Apple iPhone 8 To Ditch Home Button And Include An Interactive 'Functonal Area'

Apple iPhone 8 specifications, design and features have been leaked several times online. The year 2017 marks the 10^th anniversary of the iPhone and Apple is expected to bring major features in the next iPhone.

The 2017 iPhone 8 is expected to ditch the physical home button and it will be replaced by a "functional area." This area will be a part of the screen and it will change depending on the app or feature being used in the phone. This functional area will take up almost 0.7-inch space of the 5.8-inch OLED display of the iPhone 8, reported Slash Gear.

According to an Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the upcoming iPhone 8 will house a functional area which will have virtual buttons that would change according to the content displayed on the screen. This is in line with the leaks that show iPhone 8 will have an almost bezel-free front.

The Touch ID is also expected to fade away in the iPhone 8 to make up for an almost bezel-less phone. Kuo also believes that iPhone will also employ biometric features like iris and facial recognition instead of the fingerprint sensor.

The functional area of the iPhone 8 will be a waste if it is only meant for virtual buttons. However, there is a high similarity that the area will be similar to the new MacBook Pro'sTouch Bar and the buttons would change depending on the app, reported PCAdvisor.

Apple iPhone 8 will be very expensive if these changes make it to the final version of the product. The previous leaks also suggested that the iPhone 8 will use an OLED screen and a new biometric scanner which would increase the cost of the phone.

Apple is tipped to launch iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus this year with updated hardware and a possible red color scheme. However, the iPhone 8 is going to steal the show and will be more premium and advanced compared to any iPhone till date. There is a high possibility that the next-gen iPhones will support wireless charging.