Roger Fingas
A video published on Tuesday allegedly shows Apple's "iPhone 8" in quality control testing — with a rear-mounted Touch ID sensor, despite most recent rumors discounting that possibility.
The 10-second clip, originally posted to China's Weibo, shows a person pressing their finger on a phone's sensor and triggering diagnostics on a connected machine — another identical phone is being loaded into the machine as the video ends. Both devices have Apple logos, and the "iPhone 8's" widely-expected vertical camera arrangement.
Most recent design leaks have indicated no obvious Touch ID sensor, suggesting that Apple plans to use 3D facial recognition as a full replacement. The company was at one point expected to embed a fingerprint sensor into the OLED display, but production problems may have pointed it elsewhere.
One possibility is that video is actually an old one depicting prototype units. It could also be showing knock-off products, or even the "iPhone 7s" or "7s Plus," though it's typically believed that those products will have horizontal cameras.
Two analyst reports have indicated the "iPhone 8" will only go into mass production in mid-September. The device could easily be in trial or low-level production, however.
Charles Martin
Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
Wesley Hilliard
Andrew Orr
38 Comments
Ol' Timmy really has doubled-down this time round.
There not using Touch ID!
They just have there hand waiting to find out if they get a "PASS" of "FAIL" - that determines where they will need to take the phone. (The pass and fail routings are likely in different directions, one to the right and one to the left - it's critical that the technician get it correct)
Does anyone really think that phones are set up for Touch ID so that only a particular technician can run a test like this?
besides, it looks like an Apple logo not a Touch ID sensor.
One thing I can say about Apple, they are not going to test any Apple product with a PC, they would be testing with Apple products, they write all their test code and systems on a Mac, this is something Apple has done since day one of the Macs.
So does anyone really think this video is real, and it is a really apple product.