The iPhone X launch last September made a huge impact in the smartphone industry, with Apple's latest flagship boasting some groundbreaking features such as the TrueDepth camera technology and the Face ID system. The iPhone X successor, informally dubbed the iPhone XI, has big shoes to fill indeed, and in order to give everything that the public wants from a next-gen iPhone, the Cupertino-based tech firm is rumored to launch three iPhone XI variants this year.

As reported by BGR, the iPhone X successor will not only have one or two variants as Apple is expected to launch another plus-sized iPhone with an LCD panel. The scoop regarding the three iPhone 2018 models came from the notes of KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Specifically, the first iPhone XI variant will be the regular-sized 5.8-inch model, while the second one will be known as the iPhone XI Plus with a 6.5-inch organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display panel. The third one is a 6.1-inch LCD iPhone model that will have a cheaper price than the other two variants.

Aside from the fact that the three iPhone XI models differ in size, and one of them using an LCD panel instead of OLED, the 2018 handset models are still expected to share the same features. A report from ET News supports the idea that the three iPhone XI variants will have the Face ID system. This biometric reader requires the TrueDepth camera sensors, thus the iPhone XI models will also sport the iPhone X's notch feature on the top display.

Meanwhile, a separate research note from the resident analysts of Barclays investment bank claims that the iPhone XI models are likely to have much smaller notch area than the one in the iPhone X. The group of Barclays analysts, composed of Andrew Gardiner, Hiral Patel, Joseph Wolf and Blayne Curtis, believes that only a few improvements will be applied to the TrueDepth camera technology in 2018. However, this will be enough to make the notch smaller in the iPhone XI devices. Many users think that the Face ID notch affects the supposedly all-screen front design of the iPhone X, so the reduction of the notch area in the iPhone XI will be very much welcomed

The iPhone XI handsets are expected to launch at the Apple keynote event, which is annually set in September.