The iPhone 7 is supposedly the next big thing in the Apple ecosystem and even though only a few months have passed since the brand new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus were launched, there is already a lot of excitement surrounding the “phantom flagship”. The hype is understandable, since Apple fans are known for their sense of… appreciation, not to say fanaticism. But the interesting thing is that by no means are only Apple fans talking about the iPhone 7. The Android community all over the internet is actually talking about the upcoming Apple smartphone with excitement. Probably to prep their hate-comments and speeches bashing Apple for making products that are not affordable and don’t even come close to the functionality Android offers. Now that’s not GeekReply’s or my opinion for that matter, it is a known fact about Apple haters. Here at GeekReply we try to empathize with all sides of an argument and try to be as objective as possible, with the occasional backfire.

Fans of various Apple products have been met with a lot of criticism over the years, tech enthusiasts calling them names and sheep that are governed by the majestic Apple ecosystem. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought that opinions were one’s own, and debate upon these opinions should be civil. In any case, there are millions of people out there who seem to have forgotten that the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus have just been launched and are already talking about what the iPhone 7 will bring forth to the tech community. Since we can’t let hype pass us by, allow us to join in the fun and offer our own point of view about the rumors surrounding the iPhone 7 as well as how real we think these rumors might end up being.

If I told you this was leaked by an insider, would you believe me?

Naturally, most people are already looking for the iPhone 7 release date online, hoping that they would get the inside scoop and find out that their small city will be the first one to receive a shipment of the mystery device. Others are wondering about when the iPhone 7 will be launched so that they can save up the cash to upgrade from their current iPhone model or to see if the flagship will be worth a shift from an Android or a Windows device. Don’t mind me breaking your bubble, though. The iPhone 7 release date is unknown, and that’s all there is to it. You won’t find any legitimate source that will tell you that yes, the iPhone 7 release date is set for March 15 or that the flagship will show up at MWC, IFA or at the next Apple event in October. Until you hear it from Apple, you can be sure that it is not true.

Nonetheless, people like to speculate about release dates of future flagships, in which we participate with joy, since it feels like a betting game: whose the one that gets it right? We always hope it’s us, but most of the time, one never gets it right. Alas, you can get inspired by Apple history and propose a date that would match other launch events and that’s your best bet in fact. Consequently, our best bet for the iPhone 7 release date is September 15. If we’re right, there will be lots of kids skipping school in certain countries to watch the keynote online in some run-down internet boutique so that neither their parents, nor their teachers can trace them back to the source of their obsession. If you are not good with dark humor, please don’t be offended. I mean no harm with my satyric tone of voice, I just can’t help it. There’s already a concept video with millions of views depicting the future iPhone 7.

This might be the iPhone 7, she said

Since the iPhone 6 and iOS 8 launch event was held at the beginning of September 2014, on the 9th to be more precise, both the smaller flagship and the larger iPhone 6 Plus have sold tens of millions of units all over the world. Still, people are looking forward to even newer flagships and more innovative products, which is understandable since humans don’t seem to be designed to be content with what they already have. Even though this article isn’t about human philosophy and behavioral sciences, I still need to mention that we are the only materialistic race on this planet and our desire to “own” things has gone off the rails. Nonetheless, it is interesting to follow the developments in technology and try to estimate what kind of new things our next phones will be capable of. If I were to make a confession, I would say that I don’t buy new things. I buy refurbished and used things, and that applies to technology as well. I will gladly test out new things, but I will not upgrade my own technology until I can no longer use the one I already have. How about you guys? Do you prefer getting new toys or grabbing those that are unwanted, yet still offer the same basic functionality?

Personal convictions aside, you have probably noticed the hype around the iPhone 7 before I mentioned it. Every news outlet online has to have at least one piece about the iPhone 7 and what they presume it will look like, otherwise they won’t be hip. That means that we can gather inspiration from millions of places and find leaks on hundreds of sites claiming that they have inside sources leaking the information about the iPhone 7. It is not my place to question the authority of these reports, but I urge our readers to take everything that is remotely similar to a rumor with a bowl of salt at least, until there is official word from Apple or whatever manufacturer you are interested in. These guidelines about rumors apply to any new technology, not just Apple. The same amount of rumors are surrounding flagships like the Galaxy S6 and the HTC One M9 Hima, the favorite upcoming devices of most Android fans. (Favorite to talk and hype about, at least).

There are at least two definite sides as to what makes a smartphone good or bad: design and hardware. I should count OS in, but I don’t think OS is relevant in our present case because we already know what any Apple flagship will use: iOS. That brings us down to the aforementioned categories, design and hardware. Some say that having a premium design is more important than having high quality hardware within the body of a phone, while others vouch for hardware and tend to ignore what these phones look like. The correct approach to any device, in my opinion, would be to prioritize both these aspects: a phone cannot be called top-notch just because it looks good or just because it works good. You need to have a balance between design and performance, as demonstrated by the very popular HTC One M8 with its metal chassis and high-end hardware, boosted by good quality front facing speakers. Apple misfired in this aspect just a bit with the new iPhone 6 Plus, because the company decided to make the phone extremely thin, sacrificing battery size. That is one aspect we would like fixed in the iPhone 7 spec sheet and design.

If we’ve arrived at the hardware part, let’s see what most rumors are proposing for the iPhone 7. Since there are thousands of different opinions and expectations out there, you could easily choose your own variant and say that yes, that will indeed be the configuration under the hood of the iPhone 7. What is for sure, when it comes to smartphone releases is that companies will try and not repeat themselves, and they will definitely upgrade in terms of CPU, battery size, RAM memory, ROM memory, GPU as well as connectivity. In that way, judging by the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus, we should expect a sizable upgrade to most hardware components in the iPhone 7. If you are not familiar with what the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are packing, check out a short spec sheet listing all the important hardware components and functions within the devices.

If you are familiar with today’s flagships, you might think that the spec sheets above are not out of this world, and you are right. But Apple does one thing extremely well: performance. Even with specs that don’t seem as good as what the Galaxy Note 4 or the Nexus 6 have to offer, the iPhone 6 Plus and its smaller counterpart take those flagships up in performance and outdo them in some cases. Apple’s fault lies more in OS optimization if you are wondering why so many people were complaining about buggy phones lately. Tim Cook and co made iOS work well for the new releases (after a few quick updates), but they didn’t manage to make them work just as well on older models, causing upheaval among iPhone 5 and older iPad users about buggy and sluggish software.

Consequently, if you take a loot at the spec sheet, it truly isn’t that hard to predict what the company will end up including in the iPhone 7, once it becomes a real release. First off, we need to take into consideration recent trends when it comes to smartphone design and customer expectations. As you’ve probably noticed, more and more people are gravitating towards larger screens, kicking off the phablet trend even more than ever before. The iPhone 6 Plus is proof of that and the iPhone 7 should go no lower than what its predecessor has to offer. At this moment, we can jumpstart a debate, if you will: will Apple increase screen size even more, will it keep the 5.5 inch size or will it release an iPhone 6s and an iPhone 7? Voice your opinions, since this is really up for debate. The issue depends on what Apple thinks the consumers may want, and consumers seem to be divided in the Apple ecosystem at the moment. Some say that the iPhone 6 Plus is too big, while others say that it is just right. If the company ups the size, we don’t expect it to be bigger than 6 inches, since we have tablets for that. Yet again, I must reiterate: that is up for debate. Analysts say that tablets will become obsolete and overpowered by large smartphones. Do you think they’re right in saying that or do you think that there will always be a solid market for tablets of various sizes?

I would like the iPhone 7 to look like this

Since we can’t come to a consensus when it comes to screen size, we can assume that resolution will be increased. However, given that the human eye does not sense differences in pixel density above 350 ppi (pixels per inch), increasing the resolution might be redundant. That might be so, but trends dictate high resolution panels and manufacturers like LG and Samsung are already releasing QHD displays and plan to release 4K displays for smartphones as early as MWC 2015. Fact is that the display on the iPhone 7 will still end up being superior to other flagships because of the LED-backlit IPS panel, which makes the whole touchscreen experience more immersive than regular IPS, Super AMOLED or LCD3 displays do. Many have stated that the iPhone 6 Plus display is one of the best to be found on a smartphone, and even though I’m not a fan of Apple products in general, I have to say that my opinion lies with them.

Moving on to the processor, we can definitely expect an upgrade here. The iPhone 7 performance should be increased with the Apple A9 chipset at least, which would come with better charging features, better power management and support for faster LTE connections. It is beyond doubt that the iPhone 7 will try to overcome competitors in performance, since that is the strong-point of most products coming from Cupertino. Since processors tie in with RAM and ROM memory, we certainly expect at least 2 GB RAM and the same storage options, possibly even a 256 GB one. Since there already are phones out there with 4 GB RAM included (Asus ZenFone 2), we might see the same RAM option on the upcoming iPhone 7, too. Although many would say that phones don’t need that much memory, one cannot predict what kind of technology in app development will surface in the future, so let’s say that so much RAM memory is warranted for a future-proof device.

Will the iPhone 7 look like the One M8?

As I’ve mentioned earlier, one of the criticized aspects of the iPhone 6 Plus was the battery and the average battery life the new phablet has to offer. With that in mind, Apple would be ignorant not to heed these opinions and include a larger battery in the iPhone 7. Battery life is becoming more and more important and companies are working diligently towards making smartphones that can last at least 2 days on a single charge. So far, only two handsets manage that performance with easy, namely the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and Sony Xperia Z3. The iPhone 6 Plus isn’t far behind with about a day and a half of battery life, but we do expect much more from a premium smartphone in the future. The 2,915 mAh battery in the flagship should be switched out to a larger one, measuring at least 3,500 mAh, depending on what kind of display the iPhone 7 will come with. A bigger battery might influence the design of the phone, but users have repeatedly confirmed that they would rather have a thick phone and a big battery than a very thin phone and shorter battery life.

Last, but not least, one of the most appreciated traits of the iPhone 6 Plus (and most recent Apple products) is its camera. Even though it is only an 8 MP iSight camera on the rear, users are incredibly satisfied with the quality it can produce. You can find smartphones with 16 MP cameras on the market that don’t even come close to what the iPhone 6 Plus can do with its camera. As such, we expect top-notch hardware and performance in this department from the iPhone 7, too. We would estimate that the iPhone 7 camera will measure about 13 MP, which should be enough for high quality photos and video. Optical image stabilization, as well as autfocus should be included and are likely to be present in the flagship, but Apple might put some sort of optical zoom inside, too. We’ve seen optical zoom on the Asus ZenFone Zoom, and surprisingly, it didn’t ruin the design of the phone like it did on the Lumia 1020. The iPhone 7 camera should feature something like that, if you ask me. It would be perfect if Apple wanted to market the flagship to the niche crowds gathering around the Zoom and other camera-centered smartphones.

Apple should release a flexible iPhone 7

As you can see, making up some rumors about a future release isn’t that hard as long as you have some basic knowledge about what kind of hardware phones use and what hardware manufacturers are prepping for upcoming releases. Since we’ve seen the reports about Samsung winning the auction to manufacture the Apple A9 chip, it wasn’t hard to deduce that it might be used in the iPhone 7. At the same time, it wasn’t hard to deduce what kind of display the phone will have, even though we cannot arrive at a conclusion. If we weren’t objective and fair, we would have stated that the iPhone 7 will have a 5.5 inch QHD LED-backlit IPS panel made of sapphire glass. But that would just fuel expectations which might not be fulfilled in the end. Can you manufacture your own rumors based on previous releases? If so, do you think these speculations can be called probable, possible or biased?