The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus may have been recently launched but there are already talks of the Apple iPhone 7 and what new design choices and updates it might introduce. According to a new report from Taiwan media outlet DigiTimes, one new rumor hints the iPhone 7 may feature a bevel-less, edge-to-edge display.
The report cites that several Apple suppliers, such as Asahi Glass and Corning, are delivering touchscreen glass samples which Apple may use to develop edge-to-edge displays similar to that seen on the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Plus.
One interesting point in the report is that these samples do not utilize Apple's in-cell technology and instead use the older glass-to-glass technology used for iPhones older than the iPhone 5. In-cell displays no longer use a top layer of glass and integrate the LCD display with the touch panel instead of sandwiching the three together.
In-cell displays, such as those in the iPhone 6s, are reportedly experiencing sensitivity issues around the edges, which prevent Apple from designing a bevel-less phone. Glass-to-glass displays are also reportedly capable of making the iPhone 7 a thinner device than those currently in the market.
Switching to glass-to-glass technology is also said to help the next iPhone properly display Ultra HD resolutions as this is reportedly said to be difficult to achieve with its in-cell displays.
A separate report from ETNews (translation via BGR) indicates that Samsung is providing Apple with OLED display samples. This hints that Apple may be looking to use OLED displays instead of LCD for their future devices, including the iPhone 7.
The change to OLED from LCD is said to help Apple fight back against bottleneck productions that have limited the supply of their devices, as experienced lately with the launch of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus.
Apple has yet to confirm if it is indeed switching display technologies and if the iPhone 7 will indeed feature a bevel-less, OLED display.
