There’s a lot to love about Apple AAPL -0.43%’s new 2018 iPhones. Personally, my favourite thing is the most exciting model will also be surprisingly cheap. The worst thing is new information reveals this budget marvel will look different to its more expensive stablemates…

‘Great Secret Features’ and ‘Nasty Surprises’ are my regular columns investigating the best features / biggest problems hidden behind the headlines.

Today Apple tipster and friend of mine, Ben Geskin revealed all the front panels of Apple’s upcoming iPhone line-up. And it confirms you will get what you pay for.

In short, despite copying the so-called ‘bezel-less’ design of the more expensive second-generation iPhone X (details) and new iPhone X Plus (details), Apple’s new budget iPhone X will have noticeably thicker bezels. Thanks to an inherent design limitation, which stems from cost-cutting.

In order to make the budget iPhone X so affordable, Apple is fitting it with an LCD panel rather than the more expensive OLED panels in the gen two iPhone X and iPhone X Plus. The OLED panels in these phones actually bend around to the back so Apple can hide the display connector away from the end resulting in their tiny bezels. But LCD displays don’t bend.

At its worst, you’ll see that when modelled by Mac Otakara (below) the budget iPhone X (which I expect will simply be named ‘iPhone’ like the entry level ‘iPad’ and ‘MacBook’) looks cumbersome and almost like a toy version of the other two.

That said, Apple still deserves a lot of credit for making these bezels as thin as they are thanks to a cutting-edge partnership with Japanese manufacturer Nichia for new connector technology. If there is to be criticism, therefore, it will be Apple’s decision to retain this thicker bezel on all four sides purely to match the OLED models.

I personally believe consumers should be able to overlook this and the other compromises the budget iPhone X makes because of how it keeps the price down.

But for others, I’m sure the fact the new model will be more recognisable as the budget option, will put off some buyers. Then again, buyers of these new premium iPhones won’t have a risk-free purchase either…