Apple iPhone 7 rumor review: specs, features, release date, and everything we know so far

In 2016, Apple will be treating us to the iPhone 7, an exciting upcoming chapter in its smartphone book. Rumors are already shaping up a rather clear picture of what the next iOS flagship will end up being. At this point, we are not expecting an exterior redesign - reportedly, this is reserved for 2017, when the Apple iPhone 8 will reportedly get unveiled (yep, it might not be an "s" year). Yet, we are hopeful some intriguing new features will be making the cut this year! 

Without further ado, let's summarize all we know so far about next year's iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, which might also be called the iPhone 7 Pro. We are now somewhat convinced that the latter might arrive with an intriguing dual lens camera, dubbed the iPhone 7 Pro, which will reportedly amp up its photography game. How, exactly? Read on to find out! 

TL;DR

We hereby warn you - we have an ample amount of rumors below. In a nutshell, here are the most believable and logical rumors about the iPhone 7:

Reportedly, the tech giant has recently acquired a "secret" display factory in Taiwan, which will allegedly focus on developing a micro-LED display in the future. However, it's currently focusing on helping Apple steer away from its third-party display suppliers and develop its own in-house solutions; in particular, we heard that the secret Taiwanese factory is currently working on a brighter, thinner, and more energy-efficient LCD display. 

As far as display sizes and resolutions are concerned, we are yet to be tipped with info about the upcoming iPhone crop. There are two options though: Apple will either increase the resolution... or not. Still, we are a bit more inclined to believe that the iPhone 7 will flaunt a 4.7-inch display with a resolution of 750 by 1334 pixels and command a pixel density of 326ppi. Indeed, these are the very same measurements that can be found in the specs sheets of the iPhone 6 & 6s, but we are not ruling out the idea that Apple might shake things up in this regard. Without any evidence, we can only speculate though.

There's an interesting rumor flying around, though. It seems that Apple was poised to develop its own set of display drivers for the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus order to boost image sharpness and battery life, but fell behind schedule and had to place orders for Synaptics' display controllers. In case you don't know, Synaptics is Apple's supplier of touch and display drivers. This will further make Apple more independent and centralized when it comes to the manufacturing process.

3D Touch is here to stay, and will most likely score new functionalities along the way. As we mentioned earlier, Apple is reportedly contemplating the idea of bringing a multi-3D Touch functionality on board the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. This feature will allow users to apply pressure on several points on the display. 

Hopefully, this would be used for a wider range of UI interactions, and not just for your usual shoot-'em-up game. We know nothing else about 3D Touch on the next crop of iPhones, but we suppose that we won't hear anything until the device is official, as we expect the majority of changes to be in the interface and the software functionality of the pressure-sensing feature.

Battery info is something we learn only after a thorough teardown after select people get the first batches of iPhones, but sometimes, we get some info beforehand.

Тhere's that leak that allegedly shows us an iPhone 7 battery, which is rated a 7.04 Whr. As a comparison, the iPhone 6s' battery is rated at 6.61 Whr, or 6.5% lower than the rumored unit of the iPhone 7. 

Sadly, without info on the battery's voltage, it's impossible to determine its capacity in milliampere-hours (mAh). This isn't revealing much about the iPhone 7 Plus and Pro battery capacity, but we still think it's important to at least acknowledge the leak.

One of the possible new camera-specific features of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus is a bit far-fetched, but not entirely implausible. Yes, we heard that Apple might employ a dual camera setup on its upcoming iPhone 7 Plus/Pro. This multi-lens system will reportedly deliver DSLR quality and lossless optical zoom for the iPhone 7 Pro. It is allegedly developed by LinX, an imaging company that became part of the Apple family last year.

The camera modules used might be supplied by Sony and LG Innotek, though Ming-Chi Kuo bets that two Sony sensors will be used, both 12MP ones. One of these will reportedly have a larger aperture than the other and will allow 2x-3x optical zoom. A patent for a "folded telephoto camera lens system" filed last year revealed an L-shaped camera consisting of a polyhedron glass piece that seemingly works the same way. We will wait and we will see.

The iPhone 7 Plus, on the other hand, is not getting such a camera and will most likely remain unchanged from what we have on the iPhone 6s Plus. This means a 12MP camera with 1.22µ pixels, dual true-tone LED flash, a 5-element lens with an aperture of f/2.2, autofocus with Focus Pixels, a hybrid IR filter, BSI, and a sapphire crystal lens cover. We suppose that most of these raw camera specs could be shared with the iPhone 7 Pro, though the package will be double.

This makes us think that Apple most likely won't bother to increase its megapixel count in 2016. However, we are certain that Cupertino will throw some nice improvements or even new functionalities in its next iPhones in order to step up their photography game. We can only imagine what these might be, and needless to say, impatient to check them out.

Finally, rumors claim that the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus will be capable of recording 4K video at 60fps, which will make them the first devices to be capable of this. Needless to say, 4K video is quite storage-hungry, which gives a lot of credibility to the rumor that the devices will arrive with 32GB of base storage, but will also feature 128 and 256GB variants.

As we already told you, despite what the rumor mill is trying to persuade us, we expect the new batch of iPhones to arrive in September 2016, probably in the first two weeks of the month. That's the usual time window in which Apple hosts an iPhone-centric event and shows us its new gadgets. This has been Cupertino practice for the last couple of years, so we see zero reasons for Apple to break this tradition in 2016.

This track record is not getting nixed - Apple will hold an event on September 7, 2016, and it will be centered around the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus.

As far as market release goes, Evan Blass is confident the phones will launch on September 16.

That aside, it's too early to chime in on the possible retail prices of Apple's 2016 produce of phones. Still, we suppose that Cupertino will not change the established pricing by much, which means that the iPhone 7 might cost the same as the iPhone 6s and 6 at launch. The same applies to the iPhone 7 Plus, which will most likely be priced similar to the Right below you will find the pricing of the previous crop of iPhones, which might turn out to be quite similar to the one of the upcoming 7 Plus.