Rumor Says Apple Will Introduce New 5-Inch 'iPhone 7s' With Dual Vertical Cameras

[EightyTwenty]

The same thing that stopped them from giving the 2016 SE the body and the panel type of the 6.

Incompetence and laziness? A distinct lack of care about the products they make?
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As a former android guy its funny seeing everyone here complain about "fragmentation" ... I'll ask the same question I asked then... WTF does fragmentation even mean? Apple could come out with 10 different sizes who cares? They all run the same OS and you only have to use one of them.

It shows how disjointed and confused they are. Apple is going in 15 different directions with all of their product lines. It's become a mess these past few years. There's a lack of direction and a loss of clarity of purpose. The culture has gone from "seeking perfection" to "let's throw a bunch of **** at the wall and pray that something sticks". That, and dongles. Lots and lots of dongles.

 

[SeaFox]

Why did they keep the headphone jack on their new laptops then?

What's funny is if they had kept the old audio jack part (combo analog/optical), they would have the excuse that they kept the headphone jack as a "pro audio output". But they decided to save a couple cents and use a plain stereo mini-jack.

 

[manu chao]

Personally, I really like the current design. However I would like to see less bezel. What are you looking for in a "new design"?

Something that comes with a downside so that lincolntran can accuse them to have changed the design for the sake of a design change even if that caused some downside. Ok, maybe lincolntran won't be accusing them of it but enough other people will.
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It shows how disjointed and confused they are. Apple is going in 15 different directions with all of their product lines. It's become a mess these past few years. There's a lack of direction and a loss of clarity of purpose.

Yeah, what were they thinking when they introduced a second size. And who on Earth approved that distraction called iPhone SE, there is surely nobody who wants a 4" phone anymore.

 

[MICHAELSD]

I'm very confused with the rumoured lineup. I hope it isn't this messy - we will see in September.

If every rumored model comes to fruition there'll be three iPhone 7s models, two iPhone 8, and an iPhone Pro. lol It'll be three new phones max.

 

[mr.bee]

DON'T let the door hit you on the way out...

I won't! Thank you! People are so nice here!

 

[lincolntran]

Don't be so vague - it makes it sound like you want change for the sake of change.

Personally, I really like the current design. However I would like to see less bezel. What are you looking for in a "new design"?

Don't get me wrong, the current design is still better than all other smartphones out there.

I want the next phone to change quite a bit:
- get rid of the physical home button (don't tell the crowd who whined about the old headphone jack, they'll lose their minds)
- all glass phone
- useful curved screen, don't do curved screen if it's just a useless curved screen like Samsung
- different look as in no more round-ish looking from the iPhone 6 design
- minimum bazel to make room for bigger and screen without increase form factor
- relocate those buttons bc the power buttons is in the way of the volume buttons.
- no more camera bump!

 

[EightyTwenty]

Don't get me wrong, the current design is still better than all other smartphones out there.

I don't think any iPhone can touch the Galaxy S7 Edge.

 

[rGiskard]

Yeah, because putting in an even bigger camera bump would have gone over ever better with the internet echo chamber.

And putting in two cameras into the Plus model surely must do wonders for their margins compared Samsung and Google which spared no expense by putting in one (back) camera.

If you continue to blame everything you don't like on the lowest motives you can think of, you are just feeding your own paranoia and bitterness. Have fun with that.

Do you have an alternative explanation for why Apple can't offer a superior iPhone camera? Or only whining and insults?

 

[aressaress]

Really hope they do this - a 5.0 to 5.2 inch model is the exact size I want. My current 4.7 inch is smaller than I'd like, and the 5.5-inch Plus is too big for my pockets when seated.

 

[aliensporebomb]

Have you considered that some of these rumors are specifically so they can be tracked back to the leaker? Some of the rumors are silly.

 

[dilbert99]

Have you ever look at the inside of a galaxy? The inside of an iPhone is beautiful and well designed, it looks like under the hood of a brand new BMW. The galaxy phones are awkward on the inside and look like they're slapped together last minute. This is something very difficult to explain to someone who doesn't service these products and doesn't see their insides, but Apple has a certain unmatched elegance. Sad part is out of the android phones Samsung has the best interior design, I worked on a Sony Xperia this past week, NEVER AGAIN. Sony needs to never make another phone again. Absolute train wreck.

And yes, in 2017 people still get viruses. They also don't start backing up their data until after their hard drive crashes once and they lose everything. After that happens they start backing it up regularly.

How about the inside of a MacBook Pro?

The ram is soldered in, so too is the ssd, the wifi card a you guessed it, soldered in. But wait, surely they cannot solder in the battery? No heck they super glue that f****r in.

But who cares about what the inside looks like, people use devices, they don't open them to admire them.

What people care about is how repairable an item is. So tell me how repairable is the MacBook Pro line, taking into account cost which is something I care about.
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Yeah. Still here on MacRumors... You can't help yourself.

Am I not allowed to be interested in Apple news?

Just because I switched from the mbp doesn't mean I don't own a boatload of other Apple products.

 

[Kabeyun]

This can't be true. Apple is in freefall. Everyone here says so. Must be fake news or invalid stats.

I also find the phablet growth disheartening, as I prefer a phone I can actually use one-handed. Apple is more of a trend follower here than a trend setter. I feel the same way about the slow death of smaller smartphones as I do about the slow death of manual transmissions.

 

[RiddlaBronc]

Iphone mini, iphone 7s, iphone 7 medium, the iphone 7s plus, iphone 7s pro, iphone 7s pro plus, iphone 7s plus^3, iphone 7s plus ^3 with 4k screen.

Now thats a line up.

/sarcasm

 

[Stangy123]

Incompetence and laziness? A distinct lack of care about the products they make?
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It shows how disjointed and confused they are. Apple is going in 15 different directions with all of their product lines. It's become a mess these past few years. There's a lack of direction and a loss of clarity of purpose. The culture has gone from "seeking perfection" to "let's throw a bunch of **** at the wall and pray that something sticks". That, and dongles. Lots and lots of dongles.

With other products I might agree. But there are so many different preferences for a phone and the market is so large. They'd be fools to create just one size. Besides the design is the same no matter the size, I think they are doing the right thing here.

 

[0lf]

There are only 2 flagships as of now
S7 Edge
S7.

3 if you consider the Note 7 but unlike Apple,Samsung did not segregate features between phones.The Note 7 is a S7 Edge with a Spen.The S7 Edge is a S7 with a curved screen

Yeah, lets hide 3/4 of Samsung smartphone rang so you can pretend Samsung has a simpler offering...

The discussion is based on an assumption that its true.Lets be real though.This is gonna happen.OLEDs are in short supply by Samsung so Apple needs more than just a 7s to get by

Note the name of the site.Its Macrumors.We discuss rumors here

So, if we treat these rumors as facts, in 2017 Apple will have only 1 flagship. How could this be simpler ?

 

[Glideslope]

So......the 7s '5 inch' will no doubt shift to the current 7+ pricing and i'll have to shell out an extra couple hundred for the 5.5 inch to stick with my current size. Apple ***** me lately. It would be nice to see the 5 inch pricing sit in between the current 4.7 and 5.5 pricing but i can't imagine for the life of me it will. Screw you apple.

......... and to think there are still people who think it's about a product that is about their needs.

 

[canadianreader]

Maybe this time again they'll keep the design and remove the antenna lines completely and they'll call it new design.

 

[kevinkyoo]

The same thing that stopped them from giving the 2016 SE the body and the panel type of the 6.
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Apple isn't manufacturing or selling anything but the SE, 6s, 6s+, 7 and 7+. Essentially three sizes and two generations for the two larger sizes. For a while Apple sold three generations but that was when they only had one size (and thus price) to sell and during the transition when they sold two generations of 4" phones plus one generation of 4.7" and 5.5" each.

You don't think having 5 smart phones out concurrently is fragmentation? I have a cousin who was interested in an iPhone, but didn't really know what he wanted out of one. We discussed this for a little bit, and his interests shifted to and from each of these phones that I listed.

It went something like this:

I want a headphone jack: SE, 6s, 6s plus
I want good battery: 6s and 7 plus
I want a good display (resolution): 6s and 7 plus
I want an affordable model: SE, 6s, 6s plus
I want the best phone that is the fastest: 7 and 7 plus
I want a phone that fits well in one hand: SE, 6s, 7

I can go on and on. Now if you add the 7s, 7s plus, and 7s X (Whatever that will be called) on top of all of this (Even if you take out the 6s and 6s plus), that is ludicrous.

 

[kiranmk2]

Seems there are a couple of explanations:

• Apple will launch an iPhone 7s which will be an updated iPhone 7 alongside an an iPhone anniversary edition (with a catchier name) which features curved OLED screen (hence 5.0" and 5.8" rumours suggesting the extra 0.3" is fitted around the sides as the curve of the screen at the edges)
• As mentioned in the recent article, Apple are simply producing a wider range of prototype ideas than they have in previous years - hence the different rumours. Remember the rumours about the iPhone 7 Pro alongside the iPhone 7 Plus?

I think a lot depends on the anticipated OLED supply. If it is constrained, expect an expensive OLED model (possible both 5" and 5.8") alongside more conventional models. If supply is better, perhaps there will be no LCD model?

 

[manu chao]

Do you have an alternative explanation for why Apple can't offer a superior iPhone camera? Or only whining and insults?

Isn't it plainly obvious to anybody who doesn't look for malicious motivations at every corner?

It's device thickness (and the desire to not have a camera bump) that limits what camera module you can put in. And given the ********* that even the tiniest of camera bumps sets off, claiming that penny-pinching was the sole reason that prevented a bigger camera module and a bigger camera bump is really living on a different planet.

And note Google Pixel has an f/2 aperture whereas the iPhone 7 has a f/1.8 aperture, that already reduces the low-light advantage of the larger Pixel camera by one third. If we'd normalise things at the iPhone's sensor size (1/3") the iPhone 7 starts with f/1.8, the Pixel as an equiv. f-stop of f/1.5 and the Samsung Galaxy S7 of f/1.4. However, the iPhone 7 and Galaxy S7 have optical image stabilisation, which add probably in the order of three f-stops in better low light performance for static subjects, making both clearly better than the Pixel.

In bright light, what counts is sensor size times saturation capacity (which can be approximated as the inverse of the base ISO value in the absence of better data). Here, it appears the iPhone 7 pulls clearly ahead with a base ISO of only 20 while the Galaxy S7 starts at 50 which more than negates the latter's sensor size advantage.

 

[I7guy]

You don't think having 5 smart phones out concurrently is fragmentation? I have a cousin who was interested in an iPhone, but didn't really know what he wanted out of one. We discussed this for a little bit, and his interests shifted to and from each of these phones that I listed.

It went something like this:

I want a headphone jack: SE, 6s, 6s plus
I want good battery: 6s and 7 plus
I want a good display (resolution): 6s and 7 plus
I want an affordable model: SE, 6s, 6s plus
I want the best phone that is the fastest: 7 and 7 plus
I want a phone that fits well in one hand: SE, 6s, 7

I can go on and on. Now if you add the 7s, 7s plus, and 7s X (Whatever that will be called) on top of all of this (Even if you take out the 6s and 6s plus), that is ludicrous.

Is the requirement for the headphone jack or to use a headphone? If the requirement is to have a headphone jack vs use a headphone and it's the priority, the other options dwindle down rapidly. I'm not sure it's apple that made this complicated.

 

[Michael Scrip]

The smartwatch is never going to be hugely successful, and esp not with Apples 'me too' attempt. My favorite 'smartwatch', the Microsoft band 2 (since I run and bodybuild nearly every day), isn't getting a band 3.

At the end of the day, you can cite convenience and all the other excuses, but no one wants to look at a watch when a far better product sits in their pocket.

The Apple Watch will become like the Mac Mini, with a small dedicatedd fan base hoping for an update for years to come. Just watch

True... the smartwatch is not a product that everyone needs. But of all the smartwatch makers... Apple seems to be the leader.

Even with Apple's 71% year-over-year drop to only 1.1 million units last quarter... it looks like they still did better than everyone else in the smartwatch market in Q3 2016:

Apple ...... 1,100,000
Garmin ...... 600,000
Samsung .... 400,000
Lenovo ....... 100,000
Pebble ........ 100,000

And these numbers came from IDC... the same analyst in the article you quoted earlier.

These are smartwatch numbers... not the broader "wearables" market that includes cheap fitness trackers.

I don't think Apple will cancel their smartwatch efforts like everyone else seems to be doing lately.

 

[Tech198]

Maybe Apple is noticing all photos taken come up in their up-right position, as the reason to change horizontal to vertical cameras?

Not a bad thing, but is different only because all other Apple phone are vertical....

Give it 5 years and we'll all be used to it

 

[lincolntran]

I don't think any iPhone can touch the Galaxy S7 Edge.

I saw it in real life and I think it's ugly, but that's just me.

 

[kevinkyoo]

Is the requirement for the headphone jack or to use a headphone? If the requirement is to have a headphone jack vs use a headphone and it's the priority, the other options dwindle down rapidly. I'm not sure it's apple that made this complicated.

It's not a priority, more than a factor that weighs in on someone's overall purchase. If two or three of the other categories are checked, but the range of phones don't have a headphone jack, then that person may consider sacrificing that one quality for the others.