The 2017 iPhone could be made largely out of glass

Essentially all existing rumors for the 2016 iPhone refresh point to just minor updates to the design of the current iPhone 6s. Next year's model, however, is expected to be a more dramatic jump with signs pointing to OLED displays. The latest rumor comes from Nikkei with sources purportedly from Foxconn itself claiming that the manufacturer has been hard at work on creating a glass chassis for the iPhone since 2015. If history is any indication, next year's iPhone should be ready by September 2017.

The potential change to a glass design could be inspired by the huge success of the Galaxy S7 series from Samsung. Additionally, glass has come a long way since the iPhone 4 days with stronger and more resistant solutions now available. The Galaxy S7, for example, utilizes Gorilla Glass 5 on both sides and is one of the first consumer smartphones to incorporate the toughened glass. If true, the 2017 iPhone could be the most innovative smartphone from Apple yet with both OLED displays and a new glass design. The image to the right is a concept design based on previously known information on the unannounced 2017 iPhone.

Another leak claims to to have in possession Apple A10 SoCs as pictured below. The A10 is expected to power the upcoming iPhone and be produced at TSMC in a 16 nm fabrication process.

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