As expected, Apple’s massive keynote today in San Francisco saw the announcement of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, featuring much the same appearance as the iPhone 6s, but with a few major revisions: the headphone jack is indeed gone, and Apple has replaced the mechanical home button with a static version that’s force sensitive. No more clicks; instead, the the new home button will use Apple’s Taptic Engine to click back at users. Additionally, vibrations delivered through the home button will function as notifications, with unique buzzes signalling incoming messages and calls.
With the headphone jack gone, the body will also be more durable, with resistance to water and dust that meets the IP67 protection standard. You can drop your phone in water for a brief period of time, but it won’t be able to withstand a steady shower.
The display is 25 percent brighter, with a wide color range and continued support for 3D Touch, and there are now stereo speakers. Also, lightning Earpods will be included in the box, along with an adapter for 3.5mm compatible headphones.
Under the hood, there’s a new A10 fusion chip with a four-core CPU, featuring two high-performance CPU cores (each 40 percent faster than the A9) and two high-efficiency cores that run at one-fifth the power to save battery life. Speaking of which, the iPhone 7 is said to have the best battery life of any previous iPhone. On average, you can expect to get about two more hours on the new model than the iPhone 6s.
For the camera, there’s a new optical image stabilization system that lets you shoot longer exposures while reducing shake, a larger f/1.8 aperture that lets in 50% more light, a 6-element lens that delivers sharp images, a new 12-megapixel sensor that’s 60% faster and 30% more energy efficient. There’s also a 7-megapixel front camera, up from a 5-megapixel camera on the iPhone 6s.
The larger iPhone 7 Plus was revealed with the expected dual-camera setup. Of the two 12-megapixel cameras, one is a wide-angle lens and the second is a 2x telephoto lens. The result is high-resolution zoom, as well as 10x digital zoom. The dual cameras also offer a special bokeh feature, wherein one part of the photo is focused while the background is blurred, offering an added sense of depth. The feature will be available in the camera app through a new option, Portrait, offered as part of a free software upgrade later in the year.
There’s also a new interface for controlling the zoom, where the user has to simply swipe the screen to switch between different zooms.
Both the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus come in silver, gold and rose gold finishes, along with two all-new black finishes, one featuring an anodized matte appearance, the other a jet black finish with a high-gloss sheen.
You can preorder the iPhone 7 now at apple.com. There are 32GB, 128GB and 256GB models on offer, starting at $649. Keep in mind that the new jet black finish will be offered exclusively on the 128GB and 256GB models from apple.com, Apple Stores, and select Apple authorized retailers.
