The iPhone 8 may be dropping Apple's Lightning port for USB-C according to a recent report from the Wall Street Journal.
The report states that the next iPhone will feature a “USB-C port for the power cord and other peripheral devices instead of the company’s original Lightning connector.”
Though this would be a surprising move from Apple considering it’s never been shy about the fact that its devices and peripherals have their own connection standards, it does have precedence as the company recently adopted USB-C on its MacBook line.
A new direction
That said, the report doesn’t explicitly state that the USB-C port will be on the handset itself. It could mean that Apple is actually planning to change the connector on its power adapters.
This would mean that rather than charging cables and plugs with USB A to Lightning connectors, we could see USB C to Lightning, making it possible for new Mac owners to connect their iPhones more easily while retaining the Lightning port on the phone.
This would make USB-C connection optional and it would certainly be less alienating to those already heavily invested in Apple’s Lightning-heavy ecosystem.
The report also states that there will be three new iPhones this year, with two being updates to the last generation called iPhone 7S and 7S Plus, and one being a premium model that’s rumored to be a 10th anniversary iPhone 8.
According to the Wall Street Journal’s sources, the iPhone 8 will drop the traditional home button and replace it with a touch-enabled function area which we imagine would behave something like the Touch Bar on the latest Macbooks.
One of the three new devices will also feature a curved edge-to-edge OLED display similar to those seen on Samsung’s Galaxy Edge smartphones, while the other iPhone models will retain the standard LCD displays.
We've heard several of these rumors already which adds weight to the Wall Street Journal's report. If they prove to be true, we wouldn't be surprised if the iPhone 8 proves to be Apple's most expensive phone yet as we've also heard reported.
