The two smartphones will be announced in 2018

May 24, 2017 11:29 GMT  ·  By

The upcoming iPhone 8 is the most exciting smartphone that Apple is preparing to announce this year, but it seems that information about its successor has already surfaced. Apple has received the green light to test 5G cellular in the US, which means that the iPhone 9 could feature 5G connectivity.

Apple will start testing 28- and 39-gigahertz bands in the next 12 months, which means that the first iPhone with support for 5G connectivity could be the iPhone 9. Aside from Apple, Motorola is also expected to introduce phones with 5G connectivity this year, according to a report.

Apple will be manufacturing two iPhone 9 models, one with a 5.28-inch OLED screen, while the larger variant will feature a 6.46-inch OLED display, both to be manufactured by Samsung. The Korean company is expected to sell at least 180 million OLED units to Apple for the iPhone 9.

Apple iPhone 9 will arrive next year

The figure appears to be double compared to the estimated 80 million OLED screens that will be required for the production of the iPhone 8, which should arrive this fall.

iPhone 8 is expected to arrive this September, together with the iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus. Out of the three Apple smartphones to be announced this year, only the iPhone 8 will feature an OLED display, while the other two iPhone 7s models will have IPS LCD screens.

All three iPhones to be unveiled this fall will feature support for wireless charging, but only the iPhone 8 will have a 3D sensing camera and possibly a Touch ID fingerprint scanner built into the display.

Although the 5.28 and 6.46-inch displays seem quite large on a smartphone, Apple’s iPhone 9 will possibly feature the same design as the iPhone 8, which means that the screen will cover more space compared to previous models. The iPhone 8 is said to pack a 5.8-inch OLED display in a body that should be similar to the 4.7-inch iPhone 7.