While the speculations are still out regarding the new iPhone 8’s specifications and capabilities, there has now been a confirmation of sorts that has been let out from the company through a meeting that discusses the course of action to be taken on the iPhone 8’s testing procedure.
Forbes reports that one of the assemblers of the phone, Robert Hwang, CEO of Wistron (Apple’s contract manufacturer), while speaking to reporters at the company’s annual shareholder’s meeting accidentally let it slip that compared to previous generations of the iPhone, not much will be changed in this generation as well, and that waterproofing as well as wireless charging will now require some different kind of testing. This confirms that wireless charging will finally be coming to the iPhone 8.
It was first, earlier on in the year, hoped that the iPhone 8 would come with long-range charging but that possibility was shot down as fast as it came up. At least the company is retaining the wireless charging factor and trying to implement a waterproof wireless charging facility, since there only needs to be contact on the surface and there need not be any kind of wiring needed as well. While the revelation of wireless charging does add on to the iPhone 8’s features list, it also means that the phone will eventually be even costlier than once expected.
Wistron was tasked with the assembly of the iPhone 7s, but whether the ‘s’ variants of this year will receive the upgrade as well, is yet to be seen. How different the ‘s’ variants will be to the iPhone 8 and the current flagships is also not clear and more news and revelations are being made about the iPhone 8 instead of the other two models being released this year. Wireless charging seems to be an inevitable step taken by Apple, since the company has already worked with wireless charging module providers such as Broadcom. While the OLED display has already been confirmed to be on the iPhone, the wireless charging should attract more users to lure of the iPhone by Apple in the coming months. That all depends, however, how well priced the new phones are and whether it will make sense to upgrade to the iPhone 8 or the iPhone 7s.
One thing is for certain, that the Samsung Galaxy S8 will be available for much cheaper when compared to the launch price of the new iPhones and there will also be the unveiling of the new Note 8 in close proximity to the launch of the iPhone 8.