Apple announces the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus with water resistance, dual cameras and no headphone jack

Apple has officially announced the iPhone 7 and it features similar design the iPhone 6S with an aluminium unibody construction. The biggest change here is that the iPhone 7 is water resistance and new colors.

The iPhone 7 will come with a 4.7-inch (720p) display while the iPhone 7 will have a larger 5.5-inch display (1080p). The new displays are 25% brighter and offer a wider color gamut with better color reproduction. You also get 3D Touch which was introduced with the iPhone 6S.

The antenna bands have been tweaked and they are more towards the periphery of the phone now. The new phones will also be available in a shiny jet black color which will be replacing the space gray variant. There is a darker new matte black color as well. You will still get the gold, rose gold and silver color options. The Jet Black option will only be available in 128GB and 256GB storage configurations. Apple has also redesigned the home button for the iPhone 7, it now supports Force Touch similar to the trackpads in the new MacBooks. The Taptic Engine from the Apple Watch has also been added here for different levels of vibration feedback.

The iPhone 7 has a 12MP camera with six element lens with f/1.8 aperture lens, Optical Image Stabilization and quad-LED true-tone flash. There is also a flicker sensor which can adjust the flash based on frequency of surrounding light. Live Photos also get video stabilization and you can also capture RAW DNG images with the default camera app.

Apple has also improved the front facing camera, you now get a 7MP FaceTime HD camera and has automatic image stabilization.

The bigger iPhone 7 Plus gets two 12MP rear cameras. But you now have a 56mm telephoto lens on the second 12MP camera which allows for 2X optical zoom. You have upto 10X digital zoom but at that point your would be cropping the image. Using the second camera the iPhoone 7 creates a depth map which allows for great bokeh effect for your portraits which can be viewed in real time, in essence this is simulating a shallow depth of field similar to what high-end DSLR's offer. This would be added with a software update later this year. 

The iPhone 7 gets stereo speakers, one at the top and the other at the bottom. Apple says that they are 50% louder and yes, there's no 3.5mm headphone jack here, instead audio is routed through the lightning connector. Apple will be bundling the new lightning earpods as well as a 3.5mm headphone adapter for legacy headsets.

The new iPhones are powered by the Apple A10 Fusion processor which is now a quad-core processor, with two powerful cores for high performance tasks and two lower powered power efficient cores. Graphics performance has also been improved and you now get smooth 60FPS gaming on your iPhone 7. You have iOS 10 running on both which adds lift to wake, and a lot of improvements to iMessage. Along with that you also get better battery life due to both hardware and software optimizations. Apple says that the iPhone 7 will last 2 hours longer than the iPhone 6S while the iPhone 7S Plus will get 1 hour more than the 6S Plus.

iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus: Pricing and Availability

Apple has doubled the storage, and you now get 32GB, 128GB and 256GB Storage options. The iPhone 7 starts at $649 for the 32GB storage variant while the iPhone 7 Plus starts at $769. Both will be available starting September 16th but will be going on pre-order starting September 9th in the following regions:

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, UAE, the UK, US Virgin Islands and the US.

Later starting September 23rd, the new iPhone 7 will be available in:

Andorra, Bahrain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Greenland, Guernsey, Hungary, Iceland, Isle of Man, Jersey, Kosovo, Kuwait, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Maldives, Malta, Monaco, Poland, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia and Slovenia.

iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus will be coming to India on October 7th starting at Rs. 60000.

More Coverage from the Apple Event

• No more 16GB iPad and Apple cuts iPad Pro prices as well
• T-Mobile is offering the 32GB iPhone 7 for free with Trade-in
• Stoked about the Jet Black iPhone 7? Apple says it scratches easily
• The new iPhone 7 is 120 times faster than the first iPhone
• Apple Watch Series 2 landing in India on October 7th for Rs. 32900
• Apple iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus coming to India on October 7th
• The new iPhone 7 doesn't have a headphone jack
• Apple Watch Series 2 announced, now comes with GPS and is water resistant
• Pokémon Go is coming to the Apple Watch