Gear up, Apple loyalists – here’s what you need to know about the iPhone 7

There’s some exciting news on the horizon for all those who keep an eagle-eye on the Apple website – Apple will be launching its iPhone 7 tomorrow!

While the near one-year wait period seemed like a turtle-speeded lifetime to some, it proved to be a good time for all prospective buyers to read up on the features of the much awaited phone of the year before upgrading to it. With Tim Cook’s visit to India causing a happy stir for both countries involved, India is shaping to be quite a large market for this multi-billion dollar company. According to an article in The Indian Express, the sale of iPhones in India has gone up by almost 76 percent in the first quarter.

Although the same article claims that Apple’s forecast for the second quarter has been lowered, it also states that the company says that it will invest more in India with revenues rising by 38 percent in the country.

Design

Although rumours went around that the new iPhone would have a completely different look, leaked pictures from various sources show that it largely reflects the common designs of the iPhone 6 and 6s, with provisions for a dual camera system with an even-more powerful lens that’s been long awaited. Sources have also suggested that the iPhone 7 will be slimmer than the iPhone 6’s 7.1mm marker, with the protruding rear camera looking set to be flattened out. The iPhone 7 will come in two sizes – one with a 4.7-inch display and one with a 5.5-inch display (which is the iPhone 7 Plus).

Goodbye headphone jack

Apple Patents have also shown that the new iPhone will forego the traditional 3.5 mm audio-jack and ditch the physical headphone altogether. Instead, they will ship the phone with a pair of Lightning EarPods or wireless ‘AirPod’ headphones operating on Bluetooth or another wireless standard.

Storage

As for storage, leaks have suggested that the new model will lead to the base model jumping from 16 GB to 32 GB, with a better battery life thanks to Apple’s efforts on enhancing a contactless wireless charging to reduce the phone’s dependency on plug-points and wires. According to this international website, the iPhone & iPhone Plus will feature a storage capacity of 256 GB. If we go by this model, then the iPhone 7 will offer three different storage spaces – 32GB, 128 GB and 256 GB.

Processor

The new iPhone will also see the move to a new, more powerful six-core processer, which should see Apple better managing this power that is providing for a better battery life. A new wireless connection standard LiFi – which transmits data over a light-based spectrum – has also been tipped for inclusion. The new model will contain an A10 processor that boasts of a speed as fast as 2.4 GHz, which is miles faster than the one offered by the existing A9 chip.

Camera

The iPhone 7 might witness a major camera update, with the 12-megapixel offering expected to be given a dual-lens spit polishing, which will allow for more impressive zoom options without the image quality being pixelated or reduced in any way. The new model’s camera will feature two 12-megapixel lenses – one which is wide angle, and the other, a telephoto. The new design is expected to offer optical zoom and light field camera applications. It has been suggested that the phone will enable split-focus skills which let users choose focus points after shots have been captured. The phone snapper is to be updated as well, so there is a possibility that the 12-MP camera will be tweaked a bit, too.

Pressure-sensitive home button

The new model could replace the home-button, that is visible on all the existing iPhones, with a pressure-sensitive one, which according to The Telegraph, can use the haptic feedback instead of the ‘physical’ home-button, allowing the company to make the phone even bigger.

The leaks also suggest that a few software enhancements will be thrown into the mix too, which includes a 4K video capture. This is likely to have an increased focus in late 2016 as next-gen imaging tech becomes more prevalent.

There is a possibility that the software that handles Siri will be updated as well, with Siri being able to transcribe your voicemails and convert them into text. It’ll be like having your very own virtual assistant!

As for the going rates for the new iPhone, that still remains a mystery – although it is not expected to fall below the iPhone 6s, which was marked at $539 for a 16 GB model.

Although these leaks have hinted at some radical pro-changes in the new model, there is a possibility that in reality it may not be as distinctive as we are being led to believe. Some like Ming-Chi Kuo, KGI Securities Analyst believe that Apple needs to come up with something better to really impress the masses.

“To sustain growth, the iPhone needs to come up with more innovative features to revitalise the user experience, for example in form factor design, software and hardware specs,” he says (as stated in Digital Spy).

So while you hold a much-awaited breath and double-check your savings, forgoing a vacation or two and staying in on several weekends, it is wise to keep a constant lookout for updates on the new features of the iPhone 7 (shameless promotions notwithstanding) and weigh in the pros and cons, before adding yet another model to your already vast collection.