Designed by Nathan Basset who goes by Reddit username G8M8N8, this beautiful handset merges nostalgia and innovation into one delightful package. “iPhone 4 is objectively the best-looking iPhone,” said Nathan, who designed this new-age iPhone based on its 2010 predecessor’s design language. I’m not one to invoke Steve Jobs’ name at every instance, but I do feel like this is the kind of phone he’d be proud to look at. It has the iPhone 4’s design language through and through but builds on its specs and details in a way that makes it futuristic. You’ve still got the classic aluminum frame with glass on the front and the back, but no raised camera bump like the one you’d see on the iPhone 14. The modern iPhone 4 has two large camera lenses that rest against the flat surface, gently protruding outwards. There’s no Home button, or any button for that matter… all you’ve got are flush control surfaces and a mute switch. There’s a Dynamic Island on the front, and what looks like a USB-C on the bottom. If the iPhone 4 was rebuilt again using the rumors of the iPhone 15 as a reference point, this is what we’d get… and I can’t help but think that Jobs would quite like it.
Designer: Nathan Basset
The phone comes in two color variants – Black, and White, just like the iPhone 4. Glass panels cover the front and the back, although, unlike its predecessor, this one isn’t a slave to bezels. The screen on the front pushes its way to the absolute limits, creating an absolutely seamless display with just a hint of a bezel on the sides. In true iPhone 4 fashion, the bezels on the white phone are white too. There’s a small cutout in the bezel on the top to make space for the receiver, which is a little more visible in the white variant.
The two-camera layout is a tribute to the iPhone 4’s lack of a Pro variant. In doing so, this model sticks to the basics too, however with larger camera modules that let more light in to the larger sensors, capturing pictures with much more clarity and vivid detail.
In keeping with the rumors of a button-less iPhone 15, this model ditches buttons too for pressure panels on the side for power and volume control. The only real hardware element is the mute switch, which is rumored to go on the iPhone 15 too, but Nathan decided to retain it for this concept because Jobs would have probably fired entire teams to ensure the mute switch remained untouched.
Flip over to the bottom and you’ve got yet another symbol of ‘Ghost of iPhone future’ – the USB-C charging port. Sitting between two stereo speakers, the USB-C charging port is perhaps the one biggest change to come to the future iPhone. Included in this concept just for good measure, it acts as a symbol of the future, while reminding us of the iPhone 4, which was the last iPhone with the original 30-pin connector. There’s no headphone jack on this concept, sadly. 🙁
