The iPhone 7 has just been announced, and the internet is abuzz with one major question: is it worth it? As weāre now on the seventh major iteration of the iPhone, we know that these upgrade generations are nothing new, but we typically see many more changes than the ones that the 7 is offering. However, while the changes are few, they are majorā¦ though some of them arenāt really welcomed, making the question āis it worth it?ā a little tough to answer. Letās give it a shot anyway: Pro: The iPhone is Now Waterproof Itās a story youāve heard countless times and may have experienced yourself- dropping a $600 phone in a puddle, or the toilet, or the pool, or the sinkā¦ the fact is, iPhones and water have never really mixed well- until now. Apple has finally made the iPhone waterproof so that no matter what happens when youāre around a body of water, you donāt have to worry about ruining your phone and your day in one fell swoop. Con: Thereās no Headphone Jack Thatās right, the 3.5mm headphone jack thatās been a staple of almost every personal computing device from the GameBoy to high-end gaming computers is gone. The iPhone 7 will come with a pair of headphones that connects to the Lightning port, but then you can go ahead and forget about using headphones and charging the phone at the same time. If you want that luxury, youāll have to buy a pair Appleās AirPod wireless headphones, which will retail for $159 extra. Pro: The Camera is Amazing The camera is one of the most widely used features of the iPhone, and Apple is upgrading the one that comes with the 7 in a major wayā¦ by adding another one. Thatās right, the iPhone 7 will use two cameras on the back, one with a telephoto lens and one with a wide angle lens. This will allow you to use optical zoom instead of digital and even take one picture with both lenses, which the iPhone will then stitch together and give you a picture unlike anything youāve ever seen on an iPhone before. Con: Bigger Changes are Likely Coming Soon The 10th anniversary of the iPhone is coming very soon, and experts all around the world are claiming that Apple is going to do something major to celebrate the anniversary. This will likely be a new model combining all of the best features of past iPhones and adding more revolutionary changes than weāve ever seen before. The biggest rumors are that this iPhone will feature a curved screen and no home button, instead putting a fingerprint reader directly on the screen. Knowing this, it doesnāt really make sense to upgrade to an only slightly-better iPhone now when something game changing is due to hit stores next year. The Verdict If you have the money and you use your iPhone for pictures more than anything else, the upgrade might be worth it, especially since the base model comes with 32Gb of memory (meaning you wonāt have to start deleting all of those pictures so soon). If your iPhone 6 or 6s does everything you need it to already, youāre probably better off waiting to upgrade. The hardware improvements arenāt significant enough and the lack of a headphone jack is a big annoyance to justify spending what will likely be an exorbitant amount on the iPhone 7.
