said?

Even though it's compromised as hell (compared to the first two movies), there are a few golden-coated scenes in the third installment of The Godfather Part III (1990). In one of those, Al Pacino's Michael Corleone says, in quite the manner, "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in."

Well, that's essentially how I feel about the iPhone 20 Pro's rumored quad-curved screen. It's 2026 and current-day flagships (and mid-rangers and budget-friendly devices for that matter, too) have outgrown their quad-curved display phase. We're rocking super fancy, super practical and super flat phone screens nowadays.

You might call me conservative, but I like it that way. And you might be right to call me a (pipe) dreamer, but I pray that Android makers don't copy the iPhone 20 Pro in this regard. By the way, there's an Android phone with 0mm bezels already. And its display is a flat one.

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