Rumor: next iPhone will have variant on MacBook Touch Bar

The OLED model of the next iPhone has a variant of the Touch Bar of recent MacBook Pros at the bottom of the screen. The area is part of the screen, but will be reserved for a virtual Home button with function keys next to it.

The part at the bottom of the screen is about one and a half centimeters high and runs the entire width of the screen, 9to5 Mac claims based on the reliable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI. This leaves a 5.15″ screen for apps and video with a resolution of 2436×1125 pixels, says the analyst. That gives the screen a ratio of 2.17:1. This fits the phone in a trend of longer screens in smartphones.

The size of the iPhone 8 would be around that of the iPhone 7 with a 4.7″ screen. Apple would shrink the bezels and remove the Home button to put the screen in a case of that size. That fits, though. This leaves little room for the other electronics, especially at the top and bottom.

In addition, Apple would redesign the PCB with more elements on top of each other, leaving more room for a battery, which can therefore be larger and therefore have a higher capacity than that of the current iPhone 7. Apple has been lagging behind in recent years. with the capacity of its batteries: Competitors put higher capacity batteries in enclosures of approximately the same size.

The iPhone 8 would come alongside two more traditional models with 4.7″ and 5.5″ displays that Kuo refers to as the iPhone 7s generation. Rumors have been talking about wireless charging in the new iPhones for some time, in addition to a glass-backed design like the 2010 and 2011 iPhone 4 and 4s.