As 2016 kicked off, the Rumor Mill saw fit to start gracing us with even more reports on Apple’s next flagship smartphones, what are expected to be called the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. Some of the rumors are recycled stories from past devices, like added water resistance, and better batteries, but some of them are wholly unique, and certainly eye catching.
The iPhone 7 is a device that’s more than likely going to follow Apple’s design decisions from the past, and be a device that looks different, and offers more features/better specifications than the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s. Like every non-“S” release from Apple, this is the phone that’s going to see the biggest evolution in its design aesthetic.
That’s to be expected. And so are the new features, which Apple has to include to keep people interested in a new phone. Especially those that just upgraded in 2015.
While water resistance is certainly one rumor that many hope is accurate, and I’m interested to see what that looks like on an Apple device (port flaps!), I’m not positive this is one element that will make it to the final product. At least, not this year. (I wouldn’t mind being pleasantly surprised, though, Apple.)
The one rumor that I want to be true is a new camera system for Apple’s upcoming flagships. The idea of a dual-camera system isn’t new by any means, and I’m sure companies like HTC, which have utilized the idea in the real world already, will have a field day on social media if Apple does indeed announce something like that, but this is Apple here. There’s a strong possibility that, if launched, it could be really cool to use out in the real world.
There’s just one catch: It might just be available in the larger iPhone 7 Plus.
I feel like I’ve gone back in time, because I remember, back when the iPhone 6 was first a rumor, I was asking Apple to include optical image stabilization in both of their new models. The rumor back then placed OIS just in the iPhone 6 Plus, and I didn’t want to believe that Apple would do something like that. And yet, they did, and that trend continued, as even the iPhone 6s still doesn’t offer OIS.
I don’t think Apple is going to leave that feature out of the iPhone 7, though. But that doesn’t mean they still won’t try to give the iPhone 7 Plus a leg up on its smaller sibling, though, by throwing in a dual-camera system for the larger device, while the iPhone 7 is forced to keep its single setup.
The iPhone 7 will probably have a display that measures in at 4.7 inches. That’s not that big of a difference from the HTC One M8’s 5-inch display, and that Android device has the Duo Camera system. I don’t believe Apple can’t figure out how to put its own dual-camera system in the iPhone 7.
I do believe they want the iPhone 7 Plus to really stand out, even beyond its bigger frame and display, and adding a feature like that would certainly do the trick. And I’m left staring at these rumors, knowing that I’m going to miss out on a really cool feature just because I know I’m not going to use the iPhone 7 Plus, thanks to its larger size.
I want the dual-camera system rumor to be true. I do not want the rumor that it’s only going to be in the iPhone 7 Plus to be accurate, though. I’m hoping Apple will share the feature love to both of its devices this year.