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The iPhone 8 will reportedly debut later than expected and in limited quantities

iPhone 8 Concept
A render of what the tenth anniversary iPhone might look like. Obshansky Vladimir/ConceptsiPhone

A new report from Japanese blog Mac Otakara (which we saw via AppleInsider) claims that sources within Apple's supply chain suggest that the so-called "iPhone 8" won't hit the market until October (or even November), and will be limited in quantity when it does.

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The device is reportedly going to be unveiled alongside the iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus, which will be Apple's usual refreshes of last year's models. The tenth anniversary iPhone, on the other hand, is rumoured to feature an entirely new design with things such as an edge-to-edge organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display, a first for Cupertino's smartphones.

OLED displays are different from (and usually better than) liquid crystal (LCD) panels for a number of reasons, like power efficiency, color accuracy, and saturation. But on a technical level, the biggest difference is that they don't rely on a backlit panel, and light up pixels individually.

This means that if something is black, the pixel won't light up, which might be the reason why Apple is reportedly considering using black bezels on the iPhone 8. The rumoured 5.8-inch display should cover almost the entirety of the iPhone front, and for design purposes, Apple might want to use a black bezel to give the illusion of a truly full-display front.

As far as biometric authentications go, it seems increasingly unlikely that Apple will manage to put a fingerprint scanner under the phone's screen, as it has been rumoured for some time. Mac Otakara's sources say that Apple may be going all in with the face-scanning technology, enabled by a 3D-sensing camera.

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"There is a high possibility that the advanced technology, which the report dubs 'Face ID,' will see release this fall," the report says. "Apple will augment facial recognition with iris authentication hardware, to be located next to the FaceTime camera."

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