iPhone 8’s glass design will finally bring wireless charging

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iPhone wireless charging
Get ready for wireless charging!
Photo: Ivo Marić and Tomislav Rastovac

The rumored decision to adopt a glass chassis for the next-generation iPhone is reportedly fueled by a desire to improve wireless charging, another key feature supposedly coming to Apple’s 2017 phone.

The report comes from notable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who claims that all 2017-era iPhones will boast the long-awaited wireless charging tech.

Glass and plastic are the two most common materials associated with wireless charging, since these are both materials an electromagnetic field can pass through over a distance of between 5mm and 40mm.

Wireless charging has long been discussed as a technology Apple may want to pursue. The company is regularly perceived as lagging on this front, with rival companies like Samsung mocking the iPhone in advertisements for missing out on the feature.

Earlier this year, a report from Bloomberg said Apple was working with partners to overcome current technical barriers with wireless technology, including loss of power over distance. If successful, innovation could make Apple’s version of wireless charging considerably more advanced than Samsung’s.

Apple is said to have made a number of hires related to the technology. Apple reportedly hired more than a dozen people, including two former uBeam engineers with expertise in wireless charging and ultrasonic technology.

iPhone 8 wireless charging and OLED screens

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Kuo notes that regular Apple manufacturing partner Pegatron will likely be developing and manufacturing the wireless charging tech for Apple’s next-gen iPhone. He writes that Foxconn could take a portion of the order, but is likely to be stretched to capacity creating OLED displays for the 2017 iPhone.

He also suggests that only certain iPhone models will feature OLED displays, while others will stick with the present LCD displays. These are likely to be split almost evenly among early orders (with OLED perhaps edging out LCD displays with 55 percent of orders).

While yield is certainly a challenge for Apple switching to OLED displays, I hope that this split order rumor is not the case, and that all new iPhones will ship with OLED screens — since the alternative means further dividing up the product line.

Would OLED screens, wireless charging and a glass enclosure sell you on the next iPhone? Leave your comments below.

Via: Apple Insider

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