So… there are a bunch of iPhone rumors out there right now.
Okay.
The rumor mill has been churning out new rumors left and right.
And if even half of these rumors turn out to be true, the next iPhone will likely be
one of the most exciting new iPhones in years.
Now, we’ll start off by talking about the new models.
As you guys know, Apple’s naming scheme has been pretty consistent over the years,
with the iPhone 5, 5S, 6, 6S, 7, and yes – there’ll probably be a 4.7 inch iPhone 7S and a 5.5
inch iPhone 7S Plus.
The 7S is expected to be your typical S upgrade.
And that’s cool and all.
But that’s not what has me excited.
You see, 2017 is also the ten year anniversary for the iPhone itself, which Apple first launched
back in 2007 with the iPhone 2G.
So you just know that Apple has something big planned.
And that big plan may come in the form of a third model, a higher end model, currently
rumored to be called the iPhone 8.
Either way, this higher end iPhone is going to be different.
First off, it's rumored to have a 5.8” OLED display.
Apple reportedly has already inked a deal with Samsung to produce these OLED displays,
which should provide a better contrast ratio and be more energy efficient than the LCD
displays that Apple is currently using.
And yes – you heard me correctly, the screen size is rumored to be up to 5.8” inches.
Now, if you’ve ever compared a 5.5 inch iPhone 6 or 7 Plus to other 5.5 inch smartphones
like the Galaxy S7 Edge, you know that the iPhone is a lot bigger due to having these
really big bezels.
So a bigger screen on an iPhone seems like a bad idea.
But here’s the thing.
Apple may just make up for the years of having huge bezels on its phones with an iPhone 8
with virtually no bezels, we’re talking less bezel than the Galaxy S8 and LG G6, to
the point where a 5.8” screen could fit into a device that’s roughly the size of
a 4.7” iPhone.
However, while this rumor of a nearly bezel-less iPhone sounds amazing, for it to actually
become a reality a few things need to happen.
For one, the iconic home button that has been a staple of the iPhone’s design since day
one will have to go.
We’ve already seen several android manufacturers do this already – with them moving the fingerprint
scanner from the front of the phone over to the back.
But the rumor is that Apple won’t be doing the same, with them instead integrating the
fingerprint scanner right into the iPhone 8’s display itself.
Sounds pretty far fetched, right?
But when you consider that companies like Synaptics have developed fingerprint scanners
that work under glass, and that Apple itself already has patents that describe fingerprint
sensors that work through a display.
All of the sudden, it seems a little bit more likely.
Add to that the patents Apple has for integrating an ambient light sensor into the display,
and a nearly bezel-less iPhone 8 might just be a thing.
Of course, I don’t think they’ll be able to integrate the front facing camera into
the display any time soon, so there’ll probably be at least a little bit of a bezel at the
top.
But who knows?
Now, speaking of the front facing camera, it's supposedly going to get a big upgrade.
The rumor is that the front camera will have 3D sensing capabilities using technology from
a company called PrimeSense, which Apple acquired back in 2013.
For context, PrimeSense was the company that played a big role in helping Microsoft develop
the Kinect sensor for the Xbox 360.
What exactly these 3D sensing capabilities will be used for on the iPhone is largely
unknown at this point, but there’s a good chance that the iPhone 8 will have either
iris scanning like we’ve seen on phones like the Note7 or even facial recognition.
There’s also the possibility that Apple will have an API for developers to use this
new sensor for augmented reality functions, from helping you find the right size for your
clothes to scanning your head and putting your face in a video game.
Going back to the display, since the physical home button will likely get the boot, the
bottom part of the 5.8” display will likely be used as a “functional area”, making
the actual usable portion of the screen roughly 5.2 inches.
Again, we’ve seen Android phones do the same thing with on-screen buttons, but since
iOS doesn’t have a back or a recents key like Android, the bottom strip will likely
act more like the touch bar on the new Macbook Pro, which may be even more useful on an iPhone
than on a Macbook once Apple opens it up to app developers.
Now, if you stop and think about it for a second, the not-so game changing features
in previous iPhones have kind of been slowly leading up to this touch bar.
You have 3D touch from the iPhone 6S, which so far hasn’t been all it was cracked up
to be, but all of the sudden it becomes really useful as it’ll help differentiate between
things like a double tap on the virtual home button for reachability and a double press
of the virtual home button for Siri.
But 3D touch alone wouldn’t be enough to make this work.
Just try double 3D touching the camera app on your iPhone 6S or 7 and you’ll see what
I’m talking about.
It just feels awkward pushing hard into the screen twice.
But yet, a double press on the iPhone 7’s solid state home button doesn’t feel awkward
thanks to the improved taptic engine that came with the iPhone 7 that makes it feel
like you’re actually double clicking a physical button.
So I’m excited about the touch bar, I really hope this rumor turns out to be true, and
if it is it could really be that game changer Apple has been looking for.
In terms of design, in addition to the bezel-less front, the back of the iPhone 8 may feature
glass instead of aluminum like the last four iPhones have had, with a stainless steel frame
like we saw on the iPhone 4S.
Love it or hate, glass backs do offer some benefits like better wireless signal and the
ability to wirelessly charge.
We’ve already seen Apple implement wireless charging on the Apple Watch, so it wouldn’t
come as a surprise if the iPhone 8 ends up supporting it too.
Speaking of charging, there’s was recently a big new rumor that the iPhone may end up
ditching the lighting port in favor of USB Type-C.
If this turns out to be true, this would be a huge departure from what Apple has ever
done with the iPhone, adopting an industry standard charging port instead of its own
proprietary one.
That’s never happened before, and to be honest I have my doubts.
Sure, Apple has a very real problem with the fact that if you go into an Apple store today,
and you buy the latest iPhone and the latest Macbook, you can’t connect the two without
using an adapter.
But I just can’t see Apple doing what every other manufacturer has done and use a industry
standard.
It doesn’t seem like something Apple would do.
Not to mention they can’t make money off of it with their “MFi” or “Made for
iPhone” licensing program.
So, I think the more likely solution to Apple’s dongle problem is changing the regular lighting
to USB-Type A cable that comes in the box to a lightning to USB-Type C cable.
This way consumers can connect their new iPhone to their new Macbook, and Apple gets to keep
on making money off of their lighting accessories.
Which seems much more like something Apple would do.
Either way, because of USB Type C, the iPhone 8 is rumored to also support fast charging,
which honestly if you’ve never had a phone with fast charging, is a really big deal.
Okay, let’s shift gears and talk about performance.
As always, the new iPhone is expected to get a faster and more energy efficient processor
in the A11 chip.
You don’t really need a rumor or leak to tell you that, that’s common sense.
But it is worth noting that the new chip is rumored to be designed with a 10nm process,
which will help the A11 chip deliver those increases in performance and efficiency.
Rumor has it that the iPhone 8 will also come with 3 GB of RAM like on the iPhone 7 Plus,
which thanks to iOS’ RAM management is kind of like having 6 GB of RAM on Android, at
least when it comes to app switching.
In terms of battery life, things are up in the air.
You have a bigger screen, a bunch of new features, and a smaller overall device which usually
means a smaller battery, so if anything you’d expect battery life to be worse.
But some rumors suggest that the iPhone 8 will actually have better battery life, thanks
in part to the more efficient OLED display, the more efficient A11 processor, and – get
this, a bigger battery.
Now you may be thinking, how will it have a bigger battery?
Right, that sounds crazy.
But the rumor says that despite its smaller overall size, with the help of a stacked logic
board design and an L-shaped two-cell battery pack, there’ll be more room inside the iPhone
to cram in a bigger battery.
We’re talking a 2700 milli-amp hour battery over a 1960 mAh battery in the iPhone 7.
To put that into perspective, the bigger iPhone 7 Plus had a 2900 mAh battery and that thing
lasts all day long.
So if Apple can actually pull this off, man the iPhone 8 will be really hard to beat.
Now, there hasn’t been a whole lot of rumors about the rear cameras on the iPhone 8 yet,
so it's possible that we’ll see a largely unchanged dual camera system with only slight
improvements in low-light capabilities and maybe optical image stabilization on both
the wide and the telephoto lens, where the iPhone 7 Plus only had OIS for the wide lens.
Other things you can probably expect from the iPhone 8 are an improved IP68 water resistance
rating over IP67, which translates into being able to submerge the phone in up to 1.5 meters
of water for 30 minutes compared to just 1 meter of water for 30 minutes.
Not the biggest deal in the world, but it should give you a little more confidence to
take the phone into the shower with you.
Siri should also be getting smarter with Apple’s acquisition of Turi, an AI company based out
of Seattle, which came just in time as competition from Google’s Assistant and Samsung’s
Bixby is heating up.
And there’s a chance that the OLED display will be curved just like the 2.5D glass on
the iPhone 7 is right now.
The iPhone 8 is expected to be announced and launched in September alongside the iPhone
7S and 7S Plus, which again are rumored to look similar to the iPhone 7 but will have
a lot of the new features that’ll come with the iPhone 8.
Of course, not all of the new features from the iPhone 8 will be on the 7S as Apple will
likely try to distinguish the 8 from the other two iPhones since rumors suggest that Apple
plans on selling the iPhone 8 for upwards of $1000 dollars.
Now, that’s a lot, but then again if these rumors pan out you’ll be getting what you
pay for.
Otherwise, there’ll still be the option for the 7S and 7S Plus which should sell for
somewhere around what the current iPhones are selling for now.
However, just to reiterate, everything here is based off of rumors and speculation, and
nothing is official until Apple announces the phones later this year.
If you want to stay updated on the latest rumors and leaks on the iPhone 8, hit that
subscribe button, give this video a thumbs up if you are excited for the new iPhone like
I am, and as always, I’ll see you in the very next episode.