A growing number of analysts say the iPhone 8 won't feature a curved screen after all

A growing number of analysts believe the upcoming iPhone 8 will have a flat screen as opposed to the widely rumoured curved screen.

Apple is expected to announce an iPhone with a 5.8-inch OLED display and no Home button in September. The curvature of that display is a hot topic.

A large number of reports have suggested that the screen on that new device will be curved but an increasing number of iPhone watchers believe it will actually be flat.

"We anticipate Apple will adopt a flat implementation of OLED design on their special iPhone model, which is analogous to the current 2.5D glass design," IHS Markit analyst Wayne Lam told MacRumors last week.

"Much like the recently announced LG G6, we anticipate a touchscreen with a new longer aspect ratio design to take advantage of higher coverage area of the iPhone in its entirety. This new design language is expected to become the trend for 2017, as we all anticipate Samsung's reveal later this month," he added.

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has also dismissed the curved screen rumours. He said he expects Apple's next flagship iPhone to have a screen similar to previous iPhone models, with very slightly curved edges. Chinese research company TrendForce said the same.

The Wall Street Journal, The Korea Herald, Nikkei Asian Review, and Barclays Analysts have also published reports predicting that the new iPhone will have a curved screen.

Apple hasn't officially announced anything to do with the new iPhone so these are largely educated-guesses at this stage.

The upcoming Samsung Galaxy S8 device is also expected to have a longer OLED display with slim bezels and no physical home button after leaked photos revealed what the device might look like.

Speaking to MacRumors, Raymond Soneira of DisplayMate admitted that he did not have any inside information on the upcoming iPhone 8 but he did say that OLED displays made out of a glass substrate are cheaper and "available in much higher production volumes" than curved OLED displays that rely on a flexible plastic substrate.

"The existing iPhone 7 has 2.5D cover glass with a flat glass LCD display, so Apple could make a similar 2.5D OLED display using a glass substrate OLED display at lower cost and much higher production volumes," he reportedly said.