Yes, Apple’s next-gen smartphone, likely to be called iPhone 7, is unlikely to have a bigger battery. Apple doesn’t reveal the battery size of its smartphones, but a teardown of the iPhone 6S revealed that the device was powered by a 1715mAh battery, which is smaller than the 1810mAh battery in last year’s iPhone 6. Recently, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said the iPhone 7 will have a thickness of just 6mm to 6.5mm, making it the slimmest iPhone ever.
Apple has no plans to shift to AMOLED display
If Kuo’s claims turn out to be true, Apple may not be able to pack a bigger battery in a slimmer device. Then there were rumors that the Cupertino company could still boost the iPhone 7’s battery life by shifting from the traditional LCD panels to AMOLED technology. AMOLED is far more power efficient than LCD panels. Now Kuo, known as the world’s most accurate Apple analyst, says in his latest report that Apple has no plans to change the display of its next-gen smartphone.
A similar battery size and display panel as that in the iPhone 6S would give Apple little room to boost battery life. The battery size and usage time of the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus have already left many Apple fans disappointed. But Apple may have a trick or two up its sleeves. Earlier this year, the tech giant hired several battery technology experts to improve battery life of its devices without actually increasing the battery size.
Synaptics to supply LCD driver chips for iPhone 7
Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster expects Apple to introduce the long-delayed sapphire display with the iPhone 7. The next-gen iPhone will likely be powered by hexa-core A10 processor supplied by Samsung, Intel, and TSMC. Earlier this month, supply chain sources told Digitimes that Apple had signed a deal with Synaptics for the supply of LCD driver chips for its 2016 iPhones.
Meanwhile, Ming-Chi Kuo has learned from his sources that Apple was also working on a 4-inch iPhone that is scheduled to enter mass production in the first half of 2016. He expects the 4-inch variant to be a budget device with the A9 chip. Kuo estimates that Apple could sell up to 30 million units of the 4-inch iPhone by the end of 2016.
