Photo: Courtesy Apple.Ed. note: We will continue to update this post with the latest iPhone 7 news.
Update: We may have a first glimpse of the (supposed) iPhone 7, thanks to French site NoWhereElse, which has shared accurate leaks in the past. It looks largely similar to the iPhone 6/6s, except for those white antenna bands that stripe the back. In the photo, reportedly sourced from Apple's metal chassis manufacturer Catcher Technology, those white antenna lines are less visible, only ringing the edge of the phone's rear casing. This photo also shows a larger camera cut-out. This would support rumors that the camera may not protrude as much as the current iPhone, but not that Apple's going with the fancy dual-lens system previously reported.
This story was originally published March 2, 2016.
If you held off buying a new iPhone 6s last year, you may have made a smart call. Reports about Apple's next iPhone are starting to roll in — and it sounds like it could be a big upgrade.
A report from KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, an often-accurate Apple analyst, says that two models of the iPhone 7 Plus are in development right now. The higher-end model will include an amazing new dual-lens camera system incorporating technology Apple gained when it acquired Lynx Imaging last year. The camera itself would be smaller (so no more protruding lens on the back) and would have better light sensitivity. In particular, it would offer better low-light performance.
This is great news, because other phone manufacturers, such as Samsung, have really been improving their camera game.
Other reports suggest that all models of the iPhone 7 will be thinner than the current 6s. It will also ditch the 3.5mm headphone jack on the bottom — to listen to your tunes, you'll have to stream over Bluetooth or use an adapter to play audio through the Lightning port. It could also come with stereo speakers, making it a better option for on-the-go video watching. It will also likely include a bigger battery. There is no phone in existence that can boast having too much battery life.
Renders Courtesy Yasser Farahi (top) and Marek Weidlich (bottom).Artist renderings of the new iPhone, such as these two on the right, suggest that it could also have a larger, edge-to-edge display, but we'll have to wait and see if that actually plays out.
If you've been counting, these rumors only account for three phones: The iPhone 7 and two versions of the iPhone 7 Plus. Apple is also reportedly working on a smaller 4-inch iPhone SE— basically a "special edition" of the iPhone 5s that shares its screen size and looks, but features upgraded innards that are more on par with the iPhone 6s, including an A9 processor.
While the brand-new iPhone 7 models won't launch until the fall (when Apple usually debuts new iPhones), we may get to see the smaller iPhone SE later this month at an Apple event on March 21.
This article originally published March 2, 2015.
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