It’s time to mark your calendars, folks. According to reputable leaker Evan Blass, Apple’s highly anticipated iPhone 7 is set to hit store shelves on Friday, September 16th.
Word of the not-yet-official release date originally came via a tweet from Blass indicating that Apple was going to release the device during the week of September 12. In turn, there was some initial confusion as to whether or not the week of September 12 referred to the product’s unveiling or the actual launch event.
In a report by BGR, Blass published a follow-up tweet on Saturday in order to address any confusion.
Just to clarify, this refers to the retail release, not the launch event. To be even more specific, it should happen on Friday, Sept. 16th.
— Evan Blass (@evleaks) July 23, 2016
Given Apple’s previous iPhone release history, not to mention Blass’ impressive track record regarding these types of rumors, it’s a safe bet that crowds will be lining up outside of Apple retail stores this coming September 16. As a quick refresher, recall that Apple released the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6 on September 25 and September 9, respectively.
With that release date in-hand, we can also deduce that the actual iPhone 7 unveiling will likely be about 10-14 days earlier. Looking at the calendar, it’s not unreasonable to presume that Tim Cook and co. will get on stage either on September 6 or 7 and introduce Apple’s next-gen smartphone to the world.
Now as for what type of features the iPhone 7 will bring to the table, it’s believed that Apple is saving its most jaw-dropping new features for the iPhone 7s (which may be called the iPhone 8). That notwithstanding, the iPhone 7 might very well be more interesting than many people are giving it credit for, in large part due to what may be a huge leap forward in camera technology.
It’s long been assumed that the iPhone 7 Plus will receive an advanced dual camera system, but recent product leaks indicate that the camera module on the 4.7-inch iPhone 7 is significantly larger and protrudes to a greater degree than the module found on the iPhone 6s. And given how impressive the iPhone 6s camera is, it stands to reason that the camera on the iPhone 7 will be an absolute game-changer.
As a quick point of interest, the following video purports to show what a leaked iPhone 7 looks like next to an iPhone 6s.
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What’s more, rumors also indicate that Apple with the iPhone 7 will finally abandon the 16GB entry-level model. Instead, it’s believed that the storage tiers for the iPhone 7 will be 32GB, 64GB and 128GB. While there have been some rumblings of a 256GB model being made available, those rumors have been sketchy at best.
And of course, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that the iPhone 7 — according to a number of credible reports — will not ship with a traditional 3.5mm headphone jack, a controversial design decision to say the least. Consequently, Apple will likely ease us into that transition by providing a lightning to 3.5mm dongle (at no extra cost) inside every iPhone 7 box.