Getting excited to replace your scuffed up, increasingly battery-challenged iPhone 5 or 6 this fall? Well don't get too excited for the iPhone 7 to be a radical departure, because the Wall Street Journal is back on the iPhone rumor train and reiterates the rumor that dates back to last December that Apple is doing away with the headphone jack found (on later models) in the base of the phone in order to make the phone just a wee bit thinner. And it sounds like more than rumor at this point.
Citing unnamed sources "familiar with the matter," the paper notes that the ditching of the headphone jack will likely be the most significant change to the phone, which is slated to be unveiled at the company's traditional post-Labor Day unveiling, with more substantial developments reserved for a fall 2017 release possibly maybe called the 7S, if that naming pattern holds.
Sources told the Journal that instead of the familiar jack, users would connect headphones to the iPhone 7 with the Lightning connector port (where the plug goes). This, of course, means that your super fancy noise-canceling headphones will be incompatible with the new iPhone in their current form — although some kind of adapter will likely come out when the phone does, costing you more money.
In addition to making the phone one millimeter thinner, ditching the jack is expected to make the phone slightly more water resistant.
So far, there's no confirmation of another iPhone 7 rumor that it will come with a dual-camera system that allows for even higher resolution photos, combining the images from both cameras into one. CNet had that via a Taiwanese leaker in March, suggesting that the dual camera might only be available on the larger iPhone 7 Plus.
The 2017 iPhone, whatever it's called, may be more of a radical shift in design, with rumors swirling that the home button will be done away with and the front will be a single piece of glass. At this point, however, those are all still just rumors.
Related: Rumored New iPhone To Be All Glass (Ensuring Top Breakability)
