We’ve received a couple of photos from Apple tipster Sonny Dickson this morning that depict a dummy model for the ‘iPhone 7s Plus’, one of three new phones Apple is said to be launching this year. Although marketing branding is unknown, the ‘7s’ devices are expected to iterate on the current iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus chassis.
One distinction will be the introduction of glass backs (rather than aluminium), which this dummy model incorporates. It is believed that the phones will support inductive charging. More pictures after the jump …
Much of the attention for the 2017 iPhone cycle is on the iPhone 8 (again, what Apple decides to brand the phone is unknown), featuring an all-new chassis design, edge-to-edge OLED display and many other premium features (with premium price tag).
In addition to that device, though, Apple is expected to announce two additional new iPhone models, which will represent modest upgrades over the current iPhone 7 series. Internally, we expect the ‘7s’ phones to include A11 processors for better performance and perhaps a base-model storage bump to 64 GB.
It seems the major new feature will be ‘wireless’ inductive charging, allowing users to charge their iPhones on a new inductive charger pad rather than the traditional Lightning cable. Externally, rumors point to glass backs for both the iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus, which helps make the inductive charging possible without adding holes to the rear case.
In the new photos, you can see the shiny glass backs where we are used to seeing aluminium. The antenna bands also appear to have gone completely in this dummy, presumably as glass allows antenna signals to freely pass through the material, whereas aluminium blocks most of the signals.
In general, though, aesthetically the 7s phones will seemingly not change that much. The leading theory is that the two 7s models will take the usual $650 and $769 price points in the lineup, whilst the radically-redesigned iPhone 8 will cost significantly more.
Apple is expected to announce all three new iPhones at a September media event. There have been many reports that the OLED iPhone will launch later in the year, perhaps late October, but Apple will almost certainly announce all three phones at the same time. The iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus look set to ship in the middle of September.
Interestingly, one of the flagship new features – wireless charging — may not be ready when the devices hit shelves. A report indicated that software was to blame for the delay and Apple would activate the new inductive charging hardware in a future iOS 11 update.
