LONDON - Apple is preparing for the launch of the iPhone 8 in September. The upcoming smartphone is anticipated to be a radical change for the company, which will seek to wow users for the 10th anniversary of the device. The iPhone 8 has been rumoured to include wireless charging, facial recognition, an edge-to-edge display and - for the first time - no home button. Apple is expected to release it alongside two other phones, the iPhone 7s and 7s Plus, which will be upgrades on its current offering.
Here's everything you need to know about the iPhone 8 release.
When will it be released?
Tim Cook is expected to unveil the iPhone 8 at an event in California on September 12, according to the latest leaks. Apple's launch events normally start at around 6pm UK time and last for around two hours.
Tradition dictates the devices will go on sale a week after their announcement, making it likely the iPhone 8 will hit stores on Friday September 22.
Apple has dismissed rumours that production delays could affect the release of the phone, predicting strong sales in the coming months - above expectations and presumably driven by an iPhone launch.
There could be a limited supply of the iPhone 8 for the first few months of sales.
What will Apple unveil in September?
Apple is planning to break with tradition and release three phones in September: the iPhone 8, iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus.
The company normally releases a new design one year and follows with a slight upgrade the year after. Following this logic, the iPhone 7s and 7s Plus are anticipated to feature minor upgrades to the iPhone 7, such as a faster chip and longer battery life.
The iPhone 8, as it will probably called, will feature a radical redesign in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the first iPhone. It could give the device a new name in honour of the splash,
The company is also expected to unveil a third generation of the Apple Watch and a 4K Apple TV.
How much will it cost?
The iPhone 8 will probably be Apple's most expensive handset year, with estimates suggesting it could cost $1,000 in the US and £800 in the UK.
An executive at Apple manufacturer Foxconn has suggested the device will "not be cheap".
A price tag of almost $1,000 would make the new device 54 per cent more expensive than Apple's current iPhone 7.
What features will the iPhone 8 have?
Here are some of the best and most plausible suggestions floating around the rumour mill.
Edge-to-edge display
It has long been an ambition of Sir Jony Ive, Apple's design chief, to make an iPhone that looks like one piece of glass, with a screen that covers the whole of the front of the phone.
Rumours suggest this might finally come to fruition with the new iPhone 8. Clues in the HomePod code suggest the phone will have a 5.8-inch edge-to-edge OLED display. Apple could also replace the device's aluminium back with a glass back and aluminium bumper.
Such a design would allow Apple to increase the screen size of the iPhone without increasing its actual footprint, meaning it could be closer in size to the iPhone 7 with a screen that matches the iPhone 7 Plus.
No home button
The home button has been a feature of every iPhone since the original in 2007, but Apple may be in a position to get rid of it. It has already introduced advanced pressure-detection technology with 3D Touch, and last year's iPhone 7 had a solid-state home button that vibrates instead of clicks.
The iPhone screen now also wakes up when the phone is picked up, so there is less need to click a physical home button. Apple has patented a way of embedding Touch ID, its fingerprint reading technology, in the screen, so that might solve security issues.
The latest leaks from Apple's firmware revealed a virtual home button, that could be resized or even hidden.
Facial recognition software
Apple is expected to replace its Touch ID fingerprint scanner and home button with an infrared scanner that unlocks the phone using facial recognition software. The security upgrade is said to be super fast, able to scan a user's face and unlock the device in "millionths of a second".
It will work with a 3D camera, according to leaked images.
Similar facial recognition is currently available on rival phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S8.
There are suggestions that the facial recognition could allow the iPhone to be able to tell when you are looking at it, so that it can mute notification sounds and saving your colleagues from your annoying ringtone.
iOS 11
The best indication of how the iPhone 8 could look is Apple's latest software, which was unveiled in June and will ship on the new device. The standout features of iOS 11 are peer-to-peer Apple Pay and a redesigned Control Centre. It also new safety features, including a do not disturb while driving mode and an Emergency SOS option that will lock thieves out when its owner is in danger.
Wireless charging
Batteries are still the big problem with mobile phones - as good as they are, most still last just a day - and battery tech is only making incremental progress. This means manufacturers have focused on technology such as fast charging as a compromise.
But Apple could go one better and allow wireless charging. Apple famously removed the iPhone 7's headphone jack, which meant users could not listen to wired headphones and charge their phone through the Lightning port at the same time. Removing the second part of that equation might make sense.
Some phones and devices like the Apple Watch already use charging that requires the device to be placed on a inductive pad. Apple going one further and allowing true wireless charging that beams power from the socket would be a real breakthrough.
But rumours indicate it is more likely that Apple will offer wireless charging as an optional extra.
