I’ve never been a loyalist to any one platform, as I pretty much like certain aspects about each one. I have noticed that I tend to gravitate towards iOS and Android equally, likely due to how polished they are in comparison, especially in regards to their respective app stores. Lately I’ve been on an iOS kick, mainly because I’ve needed the simplicity of the platform with my schedule and life being as busy as it is right now. It fits my lifestyle at this point very well.
Around the release of the iPhone 6s, I wrote an article explaining why I stuck with the iPhone 6 and opted not to upgrade to the newest model. Although I think that 3D Touch is an innovative tool and will grow to become a standard in the industry, the rest of the 6s’s offerings, to me, did not justify an upgrade. However, for many people this was to be expected; the “s” variant of iPhones hardly ever differ so greatly from one phone to the next that it completely outdates the previous year’s model.
Although I am currently weighing my options between the BlackBerry Priv and the LG Nexus 5X, I’m also considering waiting for next year’s iPhone 7. For whatever reason I have high hopes for the next gen model, although my reasons are baseless. I just have a generally good feeling about the fact that it will be the iPhone 7, with 7 being widely regarded as a "lucky" number in many cultures, and then you have the anticipated release of iOS 10, which is a nice, rounded number; it's a perfect time to release a lot of major, awesome changes. Numbers mean very little, but if Apple plays its cards right, this could end up being one of the most memorable (hopefully in a good way) iPhone devices.
What exactly would make the iPhone 7 amazing? Honestly, I’m just hoping for a few key upgrades that I’ve wanted to see come to the iPhone for quite some time now. With that in mind, let’s get to it.
Apple has basically committed a tech crime by continuing to use the 16GB base model for as long as it has. At the same time, the company is able to get away with it simply because it’s Apple, and their phones still sells like hotcakes. 16GB of storage (which, in reality, is 12GB of storage for the user) runs out so fast these days, and not all of us want to depend on the cloud all the time to help offset that small amount of storage.
Changing the base amount to 32GB of internal storage would be nice, but bumping it up to 64GB would, in my opinion, score major points with the consumer if Apple felt so inclined. But really, anything is better than 16GB. It’s time to give that up, my friend.
Although many see the feature as useless, I see wireless charging as a necessity. Charging ports aren’t foolproof, and if you ever find yourself in a pickle when it comes to being able to charge a phone then it’s nice to have a back-up method. Alternatively, I think wireless charging is a good and (mostly) hassle-free method of charging one’s phone. Here’s to hoping that Apple implements wireless charging in the iPhone 7.
It’s hard to deny the benefits of a bigger screen on our phones, but most of the time that bigger screen also equals a bigger phone. I’m an avid advocate of trying to keep some flagship phones small for those of us who still value one-handed use, and the iPhone 6’s 4.7-inch display is one of the last of its kind. Still, there’s a lot of unused space on the front of this device. Perhaps Apple could give up some of that bezel to increase the size of the screen without increasing the height and width of the device.
A smartphone that advertises being “thinner and lighter than ever before” is no longer anything awe-worthy, and Apple is a company that notoriously uses this angle just about every year. We see what is sacrificed when thinner and lighter becomes a manufacturer’s main focus, and that cost is typically battery life. The iPhone’s battery life isn’t horrendous, but it’s not awesome either. I’m pretty sure the way to a consumer’s heart is through good battery life. Hopefully Apple skips the whole “thinner and lighter” business and puts more focus into battery life this time around.
I wrote an entire article blathering on about how much I wanted to see a real back button in a convenient place on the iPhone. There’s no better time to introduce such a button than in the iPhone 7. Or maybe just a better version of the Back-To-App button. Really, any type of improvement to this would be great.
This is definitely a frivolous hope, but I think adding new colors to the iPhone would add a certain pizzazz to the lineup. The iPhone has a lot of neutral colors available like silver, gold, space gray, and rose gold, but I think some bolder color choices would be awesome to have. I think it worked out fairly well for the iPhone 5c, and it definitely panned out well for the iMac G3 back in the day. I, for one, would love a royal blue iPhone.
I really hope the iPhone 7 is something awesome. I don’t care so much about gimmicky features as much as I do about hitting all of the weak points that the iPhone has. And while I’m aware that many Androids have all of these features, I’m really just hoping to see them implemented in the iPhone, because I do prefer to use iOS sometimes over Android.
Readers, what are your hopes for the iPhone 7? Let us know in the comments below!
