Apple's upcoming iPhone 8 will feature a "function area" at the bottom of its edge-to-edge OLED display, replacing the current iPhone's home button with Touch ID, according to KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
Kuo, who has predicted several Apple product features in the past, detailed the “function area” as he refers to it at the bottom of the phone in a slide. The 5.8-inch iPhone is said to have a 5.15-inch OLED display with no bezels.
The most noticeable change to the OLED iPhone will be an all-screen design, along with the removal of the Home button that houses the current fingerprint recognition technology. We expect the OLED iPhone to come with a 5.8-inch “physical OLED panel,” but the actual screen area will be around 5.15 inches. The rest will be a space for functions (e.g., the allocation of virtual keys).
The “function area” sounds a lot like the Touch Bar on Apple’s new MacBook Pro. The Touch Bar displays your apps and presents various function keys for greater productivity. Kuo also mentioned that this area will be for the allocation of virtual keys, but he didn’t give any further details.
It should be noted that JPMorgan analyst Rod Hall (who is not as reliable as Kuo) reported that Apple will remove the TouchID Home button and replace it with a 3D laser scanner for facial recognition.
The rumors will of course continue to roll out until the official unveiling of the iPhone 8, which is said to feature wireless charging and an all-glass body. Rumors also point to a dramatic increase in battery capacity.
