It’s a tiny bit amusing that despite everything we know about Apple’s upcoming next-generation iPhone, the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus/Pro, there are still some pretty basic things we don’t know.
We know just about exactly what the iPhone 7 is going to look like, and we also know what the larger iPhone 7 Plus will look like. We know the phones will lose the 3.5mm audio port and gain thinner housings with redesigned antenna lines that are much easier on the eyes. We also know that both phones will feature new and improved cameras, though the camera on the Plus model will be a much bigger upgrade than the one on the smaller iPhone 7.
But ironically, we still don’t know one of the most basic things about these two upcoming new phones: We have no idea what they’ll be called.
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Logic dictates that this year’s new iPhone models will be called the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. In the past, Apple has released new iPhone numbers on alternate years with “S” upgrades separating them. Then there have been some rumblings that Apple would switch the name of the larger iPhone from “Plus” to “Pro.” This would align better with Apple’s iPad naming scheme — and “Plus” was always an awful name anyway.
But there have also been some claims that this year’s new iPhones would stray from convention and not be named iPhone 7 at all. Instead, Apple is said to be saving its big redesign for next year’s tenth-anniversary iPhone and potentially keeping 2016’s new iPhones in the iPhone 6 family. But what would Apple name new iPhones in the same lineup for the second year?
According to a new report from German Apple blog Apfelpage, the new phones will be branded “iPhone 6se.” There’s certainly a logic to the name, which would align with the iPhone 5se Apple launched earlier this year, but it would be a curious move in some ways. Apple already has to deal with the media narrative that this year’s new iPhones represent a “minor” upgrade that is “boring,” so why make the task of convincing fans that this is a big upgrade even more difficult? As we’ve noted, the new iPhones are shaping up to be anything but boring. In fact, they’re shaping up to be pretty massive upgrades — and launching them with new names would help support that idea.
