Everything you need to know about the Iphone 8

iPhone 8 latest rumours - release date, UK price, features & specs

We round up rumours of the iPhone 8's release date, UK price, tech specs, new features and more. Latest: Multiple sources predict the 2017 iPhone will miss its expected September launch, due to delays related to its new 3D camera, and that it will be called 'iPhone Edition'

When will the new iPhone 8 be released in the UK, and how different will it be from the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus? (Click here to read the latest version of this article.)

The iPhone 8 rumour mill is heating up, particularly in light of the fact that 2017 is the 10th anniversary of the launch of the iPhone. There are high hopes for the next model. It's been variously suggested that the late-2017 iPhone will feature wireless charging, augmented reality and no physical buttons at all; analysts are calling it the iPhone 8, or the iPhone X, or the iPhone Edition. Some sources even think that thecurvy 'teardrop' design of the next model will make it closely resemble the original iPhone.

In this article, we round up all the rumours about the iPhone 8: its UK release date (and onsale date), UK price, tech specifications and new features. There's a lot to cover, so let's get started. (We also look at new iPhone rumours here: iPhone 7s rumours.)

For advice on the current iPhone range, read our iPhone buying guide and best cheap iPhone deals UK. Or, if you'd like to look even further into the future (covering tech developments that come perilously close to the realms of science-fiction), readiPhone 9 and beyond: From graphene to motion charging.

Thumbnail image is a concept illustration by Handy Abo Vergleich.

When will the iPhone 8 be released?

The iPhone 8 is likely to be released in September 2017, but there are whispers of a delay.

Apple's latest batch of smartphones, the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus, were released in the autumn of 2016. (Read more: iPhone 7 review and iPhone 7 Plus review.) Apple always releases new iPhones in September, and we assume this year will be the same.

Delays

Logic and history both point to September, then, but multiple sources are suggesting that Apple may miss its usual date with smartphone destiny.

Digitimes has predicted that "production for the new OLED iPhone is unlikely to start until September due to the redesigned fingerprint ID solution", and KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has stated that there will not be time to implement the expected new 3D camera system unless Apple pushes back the launch date of the new iPhones: "Unless production of the OLED iPhone (expected to begin in September) gets pushed back, there is virtually no time to make changes to the 3D camera system." (Both via Business Insider.)

It's also believed that the expected 3D camera scanner is presenting production difficulties. ST Microelectronics, the company tipped to make this component for Apple, are - according to SlashGear's sources - struggling to hit volume targets and have requested additional time.

"That would mesh with earlier rumours that Apple won't even start mass producing the iPhone 8 until September," says the site, "the very month the iPhone 7s and 7s Plus are scheduled to launch. Depending on the yield rate for the revolutionary iPhone, we probably don't expect to see it in the market until a month or two later."

It's unclear at this point if the reported "small fire" at ST Microelectronics' manufacturing plant is going to be a factor in all this.

'iPhone 8 production ahead of schedule'

In contrast to the previous predictions, BlueFin Research Partners have claimed that the production of the iPhone 8 is ramping up earlier than expected.

"The most intriguing data points that we have uncovered suggests that AAPL is ramping the next-generation iPhones earlier than historical norms," write analysts John Donovan and Steve Mullane, "although we have no indication that there has been any change in release plans for the iPhone 8/X.

"Our present reads suggest a 300 percent increase in iPhone 8/X builds in the June quarter, now sitting at 9M... In the past, builds of upcoming releases began in earnest early in the September quarter, so this is a departure from AAPL's normal build cadence."

As the analysts point out, this may not indicate an earlier release date for the iPhone 8.

What will the next iPhone be called?

Logically, and based on previous behaviour (Apple releases a full-version update every other year - such as iPhone 4, iPhone 5, iPhone 6 - and a more limited 'S' update in between - iPhone 4s, iPhone 5s and 5c, iPhone 6s), we ought to get an iPhone 7s and an iPhone 7s Plus in September. But it's possible that Apple won't continue the S strategy for much longer.

Many of us have pointed out that the 'tick-tock' system is a risky policy, tacitly acknowledging that iPhone generations alternate between major and minor updates - to be especially harsh, you could say worthwhile and superfluous updates. When the average user hears that the new iPhone hasn't even been considered worthy of a full version number upgrade, they'll be put off from spending money on the new offering. Not to mention that an S update is more confusing for buyers: iPhone 6 followed by iPhone 7 would have been clear and easy to understand; but it's less obvious which out of the iPhone 6, 6s, 6 Plus and 6s Plus is the more advanced model.

On this principle, therefore, we could see the iPhone 7 in autumn 2016 and the iPhone 8 the year after. At this point, nobody knows - but as soon as we hear more, we'll update this article.

And in October 2016 a little extra weight was added to the 'iPhone 8 in 2017' theory. According to Business Insider, an Apple employee in Israel who solders components spoke to them about the next iPhone and referred to it as the iPhone 8 "unprompted in our conversation". The source added that the iPhone 8 would be "different" from the iPhone 6s and iPhone 7, and have a better camera - neither of which are particularly out-there predictions.

Some pundits predicted that the iPhone 7 would sell comparatively poorly because of its perceived lack of major new features and design changes. But, they said, everything would change in 2017, when the iPhone 8 blows everyone away with a wide and radical range of enhancements.

Pundits are increasingly predicting a big iPhone launch in 2017. Making predictions about the upcoming performance of Apple stock, analysts at Credit Suisse haveforecast that the iPhone 8, to be released on the iPhone's 10-year anniversary in 2017 (skipping the 'S' generation in recognition of its major updates) will feature "significant innovations" such as a full-glass OLED screen, new and upgraded haptic feedback features, wireless charging and numerous major specs improvements including the camera and processor.

Kulbinder Garcha, one of the company's analysts, was sufficiently confident about the iPhone 8's performance to predict sales of 250 million units in fiscal 2018 (despite launching in the calendar year 2017, the iPhone 8's sales will be reported in 2018), compared to 215 million in 2017.

Garcha may be confident, but we're not so sure. Going three years between substantive updates to what remains by far its most profitable line in order to make a big launch match a big anniversary feels like a strange and risky strategy for Apple (we don't subscribe to Nikkei's theory that the company will follow a three-year cycle from now on), and with the Android sector pushing boundaries in a lot of ways this would inevitably result in accusations of stagnation - even more so than now.

Read next: Best place to buy an iPhone in the UK

But what happens after the blockbusting launch of the iPhone 8 (or Tenth Anniversary iPhone)? It might not get pretty, if some researchers are to be believed.

One analyst, Andrew Uerkwitz, has predicted that the 2017 iPhone refresh will be the company's "last growth hurrah", before spiralling into a "decade-long malaise" as the market turns increasingly to lower-cost and second-hand phones. "The risks to the company have never been greater," Uerkwitz said to MarketWatch.

Monness Crespi Hardt analyst James Cakmak echoed Uerkwitz's sentiments. "Apple won't have it easy again for a while, if ever," he said.

'iPhone X'

Here's a leftfield prediction: Apple may not call its late-2017 smartphone the iPhone 7s or the iPhone 8, but the iPhone X.

Timothy Arcuri, an analyst at Cowen and Company, has sent out a research note to clients predicting among other things that the late-2017 iPhone update will be branded as iPhone X - X in this case evidently signifying the Roman numeral for 10, since the iPhone is celebrating its 10th birthday in 2017.

With iPhone version numbers getting alarmingly high, it would make sense for Apple to switch to a different branding convention at some point - distracting customers, one might say, from quite how many of these things Apple has cranked out without fundamentally changing what it's offering. But to rebrand its biggest seller would still be a bold, bold move. We'll count this as unlikely until we hear evidence to back it up, even though it's not the worst idea in the world.

'iPhone Edition'

And here's one more: Mac Otakara is now predicting that the late-2017 iPhone will be called 'iPhone Edition'. This would echo the branding of the most expensive model of Apple Watch, and thus impart a certain premium feel, but we had the impression Apple was pulling away from the Apple Watch Edition. We'd guess that it hasn't sold too many of those £13,000 gold watches.