Apple will finally put a larger battery in its 4.7-inch iPhone 8, but at a price: Analyst

The Nostradamus of Apple analysts has come out with yet another prediction about Apple’s upcoming iPhone 8, and this time, he actually has some good news.

So far, all we’ve heard about the iPhone 8 is that it will be gorgeous, one of a kind, extremely expensive, feature no ports – even for charging – and that wireless charging could make the device very hot. While this isn’t exactly bad news, it’s not particularly good news.

KGI’s Ming-Chi Kuo predicts that the upcoming iPhone 8 will be the same size as the current 4.7-inch iPhone 7, but that it will pack in a much larger 2,700 mAh battery. So far, Apple has only stuffed in a minuscule 1,960 mAh unit in its 4.7-inch iPhones.

The 2,700 mAh battery was barely adequate on the Plus model of Apple’s iPhones so it’s actually nice to hear that Apple might do something sensible on the battery front for a change.

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Kuo’s report explains that Apple is switching to a new ‘stacked-substrate’ PCB design for its mainboard – the chip that holds all the electronics of the iPhone – which has resulted in a much smaller form-factor, reports 9to5Mac.

As you can see in the image above, the new PCB frees up a great deal more space inside the iPhone and Kuo believes that Apple will be filling this space with a battery.

Unfortunately, Kuo believes that the new PCB design will not make its way to the expected iPhone 7s and 7s Plus models. This is bad news indeed for those who were hoping for a small iPhone with sufficient battery life.

Another piece of bad news is that this stacked PCB design is reportedly very expensive to build – up to 80 percent more expensive – and this additional cost will further push up the expected price of the iPhone 8 even further.