iPhone 8 release date, news & update: Chinese tech company may have just released an iPhone 8 look-alike

Emmanuelle Espiritu Wednesday, October 26, 2016

The new iPhone 7 smartphone goes on sale inside an Apple Inc. store in Los Angeles, California, U.S., September 16, 2016. | Reuters/Lucy Nicholson

iPhone will be marking its 10th year in 2017 and the milestone is expected to usher in some sensational changes to Apple's flagship smartphone with the release of the revolutionary iPhone 8. But it looks like premier Chinese tech company Xiaomi may have just beaten the Cupertino tech giant to the punch.

When Xiaomi revealed its smartphone Mi Mix on Tuesday, iPhone enthusiasts quickly took note of how the device seems to have taken on much of the speculated features of the upcoming iPhone 8 including a bezel-less display and an exterior shell made of ceramic.

The Mi Mix also features an almost borderless 6.4-inch front screen, which coincides with the rumored "all-display" screen of the iPhone 8. The front-facing camera has been relocated to the bottom of the phone, which is the only place where a noticeable border can be found. It may not seem like an ideal place to put a camera in, but the phone can reportedly be rotated easily, so taking regular selfies shouldn't be too hard.

Xiaomi's newest smartphone will be officially released in November and is expected to sell for a little over $500.

But while it seems to resemble the visualized image of the iPhone 8, the upcoming next-gen smarphone from Apple may still prove to be a more powerful choice if and when it launches in 2017. The iPhone 8 may be revealed around Sept. 12 or 13 next year, based on the previous iPhones' unveiling schedules. The next-gen smartphone's official release date may fall on either Sept. 22 or 23.

Other rumored features of the iPhone 8 include an all-glass design, OLED display, an upgraded A11 processor, and a highly improved Intel 7360 LTE modem. Since the release of a new iPhone has always heralded the accompanying release of a new iOS, the iPhone 8 is expected to run on an upcoming iOS 11, which may be unveiled at the Worldwide Developer Conference in June 2017 and made available as a beta version before the official iPhone 8 release.

These are all just rumors and speculations at this point. Apple has yet to make an official statement about the production of an iPhone 8.