The iDB team could not possibly be more excited for the upcoming iPhone 8. A completely redesigned form factor has been three years in the making. In my opinion, the crown jewel will be the new full screen OLED display. With OLED, the colors will be richer and the blacks, a true black. A new screen size, function area, and ear piece cut out will make wallpapers a new challenge.
Our Wallpapers of the Week collection has been able to greatly benefit from an unchanging resolution, for the past three years. But now, we are faced with a turning point in the device and, therefore, will need to dedicate efforts to provide wallpapers at the new resolution. This is a call to arms! I need your help to find or create amazing, photo quality images for the newest flagship device.
iPhone 8 wallpapers
The above image was released by Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo all the way back in February. It was a first glimpse at the actual screen size prediction, including the dynamic function area, which could be reserved for a virtual Home Button or app interaction bar. The screen size was then recently confirmed in the historical Home Pod firmware leak, which accidentally gave an incredible look at the iPhone 8 details. In the firmware, @stroughtonsmith found the actual active screen sizes of each device. The iPhone 8 is listed as 2436 x 1125, which is guessed to lack the function area. This resolution matches the aspect ratio previously estimated by Kuo.
There are little tidbits in the OS suggesting upcoming iPhone will have a 3x screen at 1125×2436. Hard to gauge what that will mean for devs pic.twitter.com/SK8QjOAfDt
— Steve Troughton-Smith (@stroughtonsmith) July 31, 2017
Therefore, it appears that wallpapers could be one of two sizes. We are looking at a full screen size of 5.8″, which falls on the Kuo resolution of 2,800 x 1,242. However, the active screen area, and therefore the wallpaper, could be restricted to 2,436 x 1125. Further complicating an early assumption is the Apple parallax effect, which requires the wallpaper image to be slightly larger than the actual screen resolution.
How can you help?
We all love to have wallpapers for the new device ready and posted before the actual device releases. Currently, the Apple Event is predicted to be hosted on September 12, with an in-hand date of September 22. We will find out the actual resolution during the announcement, then have a short 10 days to produce images ready for the new device.
If you want to prepare, I would suggest creating some images now, that can be edited if necessary, once the announcement is made. The numbers from both Kuo and Stroughton-Smith perfectly align with one another. The only remaining question is: will the wallpaper consume the full display size (I hope so!) or will it be restricted to the top active screen area.
Making a wallpaper in advance would be advantaged by assuming the larger, full screen size of 2,800 x 1242 and leaving the lower ~365 pixels without any specific design flair. Then, the canvas can simply be altered, if necessary, once the device resolution is officially known. The lower 365 pixels could be for the function area only.
I would love to see a bunch of bright colored designs that also take full advantage of the OLED technology. With that considered, rich blacks will also be a new experience on the OLED display, as it lacks a centralized backlight. When a black image is used on an OLED display, that part of the actual screen simply turns off. It couldn’t possibly be any blacker. Technically an OLED display as an infinite contrast because it actually becomes perfectly black. This contrast with the pop of bright colors will make for excellent wallpapers.
Stay connected
I will be gathering images, as always, via twitter @jim_gresham. Strike up a conversation, follow along, and send me your new wallpapers. To ensure they “work,” you will need to have them at a resolution for the iPhone 8, which would be at some equivalent ratio of 2,800 x 1242. They will need to be photo quality images, meaning they cannot be fuzzy. Twitter compresses any images sent directly through its service. Consequently, ensure you post the image on a hosted site like Dropbox, Drive, Mega, or similar and send me the direct link. I will start collecting them as soon as they come my way!
Pro tip! If you don’t want to start from scratch, for the sake of time, a great way to have iPhone 8 ready wallpapers would be to create an iPhone 8 resolution size canvas and crop iPad Pro wallpapers into the proper size. This will create perfectly sized wallpapers without having to start a design completely from zero.
Let’s get to work! Any iPhone 8 wallpaper post in the first few days will be an incredibly visited post on our site. I will ensure everyone gets the proper credit for their submissions and links to your Twitter profile or design galleries for exposure.