Unusual iPhone 14 (2022) render shows a smartphone with an L-shaped secondary display





What happens inside Apple’s design studio remains one of the world’s most closely guarded secrets… it’s bad for consumers (because they’re often taken by surprise), but it’s great for concept designers who get tonnes of leeway when it comes to making experimental versions of their favorite gadgets. Meet the iPhone 14 concept from the mind of Max Burgos – for the most part, it looks just like a normal iPhone, except for the unique secondary display located on the back, wrapping around the camera module.

The iPhone 14 concept shows the unique symbiotic relationship displays have with cameras. On the front, the camera results in a notched display, on the back, however, the camera causes the display to take on an L-shaped design! As unusual as this secondary display may be, it actually serves as a way to reinforce Apple’s app ecosystem – here’s how. The secondary display could be prime real estate for interacting with Apple’s OWN apps. Apple’s clock would show up on the back, iMessage notifications could pop up on the screen, and it could even serve as a dashboard for AirTag tracking. The L shape provides a lot of freedom as far as interfaces go – Burgos even demonstrates how a rear-facing camera app would look, allowing you to click wide-angle selfies using the iPhone’s main camera!

While entirely conceptual (the iPhone 14 isn’t due for another 16 months), Max Burgos’ iPhone 14 exists as a fan-made design that reinforces HIS OWN wants and aspirations from an iPhone. It’s rare that the execs at Apple ever reach out for customer feedback, so these concepts are perhaps the only way in which consumers can actually express interest in new features or visual details. I’d even throw a 3.5mm jack into the concept, just for kicks!

Designer: Max Burgos Morjaen for ConceptsiPhone

Breathtaking iPhone FOLD concept transforms from a regular smartphone into an iPad Mini

The internet is filled with rumors that Apple’s been working on a folding iPhone, and patents even show that Apple’s experimented with different layouts… but if there’s one thing that I’ve learned about Apple, they only debut products that fit perfectly into their ecosystem, and they spend years on product development in the pursuit of perfection; even though it can sometimes mean competitors beat them to the punch. With that being said, the iPhone Fold concept by Svyatoslav Alexandrov makes a compelling case for a folding smartphone. Here’s why.

From a strict ecosystem perspective, the iPhone Fold helps Apple develop one product that fits into two categories – the wildly popular smartphone category, and the sort-of dead mini-tablet category. With the iPhone Fold, Apple could easily discontinue the iPad Mini and focus on the higher-end, pro-grade tablet devices. The folding phone would then absorb the features of the iPad Mini, giving you a device that’s quite literally the best of both worlds.

The iPhone Fold concept designed by Svyatoslav Alexandrov (for the YouTube channel ConceptsiPhone) comes in the familiar Galaxy Fold format, with a primary 6.3-inch screen on the outside, and a larger, 8-inch folding screen on the inside. It ditches FaceID for the reliable TouchID, and turns the entire primary display into a fingerprint sensor – so you can unlock your phone simply by swiping up. The lack of FaceID means a significantly smaller notch with just one front-facing camera for selfies. The back, however, comes with the iPhone 12 Pro’s entire camera setup, featuring wide, ultra-wide, and telephoto lenses, along with a flash and a LiDAR scanner. Open the iPhone up and it transforms into a squarish iPad Mini that’s designed to be perfectly portable. While the concept doesn’t say much about whether this device supports the Apple Pencil, I’d like to think it does, and designer Svyatoslav Alexandrov does mention that the concept is MagSafe capable and 5G ready, which already makes it a pretty good iPad replacement, all things considered.

Multiple sources say that Apple already is working on a folding phone and patents show that the company is researching hinge-details and even folding batteries. However, until folding phones really prove to be a smartphone category that’s here to stay, I suspect Apple’s experimentations will never really see the light of day. It’s fun though, to speculate how a folding iPhone can fit well into Apple’s ecosystem by reviving one product line (the iPhone), and retiring another (the iPad Mini)!

Designer: Svyatoslav Alexandrov for ConceptsiPhone