This year is the 10th anniversary of the iPhone. Tech sites publish article after article on the rumored specifications of the phone and the new technology it contains. The same goes for the competition. Pundits, analysts, and journalists are all trying to predict what will be the next generation of smartphones. Here is a list of potential technology that could make its way to phones shortly:
On screen fingerprint scanner
Do not expect this to feature on any top-level phone in the near future. The technology does exist. However, getting it to work reliably with new screen technology appears to be a challenge. Also, manufacturing these at scale might prove difficult.
Bezel-free displays
This is probably the year where the bezels around smartphone screens shrink further. Samsung is expected first out of the gate with its new S8 flagship. Apple is also expected to feature a phone with very little bezel in September. Will we see completely bezel-free displays? Not in 2017.
OLED
2017 will be the year where OLED will make it onto mass-market phones. It will have better black rendition and consume less power. However, there are known heat and reliability tradeoffs that manufacturers will address before the design of the phone.
Facial detection
Until on screen fingerprint scanners are ready, expect the front camera-based eye and facial scanning to improve enough to enable daily use. Samsung debuted iris scanning, but it will need to be faster for greater adoption.