The iPhone 7 screen looked so good despite its dated LCD tech, but the iPhone 8 is pushing forward as Apple’s first AMOLED iPhone—and also one with the biggest screen yet.
The smartphone industry has been one of the, if not the, most fast-paced industries in the realm of technology. This has been especially true for the leaders of the smartphone industry, Samsung and Apple, as they release brand new flagships year in and year out, with the next one showcasing even more cutting-edge tech than the last.
But did you know that Apple’s latest premium smartphone line, the iPhone 7, is equipped with tech that has been abandoned by most smartphones as early as the Samsung S II? Yup, the iPhone 7 is still equipped with an LCD screen, a technology that has been gaining declining support from smartphone creators as early as 2008, when Nokia came out with the first AMOLED display smartphone: the Nokia N85.
For the not-so-technologically-savvy, AMOLED and LCD displays both have merits to themselves, as expertly nitpicked by Android Authority . LCD displays have had a good run, donning a more consistent screen life than AMOLED, but as people tend to upgrade more frequently nowadays, beautiful displays start to supersede display life. AMOLED displays, in particular, has been gaining momentum in the smartphone industry in the recent years as it is able to display unmatched color saturation, good battery life preservation, and opens new doors of possibilities when it comes to creating thin and flexible displays.
While the iPhone 7 has pulled through with LCD by incorporating technology called DCI-P3 wide color gamut into its LCD, as Wired explains, it looks like the time has come for the smartphone giant to finally yield to the AMOLED trend as news from DigiTimes reports that Samsung will be supplying AMOLED panels for Apple’s upcoming iPhone 8.
According to the report, Samsung Display will become the exclusive supplier of AMOLED panels, which will be used by the 2017 iPhone 8. According to their unidentified sources, Apple will launch 4.7-, 5.5-, and 5.8-inch new iPhone models in the second half of 2017. Interestingly, the 4.7- and 5.5-inch variants will still come in the traditional iPhone LCD. The huge 5.8 version, the version believed to be the iPhone 8 flagship, will be the only variant to come with the AMOLED panel.
Leaks and rumors of the iPhone 8 coming with AMOLED and bezel-less displays have been circulating before 2016 came to a close, and it looks like multiple sources are corroborating the information that, indeed, the iPhone 8 will set another bar for the smartphone industry. Surely, Apple is preparing some explosive stuff for their upcoming iPhone 8, since it will mark the line’s 10th year anniversary.
iPhones have stuck with mid-sized smartphones before they broke the trend with the iPhone 6, so it’s not such a big surprise that they are releasing an ever bigger iPhone 8 as the market continues to shift to preferring huge displays, like Samsung’s Galaxy Note series. Forbes , along with other reports, expects that the 5.8 inches that the iPhone 8 will come in will not only be its phone size, but its display size as well, as rumors point to a bezel-less iPhone 8, much like the Galaxy S7 Edge and the short-lived Galaxy Note 7.
iPhone 8: Everything we currently know about Apple’s 10th anniversary flagship https://t.co/rgUYP9hM7n #iPhone
— iPhone News (@iPhone_News) December 30, 2016
The report also suggests that Apple is expecting 60-70 million units of iPhone 8 to ship globally in 2017, which s a pretty bold estimate for Apple since the company has witnessed a consistent decline in iPhone sales in the recent years. But as Apple celebrates its 10th year anniversary, it looks like the iPhone 8 only aims to go big, lest it goes home.
The new iPhone 8 is expected to start production as early as March, with an estimated release date of September 2017. What game-changing design do you think will the iPhone 8 introduce this time around?
[Featured Image by Sean Gallup/Getty Images]