Apple Unveils Water Resistant iPhone 7 And iPhone 7 Plus With DSLR-Quality Dual Cameras, Wireless AirPods
Today, Apple officially pulled the wraps off both the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus. And as the leaks have already shown us, things don’t change dramatically on the looks front. If you’ve seen the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus don’t stray too far from that formula. It’s still “well-rounded” design — one that has cut down on the antenna lines that infuriated so many picky Apple fans when the iPhone 6 was introduced in 2014.
Powering the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, as expected, is an A10 Fusion processor which is 40 percent faster than the A9. This is a quad-core, 64-bit design that uses two high-performance cores, and two high-efficiency cores. It also has a GPU that is 50 percent faster than the graphics core in the A9. The battery life is also the longest ever in an iPhone according to Phil Schiller.
The iPhone 7 retains a single camera, although it has been upgraded with optical image stabilization this time around. The iPhone 7 has a f/1.8 aperture lens, faster 12MP sensor, six-element lens, and True Tone flash with four LED element. There’s also a new 7MP FaceTime HD selfie camera.
The iPhone 7 Plus sees perhaps the biggest physical change thanks to its rear-mounted dual cameras. Both cameras feature 12MP sensors; one shoots wide-angle and one shoots telephoto. You get 2x optical zoom, and software zoom up to 10x. The dual cameras also can be used to change the depth of field so that you can get some awesome bokeh in your photos (this will be available later as a software update).
Something that both phones share is a new home button that is no longer a physical switch, but includes haptic feedback (similar in concept to Force Touch) – that’s right the iPhone 7 has its own Taptic Engine. This cuts down on another wear-and-tear item and helps aid in the smartphone’s water resistance. It also sports a thinner profile, which allows Apple to cram more stuff inside the aluminum unibody housing. Both phones are also water and dust resistant, which is something that was introduced (but not touted by Apple) with the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus.
But perhaps the biggest change is the removal of a feature — you know what we’re talking about: the 3.5mm headphone jack. It’s true, Apple has ditched the 3.5mm jack in favor or sending audio through the bottom-mounted Lightning port. And as you might expect, Lightning EarPods are being included with the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. Apple will also include an adapter in the box for those that want to use their “legacy” headphones, but the company would probably prefer that you use Lightning headphones to have the best user experience.
And if wired headphones are too “old school” for you, the company encourages you to go wireless with $159 AirPods headphones. The AirPods can invoke Siri with a double tap and can last 5 hours on a single charge. The carrying case for the AirPods delivers 24 hours worth of power.
There is a new Jet Black, which has an uber-shiny finish that gives a seamless look from the screen glass to the actual body. Jet Black is joined by Black, Silver, Gold and Rose Gold.
Pre-orders for the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus open up Friday, and the smartphone will be available September 16th. It’s priced like the iPhone 7, starts at $649 with 32GB of storage, while the iPhone 7 Plus starts at $769 in the 32GB configuration. Both the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus can also be hard in 128GB and 256GB configurations.
