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iPhone 7: Everything we currently know about Apple’s next flagship

iphones_2016_7

With the iPhone SE behind us, those that didn’t jump on the new 4-inch iPhone are now looking to the fall when Apple is expected to introduce its true next-generation smartphone with the iPhone 7. Or at least that’s what we’re calling it until things become official, and from the sounds of the latest rumors and reports, there’s a lot more up in the air than just the device’s name when it comes to new features, design changes, and more.

One feature that will surely be a talking point for the new device is the lack of a headphone jack, something we’ve speculated could come for quite a while now since Apple introduced support for headphones over its Lightning cable back in 2014. Mark confirmed back in early January that Apple is indeed planning on getting rid of the headphone jack, and that it’s developing some truly cord-free wireless earbuds that could possibly launch with the device, but as of then Apple was still testing three different designs for the iPhone 7.

But the missing headphone jack may not be something that Apple tries to hide as a shortcoming and rather a feature it promotes as yet another example of it being first to fully embrace leaving aging technologies behind. It could allow for other advancements in the device— a thinner design or extra space for other new components, for example– and that’s something Apple would surely talk up. 

The different designs in testing could be partially the reason for the conflicting reports and rumors in recent months regarding new features and design changes, but now that we’re getting closer to launch this fall, we have a much better idea of what the next iPhone will look like. Here’s what we know. 

iphone-7-mockup

Features |

Rumored new features: In addition to the usual internal upgrade for the device’s processor, new features rumored for the iPhone 7 include a thinner design, a new dual camera system, a 256GB capacity option, a larger battery, Li-Fi tech, stereo speakers, and more. Less likely reports also claimed Apple is experimenting with USB-C, multi-touch 3D Touch, waterproofing, wireless charging, and EMI shielding improvements.

apple-developing-flexible-oled-screen-for-future-iphone-model-497707-2

Design |

Rumored design changes: Rumor has it that the iPhone 7 could be as thin as an iPod touch at around 6mm, and that it could also lose the camera bump and antenna lines for an overall cleaner design versus the previous generation. Of course the lack of headphone jack will change the design of the device slightly, and I’d expect Apple to talk about what removing the jack allowed for them from an innovation standpoint design-wise. But with all of that, the device is expected to overall be similar to the iPhone 6s design. What we know for sure: Mark reported in January that Apple was testing three separate designs “including a completely new, thinner look as well as a backup design that looks substantially like the iPhone 6s.”

hint

Accessories |

Wireless Earpods? If the wireless, cord-free Bluetooth earphones that Mark told us about in January are ready in time for the fall, these for me will be the best part of the iPhone 7 launch. Of course they’ll likely work with previous generation devices as well (unless Apple figures out a creative way to prevent that), and it will make the removal of the headphone jack much easier to swallow for those that might not be overly excited about that change. I’d expect Apple will bundle cheaper Lightning cable-based headphones with the iPhone 7 and sell these cord-free Beats as a premium accessory.

fv_iphone_7_render_side_carbonPolls |

And what do the people want? We’ve polled out readers a number of time asking their expectations and hopes for the iPhone 7, and we also had more than a few concepts submitted to give us some visuals to accompany all the rumored features.

Concept |

Opinion |

Check back for the latest as we update this post leading up to the iPhone 7 launch…

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Comments

  1. applegetridofsimandjack - 8 years ago

    Please oh please don’t make a ‘Pro’ iPhone. That would be ultimately ridiculous.
    All new iPhones should have the SAME specs and features. If Apple can’t manage to put their dual lens system in the smaller 4.7 inch iPhone 7, well then don’t use the dual lens camera system at all.

    New colors would be awesome
    And a bit thinner would also be nice (not that the iPhone 6/6S are thick phones).

    • Jake Becker - 8 years ago

      Agree on keeping those specs the same, and I might consider peeling off my Apple sticker if they call a phone a “pro” anything.

    • taoprophet420 - 8 years ago

      I get tired of this argument all models should have the same components and features. A 4″ phone can’t have all the components of 5.5″ model. Securing enough components for all models to have the exact same components alone is not easy. Add in size constraints and it leads to different features across models.

      It’s why only have a 5.8″ model next year having OLED and smaller bezels make sense. You can’t pack Mac Pro components and features into the MacBook. If you want all devices to have the same features release them all in one size. Otherwise there is compromises and additions across the screen sizes.

      • applegetridofsimandjack - 8 years ago

        Dude you totally missed my point. What I meant was that there is no reason for making a ‘Pro iPhone’. It’s not as if there are people who do their actual work on iPhones like photographers who mostly need a Macbook Pro over a Macbook because of the horsepower.

      • taoprophet420 - 8 years ago

        The plus model already has a different camera then the regular iPhone Apple does have to come up with at least 80 million dual camera modules if they are going to put them in both the 5.5′ and 4.7″ models. According to an earlier KGI report 30% of the 5.5″ models are going to get the dual lends cameras. I don’t want a Pro iPhone either, but see nothing wrong if they want to push extra features to the larger models. I hate the Pro name on the new 9.7″ iPad, but thats how they decided to name and price it. Apple has went nuts with skus, 62 skus for the Apple Watch is insane.

        Next year sounds like Apple will keep lcd screens for the 4″ and 4.7″ iPhones, but move to OLED for a 5.8″ model. Based on demand they might still keep a 5.5″ lcd model. so unfortanelty 2 years in a row we might get an iPhone Pro or premium.So far with past rumors like including Sapphire screens on enhanced 4.7″ and 5.5″ models has not happened.I don’t like the idea of premium skis based on supply, but if Apple wants to push technology I’m ok with it. I think they did a good job on it with the 12.9 iPad Pro and a poor job with the MacBook.

      • ” I think they did a good job on it with the 12.9 iPad Pro and a poor job with the MacBook.”

        Why do you think they did a poor job with the Macbook?

      • Ryan - 8 years ago

        I’d be okay with “Pro” phone if it replaced the “Plus”
        It’d be more consistent with their other products too.

    • strawbis - 8 years ago

      Where do you get the authority to speak for all of us with regards to the specs of upcoming Apple products? Don’t answer, it’s a rhetorical question.

      Personally, I’d like the latest possible specifications in an iPhone 7, and I don’t want them any thinner than the 6s\+ already are …I’d even go as far as to suggest the 6s be made a little thicker to accommodate a better battery.

      SE be damned.

      • taoprophet420 - 8 years ago

        The 1 mm rumored difference in thickness is solely based on a new display array. The battery size isn’t being reduced. The 6s models got .2mm thicker do to 3D Touch. The size reduction is most likely from Apple figuring out how to better out 3D Touch into the display panel.

    • Marc Orcutt - 8 years ago

      “I got my pencil” – David Lee Roth

    • pdixon1986 - 8 years ago

      but when the iphone 6 came out the 6 plus had a few extra feature that the 6 didnt…

      rumours i have heard is a 7, 7plus, and 7 pro (the 7 and plus will more or less be the same but just a different size screen.. the pro will have the dual lens and other extra features)

    • o0smoothies0o - 8 years ago

      Anyone including Apple that thinks iPhone ‘Pro’ is a good name… God help you. It would be so incredibly embarrassing and not to bring up Steve like everyone else, but Steve would have absolutely berated and fired whomever even suggested that naming for any iPhone, ever.

      The fact that it’s even been rumored and suggested is so sad. I pray that Apple executives have laughed at that rumor and never ever considered that for any iPhone. Like that concept with the diagonally separated cameras and flashes, it’s beyond stupid.

      Apple is losing it with their naming though, as seen by the new 9.7″ iPad Pro. That alone is sad enough. It’s funny that they once prided themselves on not allowing naming to be 100% marketing, but it is absolutely 100% marketing now, and clearly not even good marketing, like their recent ads, wow they’re bad.

    • uniszuurmond - 8 years ago

      I totally agree. I have a preference for a specific size phone, but when it comes to features, I want the best. If some features won’t be available on the standard size, it won’t get met to buy the more expensive plus – it will move me towards looking what the competition offers in my preferred size.

  2. Alex Moran - 8 years ago

    I’m sincerely hoping they don’t make the dual camera exclusive to the larger device. I had a 6 plus for a year and got to a point where I couldn’t wait to get rid of it for a regular 6s.

    • taoprophet420 - 8 years ago

      Next year you will most likely see a 5.8″ iPhone with a footprint the same size or smaller then the 6 plus.

      • o0smoothies0o - 8 years ago

        You realize they will do that with the 4.7″ too, right? You reduce the bezels of both and increase the screen size of both so they are roughly the same physical size, yet each have a larger display, which would drastically increase sales again.

  3. taoprophet420 - 8 years ago

    I hope they go with USB-C for the headphone jack. I’m only against lightning because of the MFI program if they redid the program I wouldn’t have any issue with lightning headphones. I am little disappointed that DAC won’t make this year model and will wait until next year. I think ditching the ancient phone jack would be an easier sell to people if it included high quality digital processing.

    • r00fus1 - 8 years ago

      What’s missing for DAC in the 6S?

      • taoprophet420 - 8 years ago

        Apple not caring about enhanced sound I guess.It was rumored to be in the 7, since they are ditching the phone jack and could advertise DAC as a selling point and a benefit of removing the phone jack.

      • strawbis - 8 years ago

        What would be the point in putting an expensive DAC in a product that probably 97% won’t hear the difference? Might as well let the clients that want quality audio buy B&W speakers at Apple Store prices …win/win for them.

  4. taoprophet420 - 8 years ago

    Whats up with the 5.5″ render? No way apple would use 2 flashes or camera’s at angles like that. I like the “leaked” phone with a smaller version of the hump like the LG G5, but with a Bender from Futurama look.

  5. deejaybuddha - 8 years ago

    One of th pics showed a smart connector on the rear. Here’s my theory lol:

    iPhone 7 will have a smart connector which will most likely be used for its version of wireless charging. I expect Apple to make cases using the smart connector ports which will allow you to use the wired lightning headphones while charging. It makes total sense.

  6. I’m expecting a massive link feature that will use the apple watch 2 with the iPhone 7 (but can’t see any rummers o support my expectation)

  7. RP - 8 years ago

    Actually, the rumors on the thinness is that it’s simply going back to 6 thinness. It gained a mm with the 6S for Touch ID . So all the crying about thinness is simply that Apple figured out how to make Touch ID screens thinner. Not that it’s actually thinner.

  8. Douglas Roe (@droe2990) - 8 years ago

    I do not want a thinner phone, It does not handle well. The old or now new 5 is a lot easier to hold. I guess they will not stop till its a thin as a piece of paper. Aleo would like them to get rid of the wasted space where the Touch ID and ear phone is. One thing that really get on my and my wife’s nerves is the placement of the off switch, move it back to the top. Would like to keep the headphone jack.

  9. pdixon1986 - 8 years ago

    i would love for them to put in a usb-c… this will allow for more input options and faster charging and mean you could use usb headphones (if happen keep the lightning port, then the main reason would be because they want to limit you to their products)

    I don’t think devices need to be thinner… the current thickness is fine BUT flatten the edges – the rounded design bugs me.
    Reduce the bezel — the curved design at the moment makes the bezel look thinner, but it’s still very thick on either sides compared to other flagship phones — but the biggest issue is the top and bottom… you could get rid of 5mm on the bottom and 1cm on the top… the iphone 6 plus is a very tall phone — too tall.

    it would also be nice if they played with the innards and made the bottom part slightly heavier than the top — currently i phone the 6 plus too top heavy.

    Their current earphones really hurt my ears and never stay in (despite the fact they claimed they were redesigned to suit more ears)…so given that they are removing the headphone jack, they better have some decent earphones shipped with the phone.

    and please please please move the power button…when i take picture i use the volume button to snap a photo – but because of the stupid power button being in a place where i need to put my thumb so that i can securely grip the phone without fingers in shot, i always end up turning the phone off :-(

    the 6 design is soooo bad (in my opinion) that if 7 isnt any better, then i will consider android or the iphone SE…

    • o0smoothies0o - 8 years ago

      USB-C in the iPhone isn’t happening, because it’s a horrible thing for an iPhone, simply put. In a few years the iPhone won’t have any port, which is optimal to anyone intelligent enough to understand the process of advancement. It’s horrible for an iPhone because it is a step back in internal space, not just thickness, but internal space which reduces battery, etc. it’s also supremely horrible because 99.999% of users would rather have a lightning port remain then change to USB-C which offers 99.999% of iPhone users virtually nothing. Lightning is fine until it is gone, at which point wireless distance charging and wifi syncing and wireless transfers will be all that’s needed.

      • pdixon1986 - 8 years ago

        lightning port is slow to charge, it is only slightly smaller than USB-C, the data transfer is also slower…
        USB-C is also universal.

        i know that apple wont put it on iphone – not because of space, size, or a ‘step back’ – it’s because apple will lose out on all the money they could make from lightning headphones, and the money theyd continue to make from expensive cables and adaptors.

        i don’t think apple will go wireless for charging – instead they will add smart connectors that will use magnets — this will be used for data and charging (similar to the ipad pro’s smart connect for the keyboard)…
        To be honest — if they got rid of both the headphone jack AND the lightning port and put in a smart connector… then i’d be happy

      • o0smoothies0o - 8 years ago

        No, it’s due to numerous reasons and the number one is size. USB-C is garbage for an iPhone.

        They 100% will do wireless charging, but wireless distance charging, not the worthless absolutely useless wireless charging that requires you to sit a device on a mat. Wireless distance charging us obviously the future to anyone with a clue. If anyone thinks that in 20 years every mobile electronic device with a battery won’t be iusing wireless distance charging then you just have zero understanding of the future.

        Also I suggested they go with a smart connector and drop the Lightning port long ago. As it would drastically increase internal space which is the most important aspect of a smartphone or watch. I understood there were inherent problems to overcome with that though, but with rumors of wireless distance charging coming in a few years, I no longer believe that to be a worthwhile transition, and instead the abrupt transition of fully wireless should be made in a few years with no ports or connectors.

        That said, I believe that iPhone leak with the dual camera and smart connector at the bottom to be a real Apple prototype because there’s one thing I know and that’s that only Apple would think to put the smart connector down there, no mockup people came up with that. They’d need a reason other than charging while listening to lightning headphones as a reason for that there though.

        I can offer one idea which would make that smart connector useful to some people and that would be a battery case that wasn’t hideously designed with a hump, but rather a completely flat case with embedded battery which would charge the device through contacts hitting that smart connector instead of how the battery cases are now, which require a lightning plug to fit inside the port, which obviously causes there to be a large lower lip on all battery cases. Getting rid of that lip and the hump on the case means you could make a case which has a battery and charges through the new smart connector on the back and follows the design of the phone and essentially just makes the device a little thicker while giving a significant battery increase, which would take care of most of the battery whiners until wireless distance charging.

  10. Karan Chopra - 8 years ago

    The single biggest thing Apple needs to get right is the very outdated screen. It was time to update to an OLED or equivalent 4k screen during 6S, that missed , now is the time to do this. Cant believe i bought a samsung (worst post sales service in India) because of the 5.1 inch perfect edge screen. Dont drop the ball apple.

  11. Oflife - 8 years ago

    So hope they do lose the antenna lines, which ruin the 6. I use an Android but even if I wanted an iPhone, I would wait until they release a clean design, such as what HTC have done so well with the original One and now the M8, M9 etc. Am crazy, but refuse to own things I don’t like the design of. Am a designer, so it figures! :)

  12. jiggerslovesthemapples - 8 years ago

    “iPhone 7: Everything we currently know about Apple’s next flagship” And I thought this post was going to be a really short… we KNOW nothing.

  13. Orlando Olmo - 8 years ago

    I would like for the phone to be really tough! Like a dutiful owner I’ve opened the box to find a perfect phone. But having seen the inevitable story of the first phone to attempt to fly or magically jump out of its owners hands. The results are often tragic. So there goes this perfect design hidden in a meh case like the phone was the man in the iron mask. Hell even my perfect iP6+ while in a shell case took a tumble out of a pocket and from a two foot hight managed to put a short crack in one corner. Really guys! I miss the days of my Nextel Raven. Which once rode atop a car from DC to Baltimore in a rain storm only to slide off the roof, bounce off the hood and slide out in front of us in the parking lot. I think there was a dent in the concrete where it hit. The phone was unscathed. So…How about a iP7 made from carbon fiber, tool steel or titanium! I’d sacrifice “incredible lightness” for “ridiculous toughness”. I’m sure the guys from SnapOn could help. My SnapOn tools look as new as the day I bought them.

    Every iPhone seems to be perfectly polished. Which makes for a slippery sucker to hold on to in certain circumstances. For those times when we just can’t help ourselves and want to walk around with a naked phone. Can’t we put some texture on the edges!? Checkering, ribbing, dimples! I know everyone wants to be able to slip their phone into those perfectly tailored pair of jeans with no difficulty. Even though they can’t get their wallets out in a hurry out of the same jeans.

    Here is another blast from the past. Lanyard compatibility! How tough could that be?

    Everything else seems to be just fine. But the news of yet another thinner iPhone will just bring out the bend-gazie stories all over again. I can’t wait for the new model to come out and read the first story on the web. “Uproar as owner leaves new iPhone on the pad during launch of SpaceX Falcon 9 and phone melted!”

  14. ambhaiji - 8 years ago

    If that ugly af x camera placement comes to life my broke ass will find a way to pay for a sticky bomb to throw at Jony Ive’s eyes.

  15. Please upgrade new iPhone for Local FM Radio (Using Headphone)….

  16. Pascal - 7 years ago

    I find the iPhone 7 a bit over priced for here in Europe due to the large taxes apple uses for people that live in Europe countries. But I still like to have one to bad I don have the funds for it at the moment but I have joined several giveaways like iwiniphone7.com in the hope to win one of the iPhone 7.

Author

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jordan Kahn

Jordan writes about all things Apple as Senior Editor of 9to5Mac, & contributes to 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, & Electrek.co. He also co-authors 9to5Mac’s Logic Pros series.