The Chinese rumor site Storm hints that the iPhone 7 could come with a digital touch-sensitive Home button, which would help enable a waterproof and dust-proof handset, and a matte black color chassis.
Storm reports that the usual physical Home button could get a digital replacement which would allow the handset’s front to be almost completely flush. It would also assist in making the iPhone 7 entirely waterproof and dust-proof. Apparently, haptic feedback motors, like those in the 12-inch MacBook’s Force Touch trackpad, would be used to replicate the feel of a physical button.
The Chinese site further claims, as paraphrased into English by 9to5Mac, that Apple is mulling a matte black color for the iPhone 7’s casing. This could result in a chassis darker than that of any iPhone since 2012, when the iPhone 5 debuted with a ‘slate’ black color option.
Though previous rumors have hinted that the iPhone 7’s external design will not greatly differ from that of the iPhone 6S, this doesn’t rule out the possibility of a lot of new features which would not be dependent on huge changes to the external design. This lends an air to credibility to these fresh claims.
