14 DAY TRIAL // The iPhone 7 will be revealed on Wednesday as part of an official Apple conference that we’ve been expecting for months, and although many believed that the new model would be just a dull upgrade of the existing 6s lineup, it turns out that this is not at all the case.
The previous leaks pointed to a design that would be super similar to the 6s series while hardware upgrades were modest, with the dual-camera system rumored to be installed on the Plus model said to be the big star of the show. But according to KGI analysts, there’s so much more than that.
iPhone 7 design
First and foremost, the iPhone 7 will indeed be similar to the 6s lineup in terms of design, with the only notable differences being the antenna lines moved to the top and bottom edges of the phone and the new cameras - single-lens camera with a bigger cutout on the iPhone 7 and dual cameras on the Plus. This means that, despite the similar design, you won’t be able to use your iPhone 6s case with the new model.
And according to the new report, Apple is also making changes to the color lineup. The Space Grey version that’s super popular these days (probably the best-selling version so far) will be discontinued, but Apple will instead add two new case colors, namely Dark Black and Piano Black. The latter is very likely to be glossy and could be offered only on top-of-the-range iPhones.
So the upcoming iPhone lineup will be available in 5 different colors, namely Silver, Gold, Rose Gold, Dark Black, and Piano Black. The last two are expected to be the most popular.
The bottom part of the iPhone will also be different, as Apple is removing the headphone jack and goes all-in on its Lightning connector. The 3.5mm port will be replaced with a secondary speaker grille, but it won’t make the iPhone 7 stereo, with Apple planning to use the extra space inside to improve Force Touch. Each iPhone 7 will ship with new Lightning EarPods but also with a Lightning to 3.5 mm adapter, so you’ll still be able to use your existing headphones with the device. And now let’s take the step to hardware.
iPhone 7 hardware
Speaking of the removal of the headphone jack, this will happen not to make the iPhone thinner, as it was rumored originally, but to improve the Force Touch recognition system.
It’s not yet clear how exactly Apple wants to do that, but the analysts claim that there’ll be a new sensor whose purpose will be to improve the user experience. The new sensor will be placed next to a new internal amplifier that’ll boost sound output, so the iPhone will be louder, making it more appropriate for watching movies or listening to music without headphones.
The iPhone 7 display will also be substantially improved, as Apple is looking at the iPad Pro for ways to make the screen better, so it’ll support wide-color imagery too and make photos that you shoot with the iPhone 7 camera look brighter and sharper. Both the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus will get these improvements, but display sizes will remain the same as on the current generation - 4.7 inches for the former and 5.5 inches for the latter. No OLED this year, though, and the transition to the new tech is still on the table for the 2017 model, so the iPhone 7 will still feature LCD.
It’s not a surprise that the CPU is getting an upgrade too, but what’s more important is that Apple is aiming for super performance with the new A10 chips. According to the report, the iPhone 7’s chip should offer a maximum clock speed of 2.4 GHz, which is quite a major increase over the current generation’s 1.84 GHz.
A better CPU would be slowed down without a proper amount of RAM, so the Plus will come with 3GB while the standard model will feature 2GB. This information leaked earlier this year, with pundits saying that the Plus is getting the upgrade because it needs more processing power for photos shot with the new dual-camera system.
And speaking of the new cameras, the Plus will come with 2 different 12-megapixel units. Apple is planning to use one wide-angle camera and a telephoto camera to support optical zoom and light field camera applications, while the extra features include OIS and a 6P lens. A new flash will be offered too with the iPhone 7 Plus to include four LEDs, two cool and two warm.
As for storage, the analysts confirm what we’ve known for a while. The 16 and 64 GB versions are going dark, so the entry-level iPhone will boast 32 GB of storage space. There’ll be a new high-end version with 256 GB storage and very likely to be offered in Piano Black. Of course, no microSD card support will be available.
In terms of extra functionality, Apple has spent a lot of time making the iPhone 7 water-resistant, so the new model will have the IPX7 rating, and it will thus come in line with the Apple Watch. This means that it should be able to withstand being drowned in water up to 1 meter for 30 minutes.
And last but not least, Cupertino is also working on some new features, including hand gesture support, which could be possible thanks to a new proximity sensor upgrade. So far, we’ve seen no hints of such features in iOS 10, so it remains to be seen if Apple’s ready to launch them in the iPhone 7 or the company is just trying to pave the way for the next model coming in 2017.
Analysts expect Apple to sell 65 million iPhone 7 units this year alone, a significant drop as compared to the 82 million units that the company wanted to ship in 2015, when it launched the 6s. Suppliers are partly to blame for the decline, as production was slowed down because of the changes that Apple is making on the device, including waterproofing.