iPhone 8 release date, news and rumors

iPhone 8 release date, news and rumor

iPhone 8 concept video

The latest iPhone 8 concept video was supposedly crafted using the specs from the same factory making the new phone.

It looks very real, and we see every angle of the iPhone 8 in this new video, but keep in mind it's built based on existing leaked specs.

It was followed shortly after by another video showing off a dummy iPhone 8 distributed to case manufacturers, giving us a pretty good idea of what's coming.

Let's explore what we're expecting to see point-by-point

iPhone 8 release date

Hottest leaks:

• September 2017 launch for iPhone 7S and iPhone 7S Plus
• Slightly later October 2017 date for the all-screen iPhone 8

The iPhone 8 release date is the routine new iPhone rumor we expect to stay the same every year, but Apple may do something different here, too.

Apple has launched a new iPhone in September every year since the iPhone 5 in 2012. September iPhone launches have a pretty consistent track record.

iPhone 7S and iPhone 7S Plus may still launch in September sporting a worthy, but ultimately predictable design and feature upgrade. 

iPhone 8 may deviate from this plan, launching a little bit later (still before Black Friday and Cyber Monday) due to reported production delays.

• Pre-register for iPhone 8
• UK: Carphone Warehouse

We still expect Apple to have an iPhone launch event around September 8 and ship the 7S phones one week after CEO Tim Cook first holds them up in the air.

But  you may wait a few weeks for that snazzy iPhone 8's all-screen AMOLED display due to supply constraints, according to Bloomberg.

October or November may be the official release date window. It comes down to how fast: Can Apple secure OLED displays and embed a fingerprint scanner?

According to one leaker mass production has started though, so we shouldn't have too long to wait if true.

TechRadar's take: We keep hearing the disheartening rumor that Apple won't have the redesigned iPhone 8 ready at the same time as the still unconfirmed iPhone 7S and iPhone 7S Plus. We still expect a September launch event with all three phones present, but you may not be able to buy the the iPhone 8 (the phone you really want) until October.

Want the latest iPhone 8 rumors? Check out our video below

iPhone 8 screen

Hottest leaks:

• A curved AMOLED display
• A 5.8-inch edge-to-edge screen
• No home button and no bezel

The iPhone 8 screen may radically change in size and shape, and it's about time for something bigger and more stylish than the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus era display.

One big rumor is that the iPhone 8 is going to sport a curved AMOLED display instead of a the usual flat LCD panel, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

We've all seen curved AMOLED displays in the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge and the even bigger Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus. The iPhone 8's curve may be less dramatic, but still cooler looking than a completely flat phone.

There are other exciting benefits to an AMOLED display replacing the normal IPS LCD. It can deliver better contrast, more vibrant colors and include a battery-saving always-on display. It's also better suited for VR and AR.

This has also more recently been rumored by sources, claiming that a curved AMOLED display is one of more than ten prototypes that Apple is considering - and that the phone could even have a higher-than-QHD resolution, though recent images suggest the curved prototype might not be the version we get.

Who's going to help Apple push all of those extra pixels? Samsung is said to be supplying the OLED screens, beating out Sharp, which was once rumored for the job. Samsung may be able to deliver more curved screen in time, and Apple is said to have just put a curved screen order in with its long-time rival.

Just so it's clear: you might not see the fancy, new OLED display on every iPhone 2017 model due to supply issues. Thus, Apple may include it on just one iPhone 8 version.

In fact, leaked images of the iPhone 8 don't show a curved screen at all, so that prototype may not have made it to final production, but we're still expecting AMOLED.

iPhone 8 size

How big will the iPhone 8 screen size be? Rumors for this are all over the place, but everything says it'll be larger – around 5.8 inches, just like the Galaxy S8.

Don't worry. We expect a 4.7-inch iPhone 7S and 5.5-inch iPhone 7S Plus, alongside it, but they probably won't have an all-screen front. 

Speaking of which, there's been talk of axing the physical home button and building the Touch ID fingerprint sensor into the screen itself, a rumor that dates back almost two years.

It's not clear if Apple will get this tech ready in time - so the Touch ID sensor might have to go on the back instead - but the newest rumors suggest Apple engineers are in fact going to pull it off

Yet another leak also suggests the scanner will be in the display. We've now seen images of an iPhone 8 in a case with no fingerprint scanner on the back, along with a CAD image that has an all-screen front and a circle on the back, which looks like it could be a scanner, but which the source claims is simply where the Apple logo will go.

Perhaps our clearest look of all comes from the renders below, showing the screen lit up. You can see that it really is an all-screen front, with just a small black strip housing the camera and earpiece.

Though the source claims that it's not certain whether the display will actually run up the sides of that, or whether the sides of that strip will also be blacked out.

Either way, it's looking increasingly likely that the fingerprint scanner will be built into the screen, just like the earliest rumors said.

Doing this would eliminate the otherwise useless bezel around the screen. "The entire face will be the display," claims Apple blogger John Gruber.

"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."

We've also seen how that might look in the leaked schematic above, apparently based on a prototype of the phone. Other leaked dummy models suggest that design is pretty close to being accurate - though note that some of the more recent leaks don't show the camera as being built into the screen.

This dummy model is the latest to hit the internet, and would suggest the Touch ID button will indeed be under the screen.

An unearthed Apple patent also shows this idea in action, eliminating the phone's bezels in the process. Another patent has since emerged, showing a similar concept, so it's certainly something Apple's at least thinking about.

We've heard how Apple might do it too, with the company apparently debating whether to make a pinhole in the glass for the sensor, thinning the cover glass over the sensor area, or integrating a film sensor into the display.

If Apple does ditch the home button, it could replace it with a 'function area,' with virtual keys, similar to the MacBook Pro's Touch Bar, according to one report.

Apple's one hurdle is: can it reliably put the iPhone 8 fingerprint sensor behind glass? Samsung reportedly tried and failed to do this in time for the Galaxy S8. One alternative is to give the iPhone 8 a rear fingerprint sensor, a rumor that keeps popping up that nobody particularly cares for.

Or, Apple could build the scanner into the power button, which there's evidence for in a patent.

It's possible that just a higher-end model will have these new screen features, according to the latest supply chain sources. 

This third, premium model is currently dubbed "Ferrari", and this model alone may have an embedded fingerprint scanner and an edge-to-edge OLED display.

Looking even further ahead we might see a flexible or even foldable iPhone, as Patently Apple has found a patent for just such a device, and more recently another similar patent has turned up, but this is likely a long way out yet – as in iPhone 10 or iPhone X territory.

TechRadar's take: The premium iPhone 8 is heavily favored to get a stunning, new 5.8-inch OLED display, with Touch ID built right into the screen. That's ambitious, but nobody wants a rear fingerprint sensor on the iPhone. Just don't expect these huge feats for the iPhone 7S and iPhone 7S Plus.

iPhone 8 design

Hottest leaks:

• A curved glass back instead of aluminum
• Smaller models may not change as much

Just when Apple has nearly perfected the aluminum unibody phone with the iPhone 7, it's now expected to be moving onto an all-glass design.

Yes, the tenth anniversary iPhone 8 is heavily rumored to debut a a curved glass back (echoing the front curved display), according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

The glass iPhone 8 rumor has since been given more weight, with the CEO of the company behind the iPhone's metal casing claiming in 2016 that one model of the phone "will adopt glass casing next year."

It would still require a metal frame apparently, which makes it sound a lot like the Samsung Galaxy S8, especially if both panels are curved. That lines up with a claim from a source that's proved reliable in the past that Apple is experimenting with a "glass sandwich design." Delicious, right?

And yet another source also points to a glass back, with a stainless steel frame in place of the aluminum Apple currently uses in its phones.

That exact design (minus the curvy screen) can be seen in the images of a dummy device below, mocked up based on the supposed design of the handset.

And more recently we've seen that same design up close and from all angles in a series of renders, pictured below.

You can see also that there's no home button on the front, but that the port and button placement is otherwise much the same as the iPhone 7. 

The dimensions meanwhile are apparently 143.5 x 70.9 x 7.7mm, making it slightly larger than the iPhone 7, but smaller (though thicker) than the iPhone 7 Plus, despite a likely much larger screen.

Since then we've seen a sketch of the iPhone 8 with the same design but ever so slightly different dimensions of 143.4 x 70.77 x 7.51mm.

That design has been shown off once again, and this time the source claims to be confident that it's the final design of the phone. 

It's not clear whether the fingerprint scanner would be on the back though (as apparently not all markings are present on the dummy unit) or built into the screen.