Apple is preparing iPhones with bigger screens for a launch next year.
Although the iPhone 8 design isn’t final yet, Barclays analysts Blayne Curtis and Christopher Hemmelgarn provided some new details about Apple’s next iPhone in a note distributed to clients on Friday.
The analysts are citing supply chain sources spoken to during a trip to Asia.
“iPhone 8 design didn’t sound 100% locked down but we believe the move is to a bezel-less design with screen sizes getting larger and curved edges in the original envelope. The IP8 moves to 5″ (from 4.7″) and the Plus moves to 5.8″ (from 5.5″),” the analysts write.
The mentions of 5-inch and 5.8-inch iPhones lines up with previous reports from Nikkei and KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
The phones may stay the same size while the screens get bigger, thanks to less space around the screen."We believe Apple is looking to increase the screen sizes with zero bezel such that they will still fit in the same size" casings, the Barclays analysts wrote.
"Maybe the low-end moves to 4.7" [screen] with the new larger sizes coming," they continued.
Only the Plus model will have an OLED screen, a newer type of display technology with better color and deeper blacks, the analysts wrote. Most of the OLEDs will come from Samsung and LG, according to the report.
That's because of supply issues, they say, and the industry expects Foxconn's subsidiary Sharp to get its factories up and running in 2018.
"By using a plastic OLED screen, the screen can bend at the edges to allow a curved bezel-less edge," the analysts wrote.
The report also suggests that Apple's Force Touch feature may change to a "film-based solution" from the current "flexible PCB" technology that the iPhone 7 uses.
The analysts also had some new iPad predictions based on their trip to Asia.
We're expecting Apple's iPhone 8 to be a major redesign to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the iPhone, and Barclays' predictions line up with what we've been hearing. The iPhone 8, or iPhone 10, depending on what Apple decides to call it, could have glass casing, wireless charging, and other new features.
