The portable music player iPod nano was first introduced in 2005, and later underwent many changes in appearance. As it turned out, at one time the company even considered the option of a full-screen design of the gadget, the same as that of modern smartphones.

Insider information was shared by Tony Fadell, who previously held the position of senior director of the department for the development and release of the iPod. He later founded his own company, Nest, which is now owned by Google. In his new book called Build, Fadell mentions how he and his team came up with designs for branded players. At some point, the department was tasked with developing the next iPod nano.

At the design stage, the designers went through various options – for example, what a player with a large screen, with a large control wheel, and without it at all, could look like. They even printed several layouts on a 3D printer, of which one stands out in particular – with a display on almost the entire front panel. The corresponding image was published by the ex-employee of the Cupertino company on Twitter.

It’s not clear exactly when Apple considered a full-screen iPod nano, but it’s clear that the idea came to the head of engineering many years before the iPhone X came out in 2017, with a similar design.