iPhone 7s, 7s Plus Only Slightly Thicker For Wireless Charging

You win some, you lose some, as they say. Smartphones are pretty much just a series of compromises for one feature in exchange for another. Take for example the still to be announced iPhone 7s and 7s Plus, which are also said to be getting wireless charging features like the more expensive iPhone 8. But in order to pull that off, the phones would have to switch to glass backs as well. Which, in turn, would explain why this latest leak claims them to be ever so slightly thicker than last year's models.

While it has more or less been established that the iPhone 8 would indeed get wireless charging, though at half the speed of the current Qi spec, things aren't so clear cut for the iPhone 7s and 7s Plus. After all, wireless charging might be used as a differentiating factor for the iPhone 8. The iPhone 7s and 7s Plus are also supposed to be just incremental upgrades to the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, neither of which have wireless charging, of course.

But if Apple does add wireless charging, for one reason or another, it really has no choice but to make a glass-metal-glass sandwich, like in the old iPhone 4s and the upcoming iPhone 8. Not unless it has suddenly gotten hold of Qualcomm's technology that supports wireless charging through metal. But since that's highly unlikely, we're going with glass back.

That added layer could explain why the iPhone 7s and 7s Plus are said to be thicker than their predecessors. That is, at least based on a last minute leak that gives the iPhone 7s a depth of 7.21 mm and the iPhone 7s Plus at 7.41 mm thick. That is compared to the 7.1 mm and 7.3 mm of last year's iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, respectively.

Fortunately, a difference of 0.10 mm might not be enough for most users to notice. What they might notice, however, is how the iPhones' now glass backs might easily slide or smudge. Again, perhaps another compromise for getting what was once a most desired feature.

VIA: TechnoBuffalo