Rumour mill keeps grinding over new iPhone 7

Apple will announce the next iPhone this week, and as usual the rumour mill is reaching its peak churning velocity with much speculation over Cupertino’s next smartphone.

While the iPhone 7, as it is likely to be called, will come with more powerful innards and various nips and tucks over its predecessor, we’ve sifted through the mass of rumours to collate and assess the information that’s most significant, interesting and likely to make it into the next iPhone.

Overhauled Design

The iPhone 6 models sported a nice rework of Apple’s industrial design, offering a smartphone that has some of the pleasing aesthetics of Apple’s iPads.

With the iPhone 7, we are likely to see an evolution of that design with rumours of Apple going for a bezel-less metal body, redesigned antenna arrays and IPX7 water resistance, the latter would allow it to match the Samsung Galaxy S7 in terms of being able to go for a quick dunk.

Predictions for the redesign also include a home button that relies on a pressure sensor rather than a click button, which should make it more durable for long-term use.

Rumours also suggest new colour options being added to the mix, with Piano Black and Dark Black replacing the previous Space Grey colour; at least that’s according to iPhone spec-leaking site Kuo.

On the back of the impending launch, dual-lens cameras complete with an upgraded flash to improve photo capabilities have also been rumoured.

It’s also expected that the iPhone 7 will have slimmed down by a few millimetres compared to its older siblings and keeping with the trend of mobile tech getting ever more svelte.

Tailing off the design is the opinion-dividing rumour that Apple will ditch the 3.5mm headphone jack and instead opt to provide headphone connectivity through its Lightning port. This will mean users will have to opt for proprietary headphones or jack adapters if they want to listen to music in private or make hands-free calls. The flip side to this is more space for an improved speaker and sensor for Force Touch.

At the Core

The iPhone 7’s new processor is likely to come with the A10 chip from TSMC, offering up to 2.45GHz of processing power, which should give it enough grunt to keep iOS 10 running smoothly.

The processor has been slated to be paired with 3GB of RAM to give it the horsepower to handle the smarter Siri virtual assistant that iOS 10 brings with it.

Storage is set to start at 32GB and run up to 128GB, with Apple finally ditching the 16GB version as apps become more storage hungry. Battery life is also set to rise from 1715mAh to 1960mAh, with the added advantage of fast charging, a feature on Samsung Galaxy phones, if the rumours have any credence.

However, if the iPhone 7 is indeed getting slimmer then squeezing in a bigger battery could be a challenge.

The display is another spec due a tweak, as only the ‘Plus’ sized models in the iPhone 6 range have 1080p screens. It’s likely the iPhone 7 will sport at least a 1080p full-HD display, potentially running edge-to-edge on the phone’s sides. An OLED display isn’t likely to feature in this year’s iPhones, unless Apple has drastic plans to surprise its fans and really take a leap forward with its smartphone screens.

Release Date and Price

Once the iPhone 7 is revealed it’s likely to be only a couple of weeks until it’s released to the public, so we’d predict somewhere around 21 September.

Apple keeps tight-lipped on the price of its iPhones, but going by previous pricing structures, the iPhone 7 is likely to start at £539 and top out at nearly £700 for the top model.

Sadly, Apple knows its fans are likely to stump up for the steep prices, so it’s not likely to be cutting the costs of its next iPhone until an inevitable ‘S’ model is revealed in 2017.

We’ll have to wait until this Wednesday evening to find out what rumours and predictions come to fruition.