A number of new iPhone 7 rumors are starting to filter into the public domain, giving potential consumers an insight into what Apple could unveil in less than five month’s time. Apple is expected to announce and go to market with the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus later this year, with speculation now increasing regarding the level of ingress protection the two phones will ship with. Additionally, thanks to a hit-and-miss rumor site, there’s also growing speculation about that both the smartphones could ship with a redesigned, flush Home button offering touch sensitivity over the traditional mechanical design.
We’ve already been privy to plenty of speculation relating to the level of protection that Apple will afford to its new devices. Now, a new set of supply chain rumors continue that speculation by all but confirming that the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus will offer complete protection from water and dust. From an IP-rating perspective, it’s likely that Apple’s design would conform to IP67, which is rated as dust tight and protected against immersion in water. Dustproof and waterproof may not necessarily sound like a must-have, but it’s something that iPhone owners have been shouting loud about.
Coming back to the redesigned Home button on the upcoming iPhones, we could be looking at the first time where Apple would do away with the iconic physical Home button and its mechanical function that has been present in all iPhones to date. There’s also the fact that Apple currently owns a patent for a malleable alloy material-based Home button that would deform slightly when accepting user input via a press, before returning back to its usual shape.
Apple has continually renewed its right to exclusively use this type of technology ever since 2010, but has yet to actually integrate it into any product on a mass scale. Maybe the Cupertino-based company feels that the time is right to make use of that technology in its Touch ID-enabled touch-sensitive Home button as part of a design overhaul on the next iPhone.
There isn’t a great deal of evidence coming out of additional publications, or from additional sources, to corroborate these predictions, but we are aware of historical reports suggesting that Apple was looking to remove the iconic Home button in future devices in favor of a touch-sensitive option built directly into a redesigned display panel.
(Source: DigiTimes [Google Translate])
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