On the iPhone 8 the physical button could be replaced by a small touch area that for features would resemble the touch bar of the MacBook Pro
When there are still several months to the alleged official presentation, new rumors about the iPhone 8, which in part “confirm” the news circulated previously. According to the latest rumors, the front panel could also accommodate a small secondary display.
It would be a small touch area that would replace the infamous home button. For several months, in fact, rumors and hypotheses follow each other around the fate of the physical button. There has been talk of moving the sensor on the back, like many other smartphones. It has also been discussed the possibility of integrating the button and its functionality directly inside the screen. Suppositions that at the moment, given the confidentiality of the Californian company, have not found an objective verification. The last “tip” appeared on the web recently seems, among those emerged so far, the most likely.
Function Area
This small secondary screen, which will take the place of the home button, will be called Function Area and will occupy only a small part of the front panel. . Like Samsung and its Infinity Display, Apple is moving towards the adoption of a front panel almost entirely dominated by the screen.
The functioning of the Function Area would be reminiscent of the famous OLED touch bar launched on the latest MacBook Pro. The small screen could integrate, in fact, several multimedia functions ranging from music and video control buttons, to those for managing calls.
Touch ID
The most interesting aspect of the Function Area revolves, however, around the Touch ID, that is, the fingerprint reader. Will it include, integrated into the screen, the biometric sensor? Doubts remain. Some speculate that Apple, like Samsung, could replace it with other forms of recognition, such as facial or iris recognition. And in recent days, someone has begun to speculate that Apple could also postpone by a few months the launch of the iPhone 8, scheduled for September. But they are just rumors, there is little truth yet.