The iPhone 7 has only been on sale for a while, but all we seem to be hearing are rumours about the iPhone 8. We think Apple might well be holding back some major updates and improvements for the iPhone 8, which will be launched on the 10th anniverary of the first iPhone. Here we round up the rumours about the iPhone 8 release date, price, features and specifications.
iPhone 8 release date rumours: When is the iPhone 8 coming out?
iPhone 8 UK release date: September 2017 (TBC)
Although ages away, we can fairly confidently predict the iPhone 8 release date. Assuming the annual September announcement tradition continues, the iPhone 8 release date will be in September 2017. However, 2017 marks the 10th anniversary of the original iPhone launch, so we wouldn't be too surprised if Apple mixed things up a bit
iPhone 8 or iPhone 7S or something else? What will the iPhone in 2017 be called?
It seems the name may have been confirmed with an Apple employee referring to the new device by the name 'iPhone 8' unprompted when speaking to Business Insider.
As we've mentioned, the iPhone for 2017 is slightly harder to predict because it will mark a big anniversary for the smartphone.
The latest rumours are that Apple will release three new iPhone models as part of the main lineup. This could well be the 'S' versions of the 7 and 7 Plus, and the extra 'iPhone 8', an even more premium flagship with 'revolutionary' features.
The Wall Street Journal says: "Apple plans bigger design changes for 2017, the 10th anniversary of the original iPhone. Those changes could include an edge-to-edge organic light-emitting diode, or OLED, screen and eliminating the home button by building the fingerprint sensor into the display, according to people familiar with the matter.
"At a meeting with an Apple executive, one of the company’s China-based engineers asked why this year’s model [the iPhone 7] lacked a major design change in keeping with Apple’s usual two-year cycle. The answer, one person at the meeting recalled, was that the new technology in the pipeline will take time to implement. People familiar with the matter said some features that Apple hopes to integrate into iPhones, such as curved screens, weren’t ready for this year’s models," it added.
If Apple follows the usual pattern, the iPhone 7 that launched this year will be followed by the iPhone 7S in 2017. The fact that it's 10 years since the original iPhone means this could all go out the window. Apple will want to do something special to celebrate the occasion so an 'S' model, which usually just brings small tweaks, won't suffice.
It's pretty much anyone's guess at the moment, hence, we're calling the 2017 model the iPhone 8 at the moment but it's perfectly plausible that the new phone won't conform to the traditional naming system at all. The iPhone SE (special edition) is already a thing, so perhaps Apple will go with 'iPhone Pro', iPhone Anniversary Edition' or even just 'iPhone' - although naming the iPad 3 as 'the new iPad' didn't go down too well.
A report from Nikkei suggested that in 2017 there would be three new iPhone models. It sounded as though we were in for the usual 4.7- and 5.5in models (the regular and Plus), plus a third new 'Pro' model with a 5.5in or above curved screen. Its source said the screen would be "bent on the two sides" making it sound like a Galaxy Note 7 rival. Of course, this didn't happen with the iPhone 7, though it doesn't mean we won't see a curved-screen iPhone 8.
iPhone 8 price
We're speculating for now, of course, as the iPhone 7 has only recently gone on sale. Whether Apple will introduce a price increase for the potentially special iPhone 8 is anyone's guess. However, the iPhone 7 price jumped up to £599 in the UK thanks to Brexit and we hope that it will stay the same with next year's anniversary model. However, in light of the latest leaks which suggest there will be three new iPhones, the 'anniversary' model could be an ultra-premium device that could cost more than any iPhone yet. We will just have to wait and see.
Although one analyst predicts the iPhone 8 to be the best selling model ever - with up to 150m sales - another is worried that following the anniversary edition, Apple will see a possible 10 year slump afterwards.
iPhone 8 specs and new features
If Apple does indeed do something special for the iPhone's 10th anniversary, which is ever more likely from all the leaks, the iPhone 8 will be one which fans will no doubt want to upgrade to on launch day. Could we see the biggest queues ever?
A combination of design and hardware changes will make the iPhone 8 the most radical new iPhone to date, if we are to go by the rumours and leaks.
iPhone 8 screen
Many reports are suggesting that there could be a third iPhone 8 model beyond the usual two. This more 'premium' option will be even bigger, touted at 5.8in, with a curved OLED screen. However, this may be no bigger than the current iPhone 7 Plus which is 5.5in due to the expected bezel-less design. Via MacRumours. Also, the Korean Herald reported that a source confirmed that Apple has ordered the curved screens from Samsung and that - like the screen on the Galaxy S7 Edge - it will be made from plastic and not glass. Typically glass is only used for flat screens, so this is not too surprising.
Apple has partnered with LG in the past for iPhone displays, but LG is reportedly working on a foldable screen which it's aiming to provide to Apple in 2018.
Respected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who collaborated on the above info, has now said the third OLED iPhone will have a screen size of 5.1- or 5.2in rather than something bigger than the normal Plus model.
According to a report on the Wall Street Journal, Apple is asking suppliers to make a screen better than Samsung, telling them to "submit prototype screens with better resolution than ones from Samsung". This means the iPhone 8 will have a resolution higher than Quad HD which is 2560x1440, a big jump from the iPhone 7.
There is yet more weight to the possibility of the iPhone 8 getting an OLED screen. Multinational banking company JP Morgan has come across a purchase order in Apple's most recent Securities and Exchange Commission which is thought to be for OLED panels. The order extends for a year and is valued at around $4bn.
We wanted to bring your attention to a phone which might provide a glimpse of what the iPhone 8. Xiaomi has announced the Mi Mix which is, let's face it, a stunning device. It looks like the first of a new category of phones with it's 91.3 percent screen-to-body ratio, according to the firm.
A Facebook post by Robert Scoble - a well-known tech strategist - reveals new details about the next iPhone. In the lengthy post Scoble claims to have been told that it will be "a clear piece of glass... which will put holograms on top of the real world like Microsoft HoloLens does". He also says the phone will have an OLED screen and that Apple has 600 engineers working on a next-generation 3D sensor and that the phone will have eye sensors. These will bring "a new kind of interface". He also says that you'll "pop it into a headset which has eye sensors on it, which enables the next iPhone to have a higher apparent frame rate and polygon count than a PC with a Nvidia 1080 card in it."
Plus, he says that new sources revealed we can "expect battery and antennas to be hidden around the edges of the screen, which explains how Apple will fit in some of the pieces even while most of the chips that make up a phone are in a pack/strip at the bottom of the phone."
These sound like ridiculous predictions, especially the part about the phone being transparent - battery tech is not yet good enough to make one small enough to "hide" - but if true, the iPhone 8 will be a revolution rather than the evolution we've seen with the iPhone 7 this year. We'll continue to update this article as new information appears, but here's how things stand right now.
This concept image via ConceptsiPhone shows what an edge-to-edge OLED display iPhone might look like:
