San Francisco, Jul 4 (IANS): iPhone users may soon unlock their smartphones through facial recognition, with an Apple expert predicting that the technology giant would drop the 'Touch ID' fingerprint sensor in the upcoming iPhone 8.

Amid speculation on where Apple would place the fingerprint sensor on iPhone 8 which is expected to have a full-screen OLED display, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, in a report published in Street Insider on Monday, predicted that the sensor would be removed altogether.

Apple is predicted to roll out three iPhone models this fall, including an all-new design 5.2-inch (or 5.8 inch depending on the definition of screen size in use) OLED iPhone and LCD models at 4.7 inch and 5.5 inch.

"The OLED model won't support fingerprint recognition because the full-screen design doesn't work with existing capacitive fingerprint recognition and the scan-through ability of the under-display fingerprint solution still has technical challenges," the report claimed.

The OLED iPhone may also support 3D sensing to allow for facial recognition and improved augmented reality functions while improving selfie quality.

The iPhone 8 is also predicted to feature a display with "the highest screen-to-body ratio of any phone on the market" made possible with the use of a 'notch' display design.

Kuo is expecting an October-November and August-September as production ramp-up schedules of OLED iPhone & LCD iPhone respectively.

"For optimised promotional effect, we think Apple may unveil the three models simultaneously in September, though the launch date of the OLED version may trail that of LCD models," the report added.