Apple iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus: Specifications, availability and pricing

Apple'sevent from last night was packed with new offerings, a few that just looked newand a few that are probably going to change that smartphone in your handforever. Every year Apple introduces a new iPhone that is mostly incremental interms of specifications but it comes up with an all new design language everysecond year. This year Apple was supposed to introduce an all new iPhone 7 andiPhone 7 Plus but ended up creating something that looks and feels much likethe iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. Where one would call it a huge risk fromApple's side, the company has actually played smart and introduced refinementsthat make it a must buy for most Apple-loyalists.

Here'swhere they gain ground over their competition:

Refineddesign:

Though manywould take it against Apple for not pushing the lines with the new Apple iPhone7 and iPhone 7 Plus design, but so far no major draw backs have been registeredwith the previous versions. Which makes the new generation phones a safe-play.Users get a familiar yet much better looking device. The new phone comes with asimilar casing but with a use of glass and smooth curves giving it a premiumand futuristic touch. Despite maintaining a similar design, Apple was able toincorporate water and dust resistance capabilities in their latest offering. 

Where Appleactually tried not to play safe was with the choice of a single lightning port.Losing the 3.5mm jack is no small move and might also seem as technologicallyregressive for many. Apple tried to justify the move by including an adapter inthe box, but it runs the risk of turning into a liability for users. At $159,the company's new Apple Airpods are seemingly out of most people's earphonebudget.

Processor:

The new A10fusion chip supplied with the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus is a considerableupgrade from the previous A9 chip. The quad-core chip will come with two highperformance cores and two mid-range cores for lighter tasks. With Apple'soptimised iOS10 the phone shouldn't have any trouble catching up with theAndroid-counterparts. The new chip is claimed to be 40 per cent morepowerful  than last year's iPhone.

Display:

Appledecided to stick to same old Retina HD resolution. The only change being awider color gambit and that it is 25 per cent brighter than the previousgeneration phone. All-in-all the display has improved but still doesn't getclose to what Samsung has to offer with the Galaxy Note 7 or Galaxy S7.

Camera:

This can bethe real game changer for the device, the new camera modules on the iPhones aretouted to be the champions of low-light photography. With OIS on both versionsthis time, the Apple iPhone 7 will get an impressive aperture  of 1.8. If one is planning to buy an iPhonejust for the sake of camera they should definetly put in a hundred dollarsextra and buy the iPhone 7 Plus. The device comes with two camera modules, bothwith a 12Megapixel resolution. One on them will be a wide-angle camera, whilethe other will come with a telephoto lens. Which will give an additional optionof 2x optical zoom without much distortion.

If we areto believe the images showcased during the presentation, Apple is likely torule the smartphone camera market. Also, the camera will support raw images forpeople who like complete control while editing the picture. 

Battery:

Batterieshave never been a strong suit for Apple phones and even this time around thephones will come with a meager improvement of one hour on the iPhone 7 and twohours on the iPhone 7 Plus. Power users will have to carry a power bank tosurvive through the day.

Memory andPricing:

Apple hasfinally paid heed to the sobbing base-variant-buyers. The new iPhone will comewith a minimum of 32GB internal storage for the same price as the older 16GB iPhone 6s. The base variant for iPhone7 will cost $649 (aprox. Rs 43,000) and $769 (approx. Rs 51,000) for the iPhone7 Plus. By the time these devices reach India they will be much expensive ascompared to the American prices. In India, the base variant for iPhone 7 mightcost around Rs 60,000 and the base variant for iPhone 7 Plus around Rs 72,000.

Availability:

Apple hasbig plans for India, the third largest smartphone market in the world. So far,it doesn't even feature in the top 5 most selling companies in India. An earlylaunch might help Apple tap into the festive season bonanza. The devices areestimated to launch a month from now on October 7.