The much awaited Apple smartphones have been unveiled by the tech Giant in San Francisco. iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are now official and come with mixed reactions, thanks to Apple’s strategy to remove the headphone jack and introduce wireless ear pods.
The new series of iPhones are quite different from its predecessors. However, when you expect the series number to increase, you also expect Apple to improve them in a different way, not like other manufacturers who simply bump up the specs and call it a new phone.
The two new iPhones have a lot in common with the previous iPhones, including the design and the shape, but there are subtle changes in the antenna lines at the back and the camera placements. The home button is also not a physical button anymore, instead it is a pressure-sensitive home button.
Specifications of the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus
- 4.7-inch Retina display on the iPhone 7 and 5.5-inch Retina display on the iPhone 7 Plus
- The new quad-core A10 chipset powers both the phones, a notch above the A9 chips in iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, and an M10 motion co-processor
- 12MP camera on the back along with a 7MP face time camera with OIS. iPhone 7 Plus gets dual camera that assist with wide angle and close-up shots. Apple likes to call it ‘telephoto’ lens
- The home button is completely pressure-sensitive now, so you don’t have to press it anymore. It’s like a touch-button in an Android
- Lightning-jack for everything now – charging, music and attachments
- Both the iPhones will be waterproof
- 32GB, 128GB and 256GB variants
- The phones will come in 5 colours – Rose Gold, Gold, Silver, Black and Jet Black
The biggest change for the manufacturer has to be the omission of the headphone jack. The 3.5mm port is officially dead, and Apple has replaced it with the lightening port. So everytime you want to listen to music, you have to plug your headphones into the lightening port.
Thankfully, Apple is going to provide a lightening-to-3.5mm jack converter for all the old-schools and although it is a pain to carry it around every time, it is a good gesture from Apple.
When is it coming to India?
It came as a surprise when India wasn’t in the first two priority lists of countries iPhones will be launching first. So, while other countries get the iPhone starting September 16, India has to wait till October 7 for them.
It is quite strange considering the past few months Apple has talked about India and how important it is strategically for the company. An offshore facility in Hyderabad, opening own retail stores and India being highlighted in the quarterly financial results meeting for having a 50% YoY growth in iPhone sales were probably just not enough for Apple to treat India like other countries.
However, at least Apple isn’t launching the phones 6 months after the global release, something the company used to follow a couple of years back. The 32GB version of iPhone 7 will be priced under Rs. 60,000 with an incremental Rs. 10,000 for the next variant.
The phones are overpriced, underwhelming and a thing to show-off for most people. For example, the OnePlus Three has better specifications and is priced almost half of what the iPhones would be, but it won’t sell as good as an Apple product.
In conclusion, the Apple iPhones remain pretty much the same in terms of value, but offer some new interesting features that are not present in the previous versions. The removal of the headphone jack won’t be a big deal for loyal iPhone fans, but the company could see a decline in sales because of it.
Other Apple Launches and Announcements
During the iPhone launch event – Apple made quite a few announcements which included details on Apple Music and App store – their various initiatives connected to Education, their real-time collaboration suite – iWork and Apple Watch. Here is a concise listing of all the announcement made by Apple during the event. [Image courtesy @AnkitMinocha]
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