The iPhone 7 should, unsurprisingly given its expected name, come with a major redesign – and that revamp could not only conceal the antenna, but also result in the first waterproof iPhone.
That’s certainly according to rumor. Today, DigiTimes reported that the Taiwan-based Catcher Technology will – according to other reports, including from the Chinese-language newspaper Commercial Times – remain the leading chassis supplier for “Apple’s upcoming new iPhone products”.
This phrasing suggests that the iPhone 7 will once again come in a choice of display sizes, as has been standard with each new wave of iPhone models since 2013. More tantalizingly, however, DigiTimes adds that, according to the same paper, the upcoming handsets “are rumored to be waterproof and use new compound materials to hide the antenna”.
Making the iPhone waterproof for the first time would have significant implications for its design. It is possible that Apple is intending to give iPhone 7 users ways to seal off the phone’s various ports, switches and buttons, as would be necessary for a genuinely waterproof iPhone to be made a reality.