iPhone 7 Plus Pre-Order Date, Price, Specs, Features, Colors

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While many were ho-hum about Wednesday’s press event which saw Apple reveal its new handsets as well as the Apple Watch Series 2 among other announcements, Apple may have hit a bit of a home run with the iPhone 7 Plus. While it may look a bit like the iPhone 6S Plus, the iPhone 7 Plus may very well be the most advanced smartphone on the market when it begins shipping on Friday next week. It’s by far the most advanced iPhone that Apple has manufactured and many were surprised to learn that it’s also waterproof.

iPhone 7 Plus makes its debut

Once again, most weren’t expecting much from Apple, but at least in my humble opinion, I was pleasantly surprised by the looks, specs and features that will go into the iPhone Plus when it begins shipping a week from this Friday on September 16. While I’m not entirely sure that many who purchased an iPhone 6S Plus last year will be making the jump to the iPhone 7 Plus, a few million surely will given the new camera and sheer processing power of the phone. Many have predicted that the iPhone 8 will truly be something special while Apple skips the off-year “S” models next year and will keep owners of the 6S at bay for another production season, anyone who has an iPhone older that the 6S Plus is in for a treat if they decide to shell out the money for the new flagship handset from Apple.

Specs and Features for the iPhone 7 Plus

While Apple did reveal two phones in September 7 event, we’re going to concentrate on the iPhone 7 Plus as it’s the most advanced phone Apple has ever made. Apple spent a fair bit of time on design prior to the reveal of specs and features going into the iPhone 7 Plus. It’s design is truly stunning, and uses a uniform enclosure made from 7000 Series Aluminum. While the iPhone 7 Plus will ship in Black, Silver, Gold and Rose Gold the video on the design showed at the event today shows that Apple is truly impressed with their efforts it its new offering of Jet Black. The company explains the new color as:

Crafted from bead-blasted aluminum, our new black model has a rich, deep matte finish. The high-gloss jet black finish was achieved through a new feat of design engineering — a remarkably precise, nine-step process of anodization and polishing. The end result is so purely and continuously black, you can’t tell where the aluminum ends and the glass begins. The dark side, indeed.

Prior to Wednesday’s event, I didn’t much care about the appearance of my phone that much, but if I were to purchase the iPhone 7 Plus, bet your ass it would be in Apple’s new Jet Black option.

In addition to the striking appearance of the iPhone 7 Plus, the phone was surprisingly announced as water, splash and dust proof, something that largely didn’t make its way to the rumor mill that precedes the launch of new Apple products. Since January, I’ve likely written 200 pieces detailing rumors, leaks, analysts’ expectations and it’s nice to finally see the iPhone 7 Plus.

Finally, Apple has completely re-engineered its iconic home button for the iPhone 7 Plus and has done so in a manner that makes it force sensitive like the trackpads used in the newer generation of MacBooks. Additionally, Apple’s iPhone 7 Plus now features the Taptic Engine haptic feedback system to make the home button that much better.

As expected, the 3.5mm headphone jack is a thing of the past and Apple is now shipping its EarPods that connect to Lightning with the iPhone 7 Plus. The iPhone 7 Plus is also boxed with an adapter that will allow you to go from Lighting to 3.5mm headphone if that’s your desire. By ridding the iPhone 7 Plus of its traditional headphone jack the iPhone 7 Plus will be two times as loud, with better sound quality, as the iPhone 6S Plus and will provide stereo sound for the first time.

The display will be 25% brighter than its predecessor but the iPhone 7 Plus will still offer 1080 x 1920 pixels but with improved color management.

If speed is your thing, look no further than the flagship which will rock the new A10 Fusion processor adding 40% more speed to last year’s model while processing graphics 50% faster as well. The iPhone 7 Plus also promises “the longest battery life ever of an iPhone” gaining an hour over the iPhone 6S Plus.

The iPhone 7 Plus’ camera(s) is fantastic with addition of telephoto lens

The Plus will now ship with optical image stabilization and a brighter f/1.8 lens that lets in 50% more light than the iPhone 6S Plus that sported only a f/2.2 lens. Additionally, at the event, Apple’s Phil Schiller called the 12-megapixel sensor that was announced for the iPhone 6S Plus is not 60% faster and 30% for efficient in the iPhone 7 Plus. In the front the iPhone 7 Plus will now be rocking a 7MP selfie creator for both photos and videos.

But, what we were all waiting for was the announcement of the first dual-lens camera system for the iPhone 7 Plus and we finally got it.

Apple is claiming that the two camera setup will give users  2x optical zoom without loss of image quality. The camera app in the iPhone 7 Plus will automatically switch between the 28mm for wide angle shots and 60mm lens for zoom seamlessly. You’ll also be allowed 10X digital zoom but this will come from the software side and crop the photo.

Apple’s new flagship will be offered with 32GB of storage at $769 with the 128GB option coming in somewhere in the middle between the 128GB iPhone 7 Plus which will set you back $969.

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