Paul Morris on December 27, 2016, 5:38 am

This iPhone 8 Concept Features A MacBook Pro-Like Touch Bar [Video]

This iPhone 8 concept visualizes Apple’s next smartphone without the iconic Home button, featuring a Touch Bar similar to the 2016 MacBook Pro.

Apple’s iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus may currently be sitting as the company’s flagship hardware, but history has shown us that things progress extremely quickly in the smartphone world. The aforementioned iPhone 7 range may have only been released to the general public a matter of months ago, but we’re already starting to see rumor and conjecture pertaining to Apple’s next-generation iPhone, as well as having product designers come up with concepts of what an iPhone 8 could look like, including this design by one YouTuber featuring a unique Touch Bar integration.

iPhone-8-concept

We may not have any official word from Apple about the next-generation iPhone – or the iPhone 8, as some are already choosing to call it – but the general consensus is that we can expect a piece of hardware that will be dramatically overhauled as part of an attempt to not only reinvigorate the smartphone market, but to also inject some life into Apple’s iPhone sales. This particular concept looks to use some of the more prominent rumors that have been circulating to come up with a set of interactive visuals that will certainly delight and excite smartphone fans. How close it is to reality is another story altogether.

Putting the visuals of the device aside, the concept is suggesting that a next-generation iPhone could come with significant technology upgrades, including the adoption of Thunderbolt 3 for faster charging and data transfer of up to 40Gbps. Interestingly, and perhaps entirely unrealistically, the concept also imagines an entirely glass display that not only does away with the iconic Home button, but replaces it with a 2016 MacBook Pro-inspired Touch Bar that acts as the window to input for various actions.

Like Apple’s MacBook Pro, the iPhone 8 concept shows the Touch Bar visuals and experience changing depending on the application that’s currently taking center stage on the device. In fact, Touch Bar is shown as one of the main interface mechanism between the user and the device. It’s is used to answer or reject calls on the iPhone, get and select text suggestions on apps like Mail or Messages, and of course, being able to instantly select emoji characters.

From a visual design perspective, if this concept came to reality, we would have an iPhone that is noticeably slimmer, has a full-sized screen, presumably with 3D Touch technology integrated, and if based on speculation and analyst opinion, built on top of OLED technology.

Check out the concept for yourself. If this was indicative of what Apple will introduce next year, would you be at the front of the queue?

(Source: Apple designer [YouTube])