If you were hoping for an all-new iPhone design this fall, the Wall Street Journalsays you may be disappointed. Aside from the oft-rumored and controversial decision to remove the standard 3.5mm headphone jack, this year’s iPhones will allegedly share a lot in common with the iPhone 6 and 6S.
According to the standard shadowy “people familiar with the matter,” the new iPhone design will be about a millimeter thinner than the current iPhone 6 and 6S design, and the removal of the headphone jack will improve the phone’s waterproofing. Otherwise, though, the phones will be similar to the 6 and 6S design, and they’ll retain the same 4.7 and 5.5-inch screen sizes. A more extensive overhaul, including an edge-to-edge OLED display and the elimination of the Home button, could follow for the iPhone’s 10th birthday in 2017.
Apple has redesigned the iPhone every other year since the iPhone 3G came out in 2008.
The 3GS changed the internals but kept the same external design, and the iPhone 4 and 4S, 5 and 5S, and 6 and 6S maintained the same cadence. Outliers like the iPhone 5C and SE aside, retaining an iPhone 6-style design for the third year in a row would be a big break from tradition. As in the “S” years, Apple would need to lean on performance and camera improvements along with some other big hardware addition—Siri in the 4S, TouchID in the 5S, 3D Touch in the 6S—to sell the phone to upgraders and new users.