Apple patents screen with holes for a bezel-less device
New York, Jan 11 (IANS) Apple's next generation bezel-less iPhone 8 is rumoured to sport a bold new design and would feature an OLED display full of holes, a media report said. "The patent filed by Apple for 'Electronic devices having displays with openings' describes a method by which various components can be mounted behind perforations in a device screen that are so small as to be imperceptible to the human eye. This arrangement would allow engineers to design a smartphone or tablet with a true edge-to-edge, or full-face display," appleinsider.com reported on Wednesday. The openings may be located in the active portion of the display. The display may be mounted in a housing associated with the electronic device. An electronic component may be mounted in alignment with the one or more openings in the display. The electronic component may be a structure that uses light such as a camera, a light sensor, a light-based proximity sensor, a status indicator light, a light-based touch sensor array, or a secondary display that has display pixels that may be viewed through the openings. Signals associated with the electronic component may pass through the openings. The signals may include acoustic signals, electromagnetic signals such as radio-frequency electromagnetic signals, and light. One or more openings in the display may form a window through which a user of the device may view an external object. Display pixels in the window region may be used in forming a heads-up display. The 2017 version of Apple's iPhone is also rumoured to come in red and will retain the same design as the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. Alongside its usual 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch smartphone offerings, the company will also unveil a third model that will be priced at a higher side than iPhone 7 and will sport a 5.1-inch or 5.2-inch OLED display with invisible home button, all-glass housing, wireless charging, according to earlier reports. Samsung and LG, joined by Foxconn-owned Sharp by 2018, are said to be Apple's primary OLED suppliers.