Bloomberg on iPhone 8: all-screen front, curved glass, stainless steel frame & more

Bloomberg today corroborated many features allegedly coming to the Tenth Anniversary iPhone aka iPhone 8. Describing 2017 iPhones as “Apple’s most extensive iPhone lineup to date”, Bloomberg says Apple is testing a revamped iPhone with an all-screen front, curved glass and a stainless steel frame alongside upgrades to iPhone 7 models.

Bloomberg reiterates that we’ll possibly see three iPhones come this fall: the iterative iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus devices with LCD displays along with a new flagship model with an OLED screen, an overhauled look and other features.

The report mentions the following iPhone 8 features:

  • Organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screen that shows colors more accurately
  • The screen covers almost the entire front of the device
  • The display is slightly larger than that on iPhone 7 Plus
  • Overall device size is closer to iPhone 7
  • At launch, iPhone 8 will exclusively use Samsung-made OLED panels
  • Home button integrated into the display via software, like Galaxy S8
  • In-screen fingerprint scanner, “which would be technically challenging”
  • Curved glass
  • Stainless steel materials
  • Dual-camera system on the back aligned vertically for improved photography
  • Dual-lens system for the front-facing camera
  • Camera components from Sony, like on prior iPhones
  • Cameras to support AR features and enhanced depth-of-field photography
  • Apple engineers have experimented with integrating cameras into screens
  • Phones to run iOS 11 with “a refreshed user-interface”
  • Faster 10nm Apple-designed processors for all three iPhone models

Subscribe to iDownloadBlog on YouTube

The report goes on to detail features found in some of the more than ten iPhone 8 prototypes that Apple is believed to have tested with manufacturing partners in Asia:

  • Prototype #1: Flat OLED screen and the cover glass that curves into a steel frame. Design conceptually similar to iPhone 4 with symmetrical, slightly curved glass on the front/back and the curves similar in shape to those on the front of iPhone 7. “An earlier prototype design had a thinner steel band, leaving more noticeable curved glass on the sides,“ reads the article.
  • Prototype #2: The same slightly curved front and steel frame like Prototype #1 with a glass back having “more dramatic curves” on the top and bottom akin to the original iPhone design from 2007.
  • Prototype #3: Basically a tweaked Prototype #2, only slightly larger, with a simpler design with an aluminum back rather than a glass one. This is Apple’s fallback device because suppliers have so far “struggled to reliably produce heavily curved glass in mass quantities.”

The report says that people expecting to order their iPhone 8 shortly following an announcement in the fall may have to wait a little because supply constraints could mean the device isn’t readily available “until one or two months”.

Japanese blog Mac Otakara said yesterday that iPhone 8 would include a stainless steel frame, vertically stacked rear cameras for advanced AR/VR features and more.

iPhone 8 mockup via iFanr.

Source: Bloomberg