iPhone 7 Launches: Best New Features, Price and More

Apple's iPhone 7 and AirPods. Image Credit: Reuters

Tech company Apple released the latest generation of the iPhone — the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus — at its annual September event this week.

Apple unveiled an upgraded iPhone at the San Francisco event that, while similar to the iPHone 6s and 6s Plus in appearance, has a few key differences, including a better camera, a pressure-sensitive home button, improved battery life and a faster processor, as well as no headphone jack. It will be sold in a new range of colors and a starting size of 32GB.

The new phone will allow users to readily view localized mobile apps anywhere in the world.

You Can Pre-Order It

Pre-orders for the latest iPhone have opened online with shipping set to start on Friday, September 16. Online pre-orders enables consumers to skip the long retail lines that plagued previous iPhone launches. But in recent years, pre-orders have sold out fast. In 2014, the iPhone 6 sold out within hours of its sale launch and pushed back delivery dates by at least 3-4 weeks. The same may happen with Apple’s latest iPhone launch.

Cost

The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are selling for USD 649 and USD 749, respectively, and offer 32 GB in storage, which is a significant upgrade over the standard 16 GB Apple has been offering for years. Consumers had complained that previous 16 GB phones would quickly run out of storage for their pictures, videos and apps.

New Features

The most important changes on the new phone consist of a new home button, the removal of the headphone jack and an upgraded camera. Purchasers of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus will receive a set of free wired headphones, dubbed EarPods, which connect to the iPhone’s Lightning port.

New wireless bluetooth headphones known as AirPods will be sold separately from the new iPhone and sell for USD 159. The AirPods come built in with infrared sensors to detect when each pod is in each ear as well as motion sensors that enable the headphones to detect your voice via Siri.

The phone’s home button is set to vibrate when touched to give the owner feedback, a feature that already exists on the company’s MacBook laptops.

For the first time, the new iPhone 7 will also sport stereo speakers at the top and bottom of the device.

The new iPhone models are also waterproof — the hardware can tolerate immersion in up to 1 meter of water for half an hour.

Next Year

In 2017, rumors indicate Apple will change the chassis of its iPhone to one made entirely from glass. The phone could also feature an OLED screen, which is more technologically advanced than the LCD screens the company presently uses.