The world will have to wait until around September to see Apple’s latest iPhone offering, but keen speculators are abuzz with reports about what the company might reveal for the smartphone’s 10th anniversary.
Much of the speculation is unconfirmed, and while a number of sources of the rumours are known for delivering breaking tech news, none of rumoured features have so far been announced by Apple. The company hasn’t even hinted at a release date.
Read more: Apple’s iPhone turns 10 – The secret history of how the iconic smartphone came to be
That said, here are five of the rumours flying around about the new iPhone.
9to5Mac reports trusted Apple analyst at KGI Securities, Ming-Chi Kuo, believes one version of the new iPhone will be a 5.8-inch display with AMOLED technology. This technology is currently featured in super-high resolution TVs and would give the iPhone 8 a pixel density of around 521 pixels per inch.
For reference, the iPhone 7 features around 320 pixels per inch. Kuo also claims the screen of the iPhone 8 will stretch almost to the edge of the device, which means the device will stay relatively close to the size of the iPhone 7, with a massive increase in screen real estate.
If true, this will be a big design upgrade for the iPhone line, getting rid of bezels and giving the phone a sleek, edge-to-edge screen design.
However, such a massive screen-to-body ratio means some sacrifices must be made, and those sacrifices could come in the form of the iPhone’s trusty home button.
A report from Chinese analyst firm Trendforce, backed up by reports from Kuo, suggests one version of the iPhone will ditch the physical home button in favour of the function being integrated into the display.
Kuo labels the area a “function area” and believes Apple’s fingerprint recognition software TouchID will not be part of some models of iPhone 8. However, the company is rumoured to be introducing a hi-tech alternative.
In lieu of fingerprint scanning features, JPMorgan analyst Rod Hall claims a version of the new iPhone will feature a 3D laser scanner that will pair with the phone’s front-facing camera to allow users to unlock their phone by looking at it.
This will be done via facial recognition software, already included in a number of Android phones, and iris recognition functions.
Along with this, the 3D camera would open the iPhone to a new world of potential for augmented reality in apps.
“One obvious and potentially most compelling use would be AR/VR experiences in which the user’s hands and other real world objects are being scanned and integrated into a field of view provided by the iPhone,” Hall told Fortune.
“This would open up many interesting entertainment and gaming experiences not available today and might give Apple something extra in an AR/VR accessory compared to Google and others.”
All these fancy features come at a cost, however, with Trendforce claiming the iPhone 8 model with the AMOLED screen may be priced over $US1000 ($1300) in order to offset the cost for the expensive display.
For more wallet-conscious iPhone fans, Trendforce claims two other models will be released, both with smaller screens and traditional iPhone 7-like designs. The company claims these models will be priced to compete against Chinese brand phones.
Trendforce also claims all models will include 256 gigabytes of storage space at a base level. The highest level model iPhone 7 included 256 gigabytes, where the base level only included 32.
Reports from Appleinsider suggest that the new iPhone could feature Apple’s A11 processor, which will likely be smaller and with higher processing power than prior models.
Leaked benchmark tests of the new processor claim it smashes the power of Apple’s last processor release, the A10, which can be found in the iPhone 7.
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Dominic Powell is a journalist at SmartCompany and a tech and music geek. When he’s not writing, you can find him reading or browsing record shops.
