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iPhone 7s May Sport Curved Glass and AMOLED Display (bgr.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the revolutionary dept.

anderzole quotes a report from BGR: With calls for Apple's upcoming iPhone models to be "spectacular," it appears that pundits and those who have been quick to proclaim that we've reached "peak iPhone" have nothing to worry about. While we'll know what type of wild new features the iPhone 7 will incorporate in just about three months, a new report from reputed analyst Ming-Chi Kuo provides us with some interesting insight as to what Apple has planned for 2017 when it releases what will presumably be called the iPhone 7s. According to a research note Kuo provided to investors, Apple is busy working on an iPhone model with curved pieces of glass and an AMOLED display. What's more, the report relays that Apple also has plans to shake up its iPhone lineup with a model sporting a 5.8-inch display. Further, Kuo believes that the bezels on the iPhone 7s will be smaller than they are on Apple's current iPhone lineup.

17 of 113 comments (clear)

  1. May? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Iphone 7 may have a Pez dispenser

    what is the point of "may" stories

  2. Throwing a curve ball by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Are curved phone displays really needed or useful? I don't see any benefit. Maybe a phone that fits better in your rear pants pocket, but that's about it.

    1. Re:Throwing a curve ball by QuietLagoon · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Are curved phone displays really needed or useful? I don't see any benefit....

      The sales of iPhones have plateaued, some even saying they are starting a decline. Apple has a market saturation problem and a product maturity problem.

      .
      Apple needs to do a flash in the pan type of thing in order to regenerate significant interest in the iPhone.

    2. Re:Throwing a curve ball by Solandri · · Score: 5, Informative

      Contrary to the anti-Samsung rhetoric among the press about the "uselessness" of curved displays, curves help stiffen and strengthen an otherwise flat structure by converting stresses along the weak axis (normal to the screen - its thinnest dimension) into shear stresses which allow a stronger (thicker) axis to take some of that stress. Take a sheet of paper and stand it on its end. It's not even strong enough to support its own weight. Now curve that paper by rolling it into a cylinder. It's now strong enough to support itself plus your phone. With a flat sheet of paper, a tiny force against its thinnest dimension would cause it to flop over. When you curve the paper, this same force ends up partially redirected into compressing and stretching the length of the paper in the part of the curve that runs in the same direction as the force. It's why the body panels on your car are curved. If they left the sheet metal flat, just leaning on the car would permanently deform it.

      If you look at the Samsung Edge display, imagine you're sitting on the phone so the top and bottom are bent towards each other. With a flat display, the bending moment is around the thinnest axis of the display so the display offers almost no resistance to such bending. But with a curved display, such bending moments are now partially acting along the thicker glass of the curved edge. To bend the display, you literally have to compress that glass. Glass is really strong in compression. (It's weak in tension, but that's compensated for by tempering. Tempered glass is basically pre-compressed, so that even a tensile force just reduces the amount of compression instead of becoming a true tensile load.)

      Basically the press is so enamored with Apple, they ridicule anything different despite it taking advantage of well-known principles of physics and engineering design. (Personally I think a better long-term solution is making phones more flexible, relying on disposable clear plastic display covers to ward off scratches. But Samsung is complying with the current market reality where Apple has convinced the masses who don't know anything about structural engineering that a stiff metal phone is best, by designing an even stiffer phone.)

  3. The Truth Is Far Out There by SuperKendall · · Score: 5, Funny

    The iPhone 7 is so curved -

    * It doubles as a VR headset with optional strap
    * You can place it directly on your tire to measure tread wear
    * Place it facing the sun and you can cook bacon from the concentrated solar rays in the center
    * Buy two, put them together and you have an awesome 70's style chunky bracelet.
    * Floats on curved surface, feel free to use as bathtime play toy!

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  4. So basically... by OpenSourced · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The biggest features are something that other phones have had for years?

    --
    Rome taught me patience and assiduous application to detail. Virtues which temper the boldness of great, general views.
    1. Re:So basically... by roc97007 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Other phones don't exist. If the next iphone has curved glass and an amoled display, it's new and innovative. Get with the program. And get in line outside the store. It opens in four hours.

      --
      Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
  5. remember kids... by ooloorie · · Score: 5, Insightful
    When Samsung does something, it's a gimmick. When Apple does the same thing a couple of years later, it's a "wild new feature", "spectacular", and "highly innovative".

    Also, don't forget: nobody would ever want a 5"+ phone or a pen with their tablet; what a silly idea!

    1. Re:remember kids... by roc97007 · · Score: 2

      It doesn't matter. It's different when Apple does it.

      (I don't understand it either...)

      --
      Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
    2. Re:remember kids... by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If keyboards on phones were as important as some make them out to be, Blackberry would be selling millions of units a year.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    3. Re:remember kids... by nine-times · · Score: 5, Insightful

      When Samsung does something, it's a gimmick. When Apple does the same thing a couple of years later, it's a "wild new feature", "spectacular", and "highly innovative".

      To be fair, the quality of the implementation is important. The same basic feature can be either gimmicky or useful depending on what it's used for and how it's implemented. Sometimes the innovation is in figuring out how to make the gimmick work.

    4. Re:remember kids... by BasilBrush · · Score: 2

      True. Android got there with fingerprint scanners first. But they were 1-dimensional scanners that you had to drag your finger across. A 2d scanner that registers the fingerprint more or less instantly is far better.

    5. Re:remember kids... by Lumpy · · Score: 2

      Except that blackberry has no apps, the OS and UI sucks and they tell their users to "go fuck themselves" when they ask for improvements.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    6. Re:remember kids... by narcc · · Score: 2

      Except that blackberry has no apps

      It was a bit slim, though they now users have access to pretty much everything on Amazon's app store. It's a huge improvement.

      the OS and UI sucks

      That's strange. I've heard nothing but praise for the UI -- and it is well ahead of iOS and Android. It's been compared many times to WebOS, which they stole from heavily, making for a very positive user experience. (WebOS, as you know, is still highly praised for its UI.) As for the OS proper, it's QNX, which I've never heard anyone criticize. It used to be quite the darling in the tech world, and for good reason.

      they tell their users to "go fuck themselves" when they ask for improvements.

      I really don't know what to say about this one. I have absolutely no idea why you'd think this. If any thing, they listen to their users too much. The Pearl was a response to user input, as were countless other odd-ball models they've released over the years. The Classic and (foolish) Priv being the two most recent examples of responding directly to their users requests.

      A fun aside, the parent said "Blackberry would be selling millions of units a year." Which is interesting, because they have been selling millions of units every year. That is, your "explanation" isn't really necessary as it's in response to a statement that is already incorrect.

      --
      Required reading for internet skeptics
    7. Re:remember kids... by nine-times · · Score: 2

      I'm not saying that Apple stuff isn't sometimes overhyped. But for example, the thing about not wanting pens-- I think that's fair to say that tablets and smartphones needed to move away from the stylus. Apple was right about that. The idea of having a little stylus you have to pull out to navigate your tablet or smartphone was just a poor implementation. There's a time and place for a stylus, specifically when you want to draw rather than just navigate the UI.

      So I don't necessarily know what you're harping on about there. It's one example, but Apple was right to point out that the stylus implementations sucked 10 years ago, and people didn't want to use a stylus. But now, 10 years later, they develop a better stylus with more accuracy that's useful to particular things, and you still don't need it for basic navigation. This would be a good example to support my point: sometimes what separates "gimmicky" from "not gimmicky" is a good implementation.

  6. Re:1995 interface, still? by BasilBrush · · Score: 2

    Sounds like you were born yesterday.

  7. Re: Micro sd. by BasilBrush · · Score: 2

    The SD Card would be slower and less secure.

    Price is irrelevant. People buy iPhones because of their quality, not because they are cheap. Sure, if you want a cheap and nasty phone, buy an Android.