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Apple Testing More Than 10 Prototype iPhone Models, Including One With Curved OLED Display

For a $50 difference, Apple should leave the pricing as is, but we know that will never happen.

I am still not sold on OLED technology and in light of its problems--especially image retention/burn in--it seems Apple is merely following trends. I personally prefer the iPhone 7 screen to those on Samsung's phones.
 
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tldr Apple fanbois posts :

OLED yeah mehh .. well there are problems with burn in and well yeah ummm they arent that great its kinda artificial and all I like more realistic colours (a few years ago: 4 inch iphone is the perfect size, no need for a bigger screen. lol at these people with the huge displays)

a year after this:
OMG!! I have to get this new OLED screen iphone 7 Plus (because the smaller iphone doesnt have it)
The screen is so gorgeous its the best that Apple has ever made (or imported from Samsung Electronics)

its going to be the same like the iphone with bigger screen is so much better and 4 inch isnt perfect all of a sudden. and that 2GB of RAM is also better than the once "enough" 1GB RAM.
 
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Surely those are not the next iPhone unless this is old info and the report should be "tested." It's 10 months to the next iPhone launch. Seem prototype test phases should have ended a while ago and Apple would be testing and tweaking the chosen design and getting ready to place part orders and fabricating the die tools to make it very soon.
 
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840quadra said:
I think having diverse suppliers will be key, and I am hoping for premium phones that offer both OLED and LCD. Not happy with burn-in on my android devices that have OLED, and if Samsung is the only supplier, it's clear they haven't solved that issue yet.
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Fully agree, best to have varied suppliers to select OLED from, especially with Samsung in the mix.
 
Chupa Chupa said:
Surely those are not the next iPhone unless this is old info and the report should be "tested." It's 10 months to the next iPhone launch. Seem prototype test phases should have ended a while ago and Apple would be testing and tweaking the chosen design and getting ready to place part orders and fabricating the die tools to make it very soon.
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Exactly what I was thinking. They've likely been testing different designs and screen sizes since the 6 launched 2 years ago. By this point I would think they've finalized the design.
 
jerm13 said:
I could see iPhone 7s (4.7, LCD), iPhone 7s+ (5.5, LCD), iPhone Anniversary Edition (5.5/5.8, OLED)
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With Apple skipping "s" this year I think it's retired for good. But it could be there are two plus models (better and best).
 
I hope they introduce dark mode with the new oled iPhone. I think it would look good with more black backgrounds and it would improve the battery life.
 
Dave245 said:
If they do a curved display i can't see them doing it the same way that Samsung have with their Edge phones.
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Speaking of, I can visualize Apple wrapping the display over the top and bottom, instead of left-right like the Galaxy Edge.

Or maybe they'll wrap it around all edges, and change all the physical buttons to touch, with perhaps ridges to let your fingers know where the power and volume lies. The ultimate form over function change.

illmatic41 said:
Also, while battery life is great when you have mostly black screens, the majority of apps and webpages have white backgrounds, and in that case, OLED uses more power than LCD.
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This is a very common but mistaken idea, based on earlier LCD technology.

You see, the kind of LCD screen used in iPhones defaults to black (okay, really greyish) and thus requires power to twist the crystals to let the backlight through for a white page.

Thus both OLED and LCD as used in phones today require power to show white, but only the iPhone's LCD continues to use backlight power even when the page being displayed is black.

Yep, just the opposite of what most people believe.
 
kahkityoong said:
Plus Apple tax, that will translate to $500 extra for this model.
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They will not be more than $200 extra. That is a lot of money but when all costs are accounted for, Apple has net profit margins around 20%. This means that the Apple tax charged is effectually 20%. You could argue that Apple should only have Amazon level profit margins (<1%), which means they can cut prices across the board. Or you could argue that Apple's margins are just fine (and are slightly lower than Microsoft's) and they should continue with their current pricing structure. Or, Apple should cut overhead and prices to maintain a similar net margin.
 
So this means analysts can legitimately throw 10 different concepts into the wild? Well, I gotta give them props. More chance for one of them to stick
 
First, offering big screen and small screen phones, and now curved displays?

Apple, stop copying Samsung.
 
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Obviously they are not gonna release all ten models. Based on Tim Cook's logic, maybe he will sell non oled and pretend it's the amazing screen... geesh.
 
If they split their product lines further with the iPhone 8 and this OLED thing, Apple have completely lost it. A few more years of this and it'll be Scully's Apple all over again. They're well on their way to becoming just another tech company. The New 2020 Apple Macbook "Pro" 13" without touch bar (MBP13000), 13" w/ touch bar (MBP13001), 15" w/ touch bar (MBP15000), 15" w/ touch bar and touch screen (MBP15100), 17" w/ touch bar (MBP17000), 17" w/ touch bar and touch screen (MBP17100).
 
MacRumors said:
Apple is said to have more than 10 different iPhone prototypes under development,
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That makes sense, and I'm sure as they narrow down the design choices, some of the positive things in one design may make it into the candidates that made the cut.
 
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It will have a new Lightning 3.2 port that uses the USB-C physical connection. It will require three adaptors and an external 18V power supply to connect to USB A.
 
10 prototypes huh? Where's Madeline Kahn when you need her? "Yes, no, no, no, no. YES...no no no no no..."

Speaking as a non camera user, if I can see clearly on the display, I'm good. I don't know OLED from LCD and I sure as heck wouldn't want to pay more simply because Apple can and most likely will charge more for the "experience."
 
MacRumors said:
...Apple is said to have more than 10 different iPhone prototypes under development, ...
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and TC will approve the one that brings maximum profits, even thought the second one in maximum profits ranking is only ¢0.0001 "expensiver" to build but better overall.
 
Chupa Chupa said:
With Apple skipping "s" this year I think it's retired for good. But it could be there are two plus models (better and best).
Click to expand...

They didn't, 2016 is a 'tick' year ("S" years being 'tock')

2012 - iPhone 5
2013 - iPhone 5S
2014 - iPhone 6
2015 - iPhone 6S
2016 - iPhone 7
 
kdarling said:
This is a very common but mistaken idea, based on earlier LCD technology.

You see, the kind of LCD screen used in iPhones defaults to black (okay, really greyish) and thus requires power to twist the crystals to let the backlight through for a white page.

Thus both OLED and LCD as used in phones today require power to show white, but only the iPhone's LCD continues to use backlight power even when the page being displayed is black.

Yep, just the opposite of what most people believe.
Click to expand...

An article from anandtech from last year analyzed the efficiency of AMOLED screens from the past few years. While the gap is narrowing, producing white with OLED still requires more power than LCDs do when producing white.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9394/analysing-amoled-power-efficiency

"Over the Galaxy S6’s AMOLED screen this still represents a 33% advantage for the LCD technology when displaying white and high level greyscale colours. To reach an equivalent amount of efficiency on the S6 one would have to have about less than 65-70% of solid white in the picture. Unfortunately Android interfaces are still dominated by high APL and white elements, so AMOLED will still trail LCDs in most default UI scenarios when it comes to luminance power. As long as white is avoided, the S6 can already claim it is more efficient than LCD devices in all other scenarios as the break-even point now reaches ~85% greyscale."
 
As predicted.

4.7" LCD A11 same body(7s.) 5.5" LCD A11 same body(7s.) 5.5" OLED. A11. Wireless Charge. New Design (10th Ann Edition.) Huge price point.

2018. OLED new design across the board. A-Series Chip will be interesting to see what happens.
 
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