Every new iPhone launch is preceded with much excitement and fervor though things seem to be shooting through the roof this time in anticipation of a special 10th anniversary iPhone being readied by Apple. Naturally, rumor mills are into overdrive already and are now claiming the iPhone 8 might come with an OLED panel that is curved along the edges.
What is even more interesting is that the OLED panels could be sourced from none other than Samsung, Apple’s arch rival. However, the display is not expected to be anywhere near to the Galaxy Edge series of Samsung smartphones. Instead, the iPhone 8 is likely to sport looks reminiscent of the Apple Watch display.
Apple is also reported to have placed orders for enough of the curved OLED panels to allow for mass production of the iPhone 8 based on those. KGI Securities analyst Ming Chi-Kuo had earlier claimed there is going to be three iPhone versions this year – the usual ‘S’ post-fixed versions of the current iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus along with the more advanced iPhone 8 to celebrate a decade of its existence.
Apart from the curved display, Apple is also believed to go for a major design overhaul of the iPhone 8 so that the front would be devoid of the iconic home button. Instead, there will be a special area carved out in the chin of the device that would be sensitive to touch, claimed one of WSJ’s sources.
The above fact is also in line with an earlier prediction made by Kuo who also stated the forthcoming iPhone 8 to have a special touch sensitive area beneath the display. No design renderings have been revealed so far, and it remains to be seen if such a function area makes the iPhone 8 look longish.
So far so good though there also is a fair bit of confusion with some sources claiming contrasting features. For instance, some publications known for their Apple-related predictions such as the Japanese blog Mac Otakara believe the iPhone 8 will feature the familiar Lightning port. This again contradicts another report that claims the Lightning port would be replaced by the more universal USB-C port. Apple more recently adopted the USB-C port on its latest Mac devices and having the same on the new iPhone will boost inter-device compatibility.
That is not all as Mac Otakara also stated it is only the anniversary iPhone 8 that will feature an all-glass design besides having wireless charging capabilities, niceties that the regular iPhone 7s and 7s Plus versions might miss out on. Kuo along with Nikkei in several of their reports claimed the entire 2017 iPhone line-up will have full-glass design along with wireless charging.
What seems evident is that more contradictions might be in the offing till things begin to clear off as well get closer to the launch of the 2017 iPhone devices this fall.
