When it rains, it pours. An iPhone 7 leak earlier on Wednesday suggested that the iPhone 7 Plus will have a dual lens camera and a Smart Connector on the back and that both the 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch models will lack the 3.5mm headphone jack. A report from a well-known Apple insider on Wednesday is now offering more details on the upcoming iPhone 7 phablet and it hints that the 5.5-inch model will be the best new iPhone to buy this year.
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KGI’s Ming-Chi Kuo, who has often provided accurate insights into Apple’s iPhone release plans, said in a new report to investors seen by 9to5Mac that all 5.5-inch iPhone 7 versions will likely have a dual-lens camera on the back. Kuo is suggesting that dual lens camera supply will be consistent enough to cover 5.5-inch iPhone 7 demand and says the dual lens phone will be known as the iPhone 7 Plus. Previous reports claimed that the dual-lens iPhone 7 will be sold as something called the “iPhone 7 Pro” that’s meant to differentiate it from the regular Plus model.
“Dual-camera to become a must-have feature for high-end smartphone,” Kuo said. “The initial market response to Huawei’s (CN) new flagship dual-camera model, P9, has been better than expected, and we estimate shipments may reach 10mn units in 2016F. In our view, more high-end smartphones will adopt this feature going forward. And, in order to maintain its leading position in the high-end market, we expect Apple will fully adopt dual-camera on the new 5.5-inch iPhone in 2H16.”
Kuo further added that since all 5.5-inch iPhone 7 Plus units will get the new camera, it also means that all of them will have 3GB of RAM to meet the requirements of the new camera technology. It’s not clear how much RAM the 4.7-inch iPhone 7 will have to offer.
Sony and LG will provide the dual camera parts, Kuo added.
“We estimate total shipments of iPhone dual-camera module from Sony (JP) and LG Innotek (KR-TW) at 20- 30mn units in 2016F, sufficient to cover demand from the new 5.5-inch iPhone,” he wrote. “Due to constraints of form factor design, we think optical zoom capability may be limited. Also, the result of Linx algorithm performance is uncertain. As such, we believe market response to the performance of iPhone dual-camera remains to be seen.”
