5.8-inch OLED Apple handset with iPhone 4-like design “slated for 2017”

PanARMENIAN.Net - Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo at KGI Securities issued Monday, March 28 a new note in which he says that Apple will entirely revamp its iPhone lineup come 2017. According to Kuo, Apple in 2017 will release a new iPhone with glass casing and an AMOLED display, 9to5Mac said.

More specifically, Kuo believes that Apple will decide between glass, plastic, and ceramic casing for its 2017 iPhone, but that the company will ultimately settle on glass, much like the iPhone 4, “as plastic doesn’t offer thin and light form factor designs, and it would be not easy to precisely control the tolerance of ceramic.”

Additionally, Kuo reports that Apple’s 2017 iPhone will adopt a curved display with curved glass body, 9to5Mac said. Again building on the iPhone 4 design, the device will feature a glass front and back with metal sides. Kuo also says the phone will feature a “completely new form factor design” with more narrow bezels and a “more comfortably grip.”

As rumored in the past, KGI also believes that Apple will introduce a new 5.8-inch iPhone in 2017 with an AMOLED display, the Apple news website reported. Despite the larger display, however, the device will feature a form factor that is ultimately smaller than the current 5.5-inch iPhone. If Apple is able to produce enough of the 5.8-inch AMOLED displays, the larger device will entirely replace the 5.5-inch model, meaning that Apple will offer 4.7-inch and 5.8-inch iPhones in 2017, the analyst said.

Furthermore, Apple’s 2017 iPhone will include wireless charging according to the report, though specifics remain unclear. An earlier report claimed that Apple was working a long-range wireless charging technology, though the KGI note makes no mention of that. Additionally, the device will feature additional biometric recognitions, perhaps facial recognition or eye recognition, 9to5Mac said.