After a report said a few days ago that the iPhone 8 will feature a flat screen rather than the curved display almost all other rumors have predicted, a new story may shed some light on the screen’s curvature. Apparently, the iPhone 8’s screen will indeed be curved, but not as curved as the Galaxy S7 edge. It won’t be flat like the screen on the iPhone 6/6s/7, and instead may be slightly curved to follow the 2.5D edges of the glass face.
In other words, this new report mimics exactly what we said last month when we speculated that reports of the next-generation iPhone’s curved screen had been greatly exaggerated.
The new report comes from Nikkei Asian Review, which has heard from a source that the “advanced” OLED screen made by Samsung for the iPhone 8 will have slightly curved edges. “The curve will be gentler than screens in Samsung’s Galaxy S7 Edge handsets,” the report notes. “This is partly due to the challenges of making curved glass covers to match screens, according to the source.”
The viewable area of the screen will be about 5.2 inches, but the side curves won’t provide any additional functions. That means we’ll probably still see volume buttons and a mute switch on the side of the iPhone 8.
Nikkei also says that Chinese companies Biel Crystal and Lens Technology will manufacture the glass backs for the new handset. The same companies together with Foxconn will manufacture the front glass covers, as well.
The report notes that the OLED iPhone 8 will be joined by two less expensive iPhones that will have 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch flat displays. That likely means normal 2.5D glass faces like the ones on the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.
