It has arrived!

After countless predictions and “leaks“, the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus were released yesterday at the Apple convention in San Francisco.

Did you live-stream the event? Yeah, me neither.

But, it might have been worth it since Apple’s latest release has impressed those who matter. According to Gizmodo, Apple took a lot of time explaining the new generation of iPhone and called it their most “refined” version yet.

So here is everything we know:

• The home button is still there, but not really

Instead of being all clickety-click, the home button is on screen and vibrates in response to your touch.

• The new camera could be the thing that makes this generation memorable

The iPhone 7 generation brings a whole new camera system. Not only do both models’ cameras catch more colours, have better focus, and work better in low light, but the iPhone 7 Plus has a dual-lens system.

There’s even a 12 megapixel camera – and Gizmodo claimed it might be “the most powerful mobile shooter ever made”. Hey? Let’s let them take this one:

The key here is that the dual cameras aren’t exactly the same. One of them has the same 28mm lens that’s on the back of the iPhone 7. The other is a new 56mm “telephoto” lens. This means that by toggling between the cameras, you get a 2x optical zoom—none of the fake-ass digital zoom that only ruins your photos.

By default, you’re using the wide-angle 28mm lens, but after a tap on the “1x” button, you immediately go to the 2x mode, which engages the longer lens that’s zoomed in.

You can also use digital zoom for up to 10x. The 10x digital zoom looks like terrible digital zoom—though in my brief tests it definitely had less noise than most digital zoom implementations. And I was downright blown away at what the software zoom could pull off at 5x. You still get a grainy digital zoom effect, but the distortion and pixelation around the edges was much, much less visible than normal.

Other things to note:

• The headphones have indeed gone wireless. EarPods will connect via the Lightning port, and Apple is including a 3.5mm to Lightning adapter in the box
• Two colours have been added to the range, which now consists of matte “black”, a glossy black and then the usual silver, gold, and rose gold
• Apparently, the battery on the iPhone 7 lasts 14 hours when using WiFi and 12 on 4G. The iPhone 7 Plus meanwhile lasts 15 hours on WiFi and 15 on 4G
• It’s water-resistant!
• Stereo speakers that deliver two times the audio output of the iPhone 6s and increased dynamic range
• LCD display technology: a 4.7-inch screen in the iPhone 7 and a 5.5-inch in the iPhone 7 Plus. The 4.7-inch panel features a 750 x 1334 resolution with a pixel density of 326ppi, while the 5.5-inch screen has a 1080p resolution at a pixel density of 401ppi.
• Apple A10 Fusion chip: 10nm fabrication process; four CPU cores
• 2GB of RAM
• LTE Advanced support with download speeds up to 450Mbps
• Size and weight:
  • iPhone 7 – 138.3 x 67.1 x 7.1 mm and 138g
  • iPhone 7 Plus – 158.2 x 77.9 x 7.3 mm and 188g

The iPhone 7 generation is set to be up for orders tomorrow, and shipping starts on the 16 September. While there is no date yet for the phone’s launch in South Africa, it is set to be here a little later than the rest of the world.

Here are expected prices: 

iPhone 7

• R11 180 for 32GB
• R13 000 for 128GB
• R15 000 for 256GB

iPhone 7 Plus:

• R13 400 for 32GB
• R15 300 for 128GB
• R17 100 for 256GB

Once again, Apple is leading the game, moving technology forward. I do look forward to getting my hands on one.

[source:gizmodo&phonearena&forbes]