iPhone 7 expected to be 1mm thinner with stereo speakers

Apple’s upcoming iPhone 7 will usher in a new design that will be an impressive 1mm thinner than iPhone 6s, according to a new report. The device is expected to come without a headphone jack, but it could have stereo speakers like iPad Pro.

At 1mm thinner than iPhone 6s, iPhone 7 could measure just 6.1mm, which would make it the slimmest iPhone to date — and one of the slimmest smartphones on the market today. Its main rival, the Galaxy S7, measures 7.9mm — 1.1mm more than last year’s Galaxy S6.

Macotakara claims Apple will achieve that by removing the handset’s headphone jack — as many reports recently claimed. Users will instead have to rely on Bluetooth headphones and those with a Lightning connector.

The rest of the dimensions — height and width — are expected to remain the same, which means Apple is likely to maintain those thicker bezels iPhone users have become familiar with.

Other smartphone makers have been able to build smaller devices with larger displays by reducing the size of the bezels around them. For instance, the Galaxy Note 5 is shorter and narrower than the iPhone 6s Plus, despite a larger display. Unfortunately, Apple is yet to follow this trend — and there are others it could ignore, too.

The same report says iPhone 7 will have a similar aluminum unibody, and will not be water-resistant as some rumors have suggested. That could mean it won’t have wireless charging, either, though Qualcomm has developed wireless charging technologies that work through metal.

Finally, Macotakara claims iPhone 7 will have stereo speakers, and its camera will sit flush with its body.

The Japanese blog has been reliable in the past, but like all Apple rumors, we recommend taking this one with a pinch of salt until the iPhone 7 gets its official unveiling this fall. Even if these claims are accurate, Apple’s plans could still change.