Report: Next iPhone to have thinner display, better image quality

The Wall Street Journal is out with another scoop about the sixth-generation iPhone and yes, it’s about the display again. According to “people familiar with the matter,” Apple is working with Asian manufacturers to make the screen even thinner than before and the way it’s doing so will ultimately enable the display to have better image quality — killing two birds with one stone.

Sharp Corp. and Japan Display Inc. are producing the next iPhone’s display using what’s called in-cell technology. This merges the touch screen in with the LCD, eliminating the need for the extra touch screen layer on top of the LCD, which Apple’s been using since with the first iPhone in 2007. The removal of the now unnecessary touch layer would make the screen thinner and improve the quality because there’s nothing resting above it. Touching content should also feel more natural to the user as well — as if you’re actually manipulating it instead of sliding your finger across glass.

The touch screen layer was only a half-a-millimeter thick so the difference won’t be discernible by the human eye if you were to rip the iPhone apart. However, that small amount of space might be just what Apple needs to squeeze in any new or more powerful hardware components.

Apple is also choosing to once again go with the aforementioned LCD. No OLED or AMOLED like some Android handsets, just the familiar LCD. It’s probably for the best too, since the parts makers are already complaining that they are struggling to keep up with Apple’s high demand for these new in-cell screens.

[via WSJ]