Apple To Release Bigger iPhone 16 Pro Max With New ‘Sci-Fi’ Design

Apple is planning to make the iPhone 16 Pro Max bigger than its predecessor, according to a new leak.

Reliable tipster Ice Universe has published some dimension details of the upcoming iPhone on Twitter/X, which reveal Apple is planning to make the phone taller, wider and thicker. The leaker claims that the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s dimensions will be: 163.024mm x 77.575mm x 8.26mm, with a 6.883-inch display.

Up against the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s measurements; 159.9 x 76.7 x 8.3 mm (with a 6.7-inch screen) we can see that there will be more screen real estate, while being marginally taller and thicker. This lines up with previous leaks that pointed towards a 6.9-inch screen on Apple’s biggest phone (once rounded up).

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Hopefully, the larger size means a bigger battery for the new iPhone, but some of the additional display space may be down to slimmer bezels. Ice Universe claims that the handset will feature a bezel thickness of 1.153mm on all four sides, which the tipster claims will make it the “world’s first” phone to have a “borderless sci-fi form factor.”

We will have to see if that’s true when the devices launch in September, but Ice Universe has already published some comparison images (between the iPhone 15 and 16 Pro Max units) that look like they’ve come from Apple marketing material.

As my colleague David Phelan reported, there is a clear difference between the bezel size in the renders that Ice Universe shared this week. If the new near-borderless design information is accurate, it does raise questions about how user-friendly that form factor is. As Phelan points out: “you still want to be able to hold the phone without the touchscreen accidentally activating.”

Apple releases new features and makes design choices slowly and carefully, so I imagine this scenario will have been prepared for. The larger dimensions may also explain the leaks that surfaced earlier this year about the iPhone 16’s revamped action button, which will provide a new input method for the device.

The new input method will be capacitive and mechanical, which means it can be swiped as well as pressed. According to previous leaks, it will be able to register different levels of pressure to activate separate tasks. Apple will market this as a camera button but reports say it is programmable.

A bigger and thicker phone may be awkward to handle for some smaller hands, so an additional—multi-purpose—button that can be swiped, touched, and pressed, could solve that.

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