What do we know, or think we know about the iPhone 7? We're just a few days away from 2016 and as we head into the year the iPhone 7 is expected to land, the rumour mill is already rife with some fairly solid expectations for Apple's next smartphone, as well as some more far-fetched leaks and rumours.
Personally, there are a number of features I want to see in the iPhone 7 and the exclusion of some would be laughable too given that many features have been available on the latest Android handsets for a while. I doubt the iPhone 7 will have the highest resolution camera or screen - areas that Samsung or HTC owners will no doubt feel quite smug as usual, but the stage is set for much more significant gains than we've seen recently.
1.Wireless charging
Possibly the biggest stand-out feature that's missing from the iPhone currently is wireless charging. I've actually got this on my iPhone 6 courtesy of xLife's battery charging case and there are other simpler cases that offer it too. I can't overstate how useful it is. Instead of messing around with cables, especially official Apple Lightning cables that seem to last just a couple of months before breaking, all you do is set your iPhone down on a wireless charging pad - that's it.
I find I charge my iPhone more regularly, especially as I have a Qi Wireless charging pad at my desk, plus you're able to use wireless charging points in stores such as Starbucks while IKEA has introduced a range of furniture with built-in wireless charging points too - check out its video below
As well as potentially more space available in the iPhone 7 with Apple's rumoured move to be ditching the 3.5mm headphone jack, another reason to expect wireless charging with the iPhone 7 is that back in July, Qualcomm announced its WiPower charging technology, which allows devices with metal covers to take advantage of wireless charging.
That said, there have also been reports that Apple may move away from a metal case for the iPhone 7, at least not using the 7000-series aluminium that resulted in 'Bendgate' with the iPhone 6 Plus. Apple already uses wireless charging with the Apple Watch, though, so I fully expect it to be introduced with the iPhone 7 too. In fact, it could even be the ONLY way to charge it if you see rumour number 2.
2. No 3.5mm headphone jack
This could well make or break the iPhone 7. Or perhaps both - here's why. Apple is quite possibly looking to ditch the standard headphone jack in favour of using headphones that instead hook up to the device's Lightning connector. There are some obvious pitfalls here for potential owners, such as headphones becoming more expensive (you can likely kiss goodbye to using anything less than $40), that is, if you prefer to use third party in-ear models and not the usually terrible stock apple ones that leak sound just as well as the Internet leaks iPhone rumours.
It could also mean that charging your device and using headphones at the same time could work very differently to usual. There are several possibilities here. Firstly, and this could well be a possibility - Apple includes a magnetic wireless charging cable instead of or as well as your usual Lightning cable. This would allow you to listen and charge at the same time, although you'd still be able to use the Lightning port to sync with your PC or Mac.
There could be a dual-purpose cable too - one that allows you to charge and use headphones at the same time, plus there could also be an adaptor that converts the Lightning port to a 3.5mm jack too. The latter would allow you to use your favourite headphones as well as all manner of other devices that take advantage of the iPhone's headphone jack, although this would be a bit of a pain to use.
So what, then are the advantages of losing the headphone jack? As I already mentioned above, there's the fact it could make waterproofing the device easier. However, it would also free-up some space inside for the Qi wireless charging circuitry or a bigger battery.
3. Waterproof case
The iPhone 5 was susceptible to water ingress around the home button - one reason why that component was one of the most sought after for replacement parts for that device. As well as making its next iPhone shower proof, there are plenty of reports that the company said to be making the case for the iPhone 7 has been working on making it fully waterproof too.
Ditching the headphone jack might make this easier to achieve too, as there would be fewer openings to contend with, plus there are rumours that Apple could be getting shot of the antenna bands around the device's edges too - again potentially making it easier to achieve fully water-proof status as well as reducing costs especially if it ends up using a new material for the case itself (aluminium is pretty expensive) - you can also see more info on this in Gordon Kelly's recent post, where he looks at the fact that the current models are already nearly waterproof.
Do we need a waterproof iPhone? Personally, I'd much rather have Qi Wireless charging, but at the very least it could eliminate the sweaty palms I get any time my iPhone comes to within four feet of a bath or swimming pool. The better question, though, is can I see Tim Cook revelling below big screens showing snazzy videos in tropical locations of people shooting video underwater at the iPhone 7 launch? Absolutely.
4. A physical Home Button could be vanishing
This would be the biggest change to the iPhone ever, but it's far from impossible. Some rumoured design changes point at a larger screen area and indeed no Home Button. The latter might sound like a terrible move, but there are two ways it could be implemented and quite a few reasons why Apple might be looking into it.
3D Touch was introduced with the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus and provides a multitude of new ways to interact with your iPhone. So much so that it could allow the removal of the Home Button as the means for enabling Reachability or switching between apps. Then of course you need another way to use Touch ID, but this could potentially work anywhere on the screen or the sensor could even be moved on the side of the case, which might actually make it easier to use in some situations too.
So what would be the benefits of removing the Home Button? Namely space - both inside and outside the iPhone. It could couple this with moving the Lightning port to gain a huge area inside the device for a considerably larger battery while on the outside there would be scope for a larger screen area, possibly even a bezel-less design and an even slimmer chassis.
5. The usual upgrades: Camera, screen resolution and specification
In some ways, the usual specification bumps we see with most iPhone launches are the least interesting ones this time around. We'll undoubtedly see a faster chip - possibly a hexa-core A10 CPU, a beefed-up camera possibly with image stabilisation and I fully expect a higher resolution screen for both models - assuming we have a standard and XL/Plus pairing again.
Rumours ahead of the iPhone 6S launch pointed at a bump up from a paltry 1,334 x 750 pixels with the iPhone 6 to a much more substantial 2,000 x 1,125 pixels for the current iPhone 6S. Sadly this didn't come to pass, but as well as a possible move to OLED screens as it has used with the Apple Watch, I'd be surprised if we don't see any kind of resolution bump with the iPhone 7. Apple's devices already lag behind the competition here and delaying such a move till 2017 could be costly.
I'll be keeping an eye on the latest rumours for Apple's new devices that we expect to see in 2016 so as well as letting me know what your most hoped-for features are in the comments, be sure to follow me on Twitter or Facebook.
