Apple’s first OLED iPhone might be its biggest yet, with 5.8-inch screen

Apple’s near-term smartphone future may include a return to smaller screens, but for the longer outlook some recent rumors haven’t been talking so much about size, but about screen tech: and namely, when we might see Apple move past the LCD panels it’s been using for years and give us an iPhone with an OLED display. We’ve heard industry reports suggesting that Apple could bring us an OLED iPhone as soon as next year (though others suggest a slower timetable), and now the latest adds another twist to this OLED story, claiming that the iPhone that brings us OLED screens could be Apple’s largest to date.


Supposedly, Apple may be working on plans to deliver a 5.8-inch iPhone with OLED screen either next year or sometime in 2018. Samsung is the most likely candidate to produce the panels, though Apple could turn to LG Display and Japan Display for extra help further down the road.

This rumor plays into earlier reports of a possible new iPhone variant launching this fall: instead of just a big and small iPhone, we’ve heard that there could be both a single- and a dual-camera model. Apple’s new branding for its tablet offerings has driven speculation that the dual-camera iPhone could emerge as the iPhone Pro, and it’s that device that connects back to this talk of a big-screen OLED model.

While OLED screens wouldn’t be ready for any 2016 iPhone, could this 5.8-inch phablet we’re discussing be a possible candidate for next year’s second-gen iPhone Pro? It’s a bit of a stretch, we’ll admit – especially as we’re not super-confident about this iPhone Pro business to begin with – but if we squint our eyes just right, we can see the possible overlap.