Well-known mobile phone leaker Evan Blass has this morning predicted which week of September that Apple will announce the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus.
Blass, who has accurately leaked images and details about unreleased smartphones on Twitter (@evleaks) in the past, tweeted today simply "iPhone 2016 release: week of September 12th."
Blass is better known for leaking Android-based smartphone details ahead of their official confirmation, but his prediction for the iPhone 7's launch falls in line with Apple's typical September iPhone announcements – the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus launched on September 9th, 2015 – making it a pretty safe bet.
iPhone 2016 release: week of September 12th. — Evan Blass (@evleaks) July 23, 2016
Blass's prediction follows a tweet by the blogger four days earlier in which he claimed the internal codenames for Apple's upcoming iPhones are "Sonora" and "Dos Palos", without specifying which is which (both are names of cities in California, though the former could refer to the Mexican state). Apple's codenames for the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus were "N71" and "N66", respectively.
This year's iterations of Apple's flagship smartphones are widely expected not to feature major design changes aside from the removal of the headphone jack, as the company is said to be deviating from its standard tick-tock upgrade cycle in order to introduce major new features in next year's 10th anniversary "iPhone 8" which take time to develop.
This year the 4.7-inch iPhone 7 is expected to get an improved camera and optical image stabilization, while the larger 5.5-inch model is thought to be gaining a dual-lens camera and 3GB of RAM.
Other rumored features of this year's iPhones include a faster TSMC-made Apple A10 processor, repositioned antenna bands, faster LTE and Wi-Fi, a slightly larger battery, and a minimum 32GB of base storage. A larger 256GB model may also be available.
Update: Blass has since posted a follow-up tweet which notes that he was referring to the iPhone 7's retail release, and offered the more specific date of Friday, September 16.
Just to clarify, this refers to the retail release, not the launch event. To be even more specific, it should happen on Friday, Sept. 16th. — Evan Blass (@evleaks) July 23, 2016
