Apple iPhone 8 Will Have An Edgeless All-Glass OLED Display, Reports ‘The Wall Street Journal’

The Inquisitr previously reported that Apple will launch the iPhone in 2017 with an edgeless all-glass display. A new report by the Wall Street Journal confirms the earlier leak and thereby adds to the credibility of the rumor. If the rumors do come true, the 2017 iPhone could very well become the most beautiful iPhone ever made.

The Wall Street Journal report states that Apple is planning a dramatic overhaul of the iPhone design specifically because 2017 will mark the 10th anniversary since the first iPhone was launched. The design changes could include an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display wrapping around the edges of the phone. Furthermore, the home button and the fingerprint sensor are expected to be integrated into the display itself. Note that the move to an OLED screen means that the iPhone display will exhibit punchier colors than before. Samsung uses AMOLED panels for its Galaxy smartphones. There is no mention of an increase in the display resolution of the iPhone in the report.

The iPhone 8 may not have a home button https://t.co/jPOG1duwyK pic.twitter.com/dPVfxTcLOg

— Insider Business (@BusinessInsider) June 22, 2016

It is also interesting to note that the 2017 iPhone could skip the “S” moniker and be called the iPhone 8. This piece of information was first highlighted by John Gruber in his famous podcast The Talk Show. He had also mentioned that the iPhone 8 will come with an “edgeless” display.

Talking about the iPhone 8, Gruber said, “I’ve heard this independently and it is completely getting rid of the chin and forehead of the iPhone 8. The entire face will be the display. And the Touch ID sensor will be somehow embedded in the display. The front-facing camera will somehow be embedded in the display. The speaker, everything. All the sensors will somehow be behind the display.”

The edgeless all-glass display of the iPhone 8 could very well be true because the United States Patent and Trademark Office had recently granted a patent to Apple for a unique curved all-glass display. While Apple may not make an iPhone that looks exactly like the drawings in the patent, the iPhone 8’s design rumors are certainly a step in that direction.

Apple is going to remove the headphone jack with iPhone 7, but even bigger upgrades are planned for iPhone 8 in 2017 https://t.co/iidrmWqVaf

— MarketWatch (@MarketWatch) June 21, 2016

Last month’s leak used the information shared by Allen Horng, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Catcher Technology, at the company’s annual shareholder meeting. Catcher Technology has been making the iPhone chassis for quite some time now and is, therefore, a credible source of iPhone 8 leaks. He said that using an all-metal chassis would actually prove to be expensive for the iPhone maker. Horng further added that Apple is planning to reinforce the glass chassis with an internal metal frame, which should add to the rigidity of the phone.

While the iPhone 8 does look futuristic and exciting, this year’s yet-to-be-launched iPhone already looks boring. Multiple rumours have already confirmed that the iPhone 7, to be launched in September this year, will have a similar design as that of the iPhone 6s. Multiple reports are also claiming the iPhone 7 will be slimmer, exclude the headphone (3.5mm audio) jack entirely, and have repositioned antenna bands curved along the top and the bottom edges of the phone.

In fact, the same WSJ report also talks about why the iPhone won’t be getting a design revolution this year. Apparently, the curved display technology will take some time to implement and wasn’t ready for the iPhone 7. This indicates that Apple is making a few changes to its two-year design upgrade cycle for the iPhone so that it can introduce a radical change next year for the 10th anniversary of the iPhone.

Analysts are already predicting that the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus could have “muted sales” this year because it will only be a moderate upgrade. It looks like Apple is willing to take that risk this year.

Please note that all these rumors should be taken with a pinch of salt. We have absolutely no confirmation on how the iPhone 7 will look, let alone the iPhone 8, until Apple actually unveils the device to the world.

[Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images]