Last month, supply chain sources claimed Apple was working to launch a 5.8-inch iPhone featuring rigid AMOLED display panels some time in 2017.
And now, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has said pretty much the same thing in his most recent analysis issued to clients yesterday, a copy of which was obtained by AppleInsider.
The device should have a curved glass casing similar to the design of the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4s and a “completely new form factor design” with narrow bezels providing a “more comfortably grip.”
“We expect the 2017 new iPhone model to adopt a structural design similar to that of iPhone 4/4s, meaning it will be equipped with glass on both the front and back sides, and a metal frame surrounded the edges,” reads Kuo’s note to clients.
That rumored iPhone should also have a curved screen, too, but overall the device may look smaller than the 5.5-inch iPhone 6s Plus due to the rumored narrower bezels and optimized design.
Other features mentioned in Kuo’s report include wireless charging and even stuff like facial or iris recognition as an additional layer of biometric security.
In addition to glass, Apple is experimenting with plastic and ceramic casings but glass is their preferred material because “plastic doesn’t offer thin and light form factor designs, and it would be not easy to precisely control the tolerance of ceramic.”
Apple could either market a 5.8-inch AMOLED iPhone as a replacement for the current generation’s 5.5-inch model or add it to the lineup as a new flagship model if it faces constrained supply of AMOLED panels.
“If the supply of AMOLED panel is sufficient, we believe it is more likely that the first scenario will happen, in which case a 5.8-inch AMOLED model will entirely replace the 5.5-inch TFT-LCD iPhone,” Kuo said.
Long used on Samsung’s Galaxy S series and some other high-end Android devices, AMOLED technology provides better screen visibility at direct sunlight, crisper colors and deeper blacks while consuming a fraction of the power of the traditional LCD IPS technology employed on all iOS devices to date.
Source: AppleInsider
