Apple today unveiled the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, successor to the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. Bucking the usual trend, the new iPhones sport the same design that Apple first debuted with the iPhone 6 in 2014.

Nonetheless, once you look closely, you will realise that the iPhone 7 is a major upgrade over the iPhone 6s in almost every department. Yes, the design remains the same, but Apple has given major upgrades to every other aspect of the device: storage, RAM, camera, colors, and battery life.

So, what exactly has changed between the iPhone 6s and iPhone 7? Let’s find out.

Design

• The iPhone 7 features largely the same design as the iPhone 6/6s, with a few tweaks thrown in here and there
  • This is despite Apple saying that the iPhone 7 comes with a brand new design
  • The biggest visual change is the antenna bands at the rear panel being moved to the top and bottom edges giving the phone a cleaner look
• Apple has also removed the headphone jack from the bottom on the iPhone 7
  • Instead, it now features a secondary speaker grille
  • It is only for aesthetic purposes, though, and does not house a secondary speaker
  • The secondary speaker is located within the earpiece grille at the top
  • Apple says this new speaker setup is 2x louder than iPhone 6s Plus
• Both iPhones measure roughly the same, with the iPhone 7 being slightly lighter
• To make up for the lack of a new design, the iPhone 7 now features an IP67 certification
  • This makes the phone resistant to water just like the original Apple Watch
  • An IP67 rating denotes that the iPhone 7 can be submerged in water for up to 30mins in 1m depth without any issues
    • It is also dust-resistant and will not allow for any kind of dust ingress
  • The iPhone 6s lacks any kind of IP rating
• Apple will be offering the iPhone 7 in two brand new colors: Jet Black and Black
  • The Jet Black color has a glossy finish
  • It will be available only in 128GB and 256GB storage variants
• The normal Black color has a matte finish
• The iPhone 7 features a capacitive home button unlike the iPhone 6s which features a physical home button
  • The capacitive home button, however, is able to simulate the feeling of being pressed thanks to Taptic Engine
  • Apple had first debuted this technology on its MacBook lineup in 2015
• The dimensions of the iPhone 7 remain exactly the same as the iPhone 6s

Display

• Like the iPhone 6s, the iPhone 7 also comes with a Retina HD 4.7-inch screen with a resolution of 750 x 1334
  • Both phones have a pixel density of 326ppi
• The display on the iPhone 7 is 25% brighter compared to iPhone 6s
  • It also offers a wider color gamut range

Performance and Storage

• The A10 Fusion chip inside the iPhone 7 is significantly faster than the A9 chip found inside the iPhone 6s
  • It is a quad-core chip featuring two low power and two high power cores
  • The A9 chip inside the iPhone 6s is only a dual-core chip
• While the A9 chip is clocked at 1.85GHz on the iPhone 6s, the A10 Fusion is clocked at 2.4GHz
  • The A10 chip is made on TSMC’s InFO process making it more power efficient
• Apple claims that the GPU performance on the iPhone 7 has also improved considerably over the iPhone 6s
  • It is up to 50% faster than the A9 chip’s GPU
• With the iPhone 7, Apple has refreshed the storage tier completely
  • Unlike the iPhone 6s, the base storage on the iPhone 7 starts at 32GB
  • There is no 64GB model. Instead, Apple has replaced it with a 128GB variant
  • This is also the first time that Apple is offering an iPhone with 256GB of storage

Camera

• The iPhone 7 and iPhone 6s both come with a 12MP iSight camera
  • However, the iPhone 7 camera has been upgraded in almost every aspect for significantly improved performance
• The 12MP shooter on the iPhone 7 features a f/1.8 aperture 6-element lens
  • The iPhone 6s, on the other hand, features a f/2.2 aperture
  • The wider aperture allows the iPhone 7 to absorb more light, especially in low-light
  • Apple says it allows up to 50% more light to pass through
• The iPhone 7 comes with Quad-LED True Tone flash
  • In comparison, the iPhone 6s Plus only featured dual-LED flash
  • The Quad-LED flash is up to 50% brighter
• The iPhone 7 also features OIS, something which the iPhone 6s lacks
• The A10 Fusion chip on the iPhone 7 features a smarter and improved ISP
• Live Photos will also be better on the iPhone 7 since it can now make use of OIS
  • Apple will also be making Live Photos API available to developers
• The FaceTime HD camera on the iPhone 7 has also been upgraded
  • It now features a 7MP sensor, up from the 5MP sensor found on the iPhone 6s
  • It is now also capable of recording videos in Full HD resolution

Battery

• The iPhone 7 offers up to 2 hours longer battery life than the iPhone 6s
  • On Wi-Fi browsing, this increase would be more around the 3 hours mark
  • The iPhone 7 features 14% larger battery than the iPhone 6s

So, as you can see from above, the iPhone 7 packs in plenty of differences compared to the iPhone 6s. Most of these changes might not be visible the first time around, but they sure go a long way in helping improve the overall functionality of the device.

Are the above differences enough to make you warrant an upgrade from your iPhone 6s to the iPhone 7? Or are you disappointed with something? Drop a comment below and let us know.