The iPhone 7 is at least one year away, as Apple aren’t going to release the device until 2016 – and yet people are already actively discussing the possibilities for its hardware and software, and what it might bring to the table that’s been missing in the line as a whole so far. It’s clear that the iPhone is still enjoying its original cult-like following, and Apple are probably keeping a close eye on those discussions in order to potentially get some good ideas for what they can do.
One of the more interesting rumors about the iPhone 7 is that Apple have reportedly been looking at a 6-core processor as an option, and might be very keen on trying it out. Some fans have been questioning the point in adding so many cores to a single device, claiming that it could lead to problems with the battery life, but on the other hand there are various ways to implement a 6-core processor without making it unnecessarily hungry for battery power.
For example, a common approach is to keep some cores inactive until the user starts doing something that requires more processing power, at which point the processor “fully” activates, enabling the idle cores in order to get even more computations done per second. That way, the device can run in a sort of low-power mode while the user isn’t doing anything demanding, and switch to its full capacity once they launch e.g. a game or a heavy application.
With that in mind, a 6-core CPU can definitely make the iPhone experience even better, but whether the device will need one depends on how iOS is going to evolve until then. It’s possible that the operating system will get very demanding and will make proper use of so many cores, but that would also have some negative implications for older devices in the line.
Other than that, rumors about the iPhone 7 are pointing towards a larger display as well as better multimedia capabilities. The last part is quite open to interpretation, but looking at the newly released iPad Pro, Apple are apparently trying to make their devices as friendly as possible to those who like to do multiple media-related things on their handhelds at once. That includes reading books, watching films and listening to music, and the latest improvements in iOS have also made it easier to do all of those things at once.
Because of this, the iPhone 7 might follow suit and offer better capabilities for consuming multimedia at the same time, something which would also justify the more powerful processor. Apple obviously know their market quite well, or else they wouldn’t be around at this point, and they know what kinds of changes people want to see in the next iPhone. The various discussions about the device online also seem to indicate that iPhone fans want to see even better multimedia capabilities from the next phone in the line.
Is the A10 processor going to be the game changer that many people are making it out to be, and is the next iPhone going to set some new trends for the development of the line as a whole? Those are pretty major questions, but they are the topics that mostly dominate discussions about Apple’s upcoming projects lately. Many people seem focused on the technological advancements that Apple have been making lately, especially on the hardware side.