Tomorrow Apple is hosting their annual iPhone showcase – a staple event in the opening weeks of September that introduces the new slate of smartphone devices for the year. They had fallen into a pattern over the last decade, with Apple ping ponging between new numerical iterations and the in-between “S” versions of each. Tomorrow will see that cycle broken in some way. Apple is almost certainly revealing a third iPhone as part of a 10-year celebration of the product line, and it’s aiming to be the biggest shake-up the device has seen yet.
Here are a few things you can expect to see from the iPhone 8. Or iPhone Pro. Or Edition. or iPhone X. Or whatever the hell Apple ends up actually calling it.
A brand new design, with no Home Button
The biggest changes the iPhone 8 is almost certainly getting is a full visual redesign. The Home Button is being ditched entirely, allowing for a screen that takes up the entire front of the device. It’s gorgeous, with cut-outs only for the speaker and camera up top. Otherwise the entire front is just glass for the display to shine though. This glass will wrap around the back and encase the entire phone, harking back to the glass designs of the iPhone 4 and 4s.
No Touch ID. Instead, Face ID
Without a Home Button there’s no chance of Touch ID being possible (at least not without those fancy, underneath the screen fingerprint sensors), so Apple is improvising. Many leaks suggest that instead of a fingerprint, the iPhone 8 will use the front camera and your face as a means for quickly unlocking your phone. You can unlock your device even while it’s resting on a table by simply looking at it, but we’re expecting to see Apple fully detail their implementation tomorrow.
Wireless Charging, finally
This one is a little less confirmed but seems pretty likely given some recent stirrings within Apple and their dealings with wireless power companies. The iPhone 8 could incorporate some sort of induction charging (they do it with the Apple Watch already), but the extent of this has yet to be seen. What does that mean for the lightning port then? Maybe it’s in the bin like that auxiliary port from last year.
It’s going to be premium
The iPhone 8 isn’t planning to be marketed as the next step in your iPhone journey. Instead, it’s going to be the premium smartphone in a slate of three new devices, with several reports indicating it might shoot up past the $1000 retail mark. That’s staggering, especially when you look at devices like the LG V30 which cost nearly a full quarter less. This is the iPhone the most diehard iPhone fans will want to save up for.
So what about the others?
Along with the iPhone 8, Apple is expected to reveal iPhone 7S versions for both their standard and Plus size devices. The iPhone 7S will come with the normal specification bump and improvements, but might also include its own glass back design to help unify the new range. There’s less known about these devices than the iPhone 8, but we’ll know for sure tomorrow.
Of course, the event isn’t just about the iPhone 8. Apple is probably going to detail iOS 11 a lot more, reportedly announce a new Apple Watch with LTE functionality and more. The event kicks off tomorrow evening at the company’s new campus, and will be livestreamed via Apple’s official website.
Last Updated: September 11, 2017
Original Heretic
September 11, 2017 at 13:02
*shudder* the only thing I need to know is that it’s Apple and hence I will avoid it as if it were… Nope, all the metaphors or similes I want to use would very likely gross people out.
Ottokie
September 11, 2017 at 13:08
Well it could be worse. This could have been a new Samsung reveal.
Kromas Ryder
September 11, 2017 at 13:50
I don’t know hey. Samsung might blow the competition away. 😛
Kromas Ryder
September 11, 2017 at 13:50
New feature. Wireless battery. When the phones battery is dead you toss the phone out and buy a new one. 😛
Magoo
September 11, 2017 at 14:35
Came here to upvote the negative comments.