Apple appears to be going all out with the iPhone 8 thanks to a rumoured design overhaul that will mean the handset has no bezel and will be see-through. In fact all you should see at the front is pure glass.
Yup, even the camera, ear speaker and sensors won’t be seen at the top of the phone. All will be hidden thanks to a new technology that involves a screen with holes.
Holes is an over-simplification but that’s what a recent Apple patent essentially reveals. Thanks to that rumoured super-thin OLED screen the space between pixels can let through light.
So while the glass will appear seamless on the top layer, underneath, the screen, camera, speakers and sensors can still work together while the display appears to run from top to bottom of the phone.
Everything will still work even with the screen on, it appears, thanks to those holes between pixels. That also means the phone could let light right through from the glass back. The result could be a totally see-through handset which still overlays data on the screen. The parts will, perhaps, be hidden by displaying what's behind the phone, as seen through the rear camera, onto that front display virtually.
This could be ideal for Apple’s version of augmented reality. Hold the phone up to a street and see it clearly yet with annotated data appearing to show information like live shop sales, restaurant opening times, navigation directions and more.
This is very exciting stuff and we hope the iPhone 8 features it as we’ll be throwing money at our screen while watching that launch event in 2018.
