A few days before Apple finally unveils its next iPhone, more details about the device are coming into focus — including what Apple's going to call it.
Several well-sourced leaks have trickled out iPhone details ahead of the phone's Sept. 12 debut, covering everything from the colors Apple will features on the new phone to new features like face recognition and animated emoji. Here's a rundown of what's emerged about the iPhone X, which is apparently what Apple plans to call its new high-end phone.
What's In a Name: iPhone X
That's right: firmware spotted by developer Steve Troughton-Smith indicates that Apple is going with iPhone X as the moniker for its 5.8-inch phone with an OLED screen and minimal bezels. The name is likely an allusion to the 10th anniversary of the iPhone, which first hit the market in 2007.
MORE: iPhone 8 vs. Note 8: How They'll Compare
But that doesn't mean an iPhone 8 won't be part of Apple's lineup. That same firmware hint found by Troughton-Smith also mentions an iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus. These are likely the modest updates to the current iPhone 7 and 7 Plus that Apple has been planning to release alongside the iPhone X.
While those phones won't be quite the radical departure from past iPhones that the iPhone X is expected to be — they'll likely keep the LCD screens that Apple has used on its phone instead of the OLED panel slated for the iPhone X — they're still expected to introduce some improvements over Apple's current phones. For one thing, the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus are likely to feature an A11 CPU; they're also expected to add wireless charging, which would necessitate a glass design.
Those changes are apparently enough to convince Apple to go with the iPhone 8 naming convention instead of tacking on an "S" as it's done with previous updates to the iPhone 5 and 6 lineups.
Colors: White, Black, Gold
You had a good run, rose gold. But a research note from KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who tends to be wired in on Apple's component plans, contends that the next iPhone will come in white, black, and gold casings.
That's largely consistent with previous reports on the iPhone's expected colors, though those reports claimed that Apple would opt for silver, black, and gold. The gold color has been described as "champagne gold" in some quarters, though it has a more copper-like hue to it.
The more interesting part of Kuo's report on colors, which was published at 9to5Mac, concerns the notch on the front of the iPhone. Regardless of the color of the phone's casing, Kuo says that notch will be black.
That's significant, as it will help give the iPhone X an appearance of an edge-to-edge screen. While the new phone is expected to minimize bezels on the top and bottom of its display, the new design will reportedly feature a notch that dips down into the top of the screen, to house both the front camera and ear-piece. Making the notch black will cause it to stand out less, though it still could be problematic when you run apps with a lighter background.
Other Features
Meanwhile, 9to5Mac also got its hands on the gold master for iOS 11 and has found more details about what you can expect from the next iPhone.
MORE: Hidden iOS 11 Features
Let's start with facial recognition, which is expected to replace TouchID as the way you unlock your phone. (With the screen taking up most of the real estate on the iPhone's front, there's no place for a TouchID sensor, and Apple's reportedly been unable to find a way to make it work underneath the display.) The iOS 11 GM calls this feature Face ID and includes an animated tutorial for setting it up.
Expect a new look for emojis in Apple's Messages app. Called Animoji, they're animated emoji characters — 9to5Mac's report includes a dog, cat, robot and monkey — that will incorporate facial tracking and voice recognition in their animations.
9to5Mac also found a new camera feature called Portrait Lighting, which is an enhancement to the depth-of-focus feature Apple introduced with last year's Portrait Mode on the dual lens iPhone 7 Plus. There are few details on the feature, but 9to5Mac speculates that it's related to using the flash when creating a bokeh effect on photos.
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