Next year's LCD iPhones could catch up with OLED

Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, Phil Schiller, introduces the iPhone X during a launch event in Cupertino, California, U.S. September 12, 2017. REUTERS/Stephen Lam - HP1ED9C1I90DE

The iPhone X isn't even out yet, but the rumors about the 2018 iPhones are already starting to fly. The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple is looking into LCD displays made by Japan Display that can offer a similar, bezel-free design.

The screens, called Full Active LCD, don't require the hefty bezel of today's regular LCD displays, and can be curved like OLED. The Journal also says it only needs a bezel of half a millimeter.

Apple introduced its first OLED screen in the iPhone X, but the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus still have the same display technology that Apple's been using for years. Full Active LCD technology would let the company update the design on cheaper models to something more like the iPhone X while using a less expensive LCD screen rather than OLED, which offers more vibrant colors and deeper blacks.

That means (and I'm speculating here), that the 2018 iPhone lineup could include mid-level phones with bezel free LCD displays, while a follow-up to the iPhone X could stick with OLED. That would modernize the lineup and reduce Apple's reliance on Samsung, its greatest rival that also happens to produce the OLED screens on the iPhone X.

While we'd definitely like to see Apple move to OLED altogether, Full Active LCD will at least provide the design benefits and finally let Apple catch up with its many rivals that have already gone bezel-free.