Earlier this month, a report emerged saying that TSMC, the company that manufactures Apple iPhones’ chipsets, had started working on the next A11 chipset for the iPhone 8.
The Cupertino Company is widely expected to launch up to three iPhone flagships this year, with the iPhone 8 expected to be joined by the natural successors to the current iPhone 7 and 7 Plus – the iPhone 7S and 7S Plus. There’s a lot of talk surrounding these three 2017 iPhones, but there’s a lot of focus on the high-end iPhone 8, a phone that will have more to do with celebrating Apple’s 10th anniversary in the smartphone business.
The rumor mill has been full of contradicting stories regarding the possible design of the iPhone 8, especially now that the phone’s closest rival Samsung Galaxy S8 has already been released with what is seen as a revolutionary design. It’s widely expected that Apple will follow the same path as Samsung, shedding off a huge chunk of the bezels and diving into the curved display screens for the first time.
With this change in design language, Samsung was forced to shift the fingerprint scanner from its usual position to the rear panel. Rumors have been pointing towards the same design as far as the iPhone 8 is concerned, something that has left many iPhone fans unhappy. But as it appears, these were just rumors.
According to DitiTimes, sources close to TSMC have a different version of this story. Apparently, the iPhone 8 will keep the Touch ID on the front panel but since the bezels will be significantly smaller and not enough to house the fingerprint scanner, Cupertino will integrate this feature into the display screen. It was expected that Samsung would do this with the Galaxy S8, but reports later emerged claiming that the technology wasn’t ready for use on the S8, hence forcing Sammy to turn to a rear-facing scanner.
It gets even better for the iPhone 8, with the same sources adding that the phone will feature invisible infrared image sensors to boost the performance of the high-pixel camera as well as enable AR functions. This same selfie camera could also be used for iris/facial recognition in a bid to help the Touch ID. Like Samsung Galaxy S8, the iPhone 8 will also come with an 18.5:9 aspect ratio.