iPhone 8 leaks - 6 reasons to not buy it
Each new day you wake up to a new rumour about the upcoming iPhone 8.
With plenty of leaks already fuelling fire to people's imagination, consumers are waiting with bated breath for what they expect to be a major revamp of a phone which helped usher in a new age of smartphones.
However, with the new model, Apple faces some difficult choices. Here are six reasons why it may not turn out to be the phone of your dreams come September when iPhone 8 is officially unveiled.
Victim of its own exaggerated hype
The hype created by the reports of a major design revamp and addition of new state-of-the-art technologies such as the 10nm-based A11 chip, wireless charging, and improved waterproofing could become the iPhone 8’s biggest bane, if Tim Cook and his company decide to go down Apple’s tried-and-trusted path of adding minimal upgrades to its smartphones.
Same design, same display minus the headphone jack. These were just some of the several reasons behind the modest sales figures of the current generation iPhone. Another case of the same old with the iPhone 8 could very likely push Apple loyalists over the edge, and severely impact the fortunes of the company.
Move back to the glass body
If rumours are to be believed, the phone will travel back in time, and borrow from the design of the initial phones in its family tree. The iPhone 8's design will be a throwback to the iPhone 4 from 2010, which featured glass panels on the front and back sandwiched between a polished stainless steel midframe. High on aesthetics and nostalgia as it may be, this move could, however, turn out to be the iPhne 8's Achilles heel.
When Apple announced the iPhone 4 in June 2010, its innovative design was met with much fanfare. The phone sold record numbers within days of its launch, but what followed ranks amongst the biggest embarrassments the iPhone lineup has ever had to face.
The phone's use of glass sheets at the front and the back not only made it extremely fragile, but the change in design also created more serious fires for the company's PR team to douse.
As it was later revealed, because of its "revolutionary" design, the iPhone 4 developed the 'death grip' snag which infamously saw none other than Steve Jobs urging users to not hold the phone in a certain way to avoid network connectivity issues. The company was understandably trolled for the sage advice, and a repeat of such a fiasco with its much hyped 10th-anniversary edition could spell doom for Apple and the iPhone as a brand.
The use of 2.5D glass sheets could also create other headaches as most phones with glass bodies are notoriously prone to scratches and have a poor thermal record. The iPhone 8, which is expected to ship with the new power hungry A11 processor and wireless charging tech, will test the phone when it will come to these metrics.
The wireless charging conundrum
With the iPhone 8, Apple is expected to bring wireless charging capabilities to its iPhone lineup. For many years, wireless charging has been touted as a convenient solution to charge phones without using clunky cables. However, the tech comes with its own drawbacks.
Despite its tempting prospects and huge investments, the technology has failed to make its mark on the mobile industry. Slow performance, unstable connections, and overheating issues have contributed to a steady decline in the adoption of the technology by the mobile phone industry. Needless to say, if Apple does indeed plan to introduce the capability to it iPhone lineup, it will have to find fixes for all these issues before rolling out the tech with its new smartphone.
Much has been said about the omission of the headphone jack from the iPhones and the conversation is expected to carry on this year too.
Apple’s decision to banish the 3.5-mm jack and not include wireless charging tech with iPhone 7 created major usability issues. With iPhone 8, Apple can remedy the poorly thought-out move which ensured most users could not even carry out basic tasks like charging their phones and using wired headphones simultaneously.
Price hike on the horizon
Time and again, Apple has left consumers frustrated after trading for minor tweaks its promises of wholesale changes and major improvements to its phones. Ironically though, one fact that many buyers have found solace in is that the tech giant has not significantly hiked the prices of its phones in the past couple of years.
However, industry experts claim that could change with the iPhone 8. Reports suggest that the new iPhones could start retail at over the $1000-mark as compared to the $650-mark the most pocket-friendly iPhone 7 sells for right now. It will be interesting to see Apple’s pricing strategy for India, but any major bump in prices for the international markets is sure to reflect unfavorably on the price of its phones sold in India.
The problem with the IRIS scanner
As the next iteration of the iPhone looks set for a radical redesign with the removal of the iconic home button in favour of an all-glass front and back, what would worry Apple most would be all that could go wrong with its bold move.
The lack of a fingerprint scanner or an option to punch in a password to unlock the phone could indeed become a possibility with the iPhone 8. Many reports suggest the new iPhone will only be unlocked if it sees a face that it already recognises. For a normal user, this would represent a major hurdle in day-to-day usage of the phone.
Other reports claim the phone could embed the iTouch ID tech inside the phone's display.
However, how successfully they pull off such a tricky implementation of the tech remains to be seen.