iPhone 7 vs iPhone 6s: Waterproofing, Enhanced Cameras & More!!

Apple's new iPhone 7 has launched - what's Apple tweaked for the new edition?

Apple has now officially announced the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus; the latest generation of smartphone hardware introduces plenty of new enhancements and updated features, but it still seems that the rumours are true - the firm is holding back the BIG changes for 2017's model, which will be the 10-year anniversary for the iPhone. Anyway, the important thing is examining what is new on the latest edition, and is it worth considering for an upgrade?
iPhone 6s vs iPhone 7: Major Specs
iPhone 6s

• Display: 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch 3D Touch, 1334x750 and 1920x1080 pixel resolutions
• Design: Aluminum body with antenna bands on back, Physical Home Key, TouchID
• Storage: 16GB, 64GB, and 128GB
• CPU and RAM: A9 processor, 2GB RAM
• Front Camera: 5MP
• Rear Camera: 12MP, 4K video recording
• Ports: Headphone jack, Lightning port

iPhone 7

• Display: 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch 3D Touch, 1334x750 and 1920x1080 pixel resolutions, wide colour gamut
• Design: Aluminium body, antenna bands shifted to top and bottom edging, Capacitive Home key, IP67 waterproofing
• Storage: 32GB, 128GB, and 256GB
• CPU and RAM: A10 Fusion processor, 3GB RAM
• Front Camera: 7MP with wide angle lens
• Rear Camera: Dual-lens 12MP - telephoto and wide-angle (for the Plus model), 4K video recording, optical image stabilization, /1.8 aperture, new 6-element lens, new image signal processor, quad-LED flash with flicker sensor
• Ports: NO headphone jack, Lightning port

iPhone 6s vs iPhone 7: Design

As expected, visually the iPhone 7 is not massively far removed from the iPhone 6s, however, a key difference is that the antenna bands have been moved to the upper and lower edges, which makes them more discrete. Apple has also done away with the Space Grey colour option and replaced it with "Black" as well as another "Jet Black" colour variant with a gloss finish. The other major changes come in the form of the Home key, which is now a capacitive, touch-sensitive panel rather than a physical button. It features a Haptic feedback engine and can perform a range of software functions, including the Touch ID fingerprint scanner. On top of this, the iPhone 7 series is the first family of iPhones which are fully IP67 water and dust proof, for up to 30 minutes submerged in water.
For some people the ability to drop your iPhone safely in a bath might be reason enough alone to upgrade, but in most other respects the iPhone 7 is very similar to what came before.

iPhone 6s vs iPhone 7: Display

The display technology is not that different on the whole, with the big change over to OLED expected for 2017. Apple has kept the 3D Touch functionality, of course, and has implemented a 25% increase in brightness as well as a wide colour gamut. Other than that it is the same IPS LCD Retina screen we've seen before at the same sizes and resolutions.

iPhone 6s vs iPhone 7: Camera

The camera is the BIG change for the iPhone 7 series. The camera aboard the iPhone 7 features a new 6-element lens with a wide f/1.8 aperture to allow in more light; it has a 12MP sensor with optical image stabilisation (OIS), a quad-LED TrueTone flash with built-in flicker sensor (to compensate for artificial light), and a brand new image signal processor (ISP). The iPhone 7 Plus setup builds on this with a pair of 12MP sensors in a dual-camera setup, one with a wide-angle lens and one with a telephoto lens; the result is a setup that has a much higher image quality overall, but can also perform 2x optical zoom and up to 10x software zoom, as well as simulate Bokeh depth-of-field effects.

iPhone 6s vs iPhone: Hardware

As well as being the first waterproof iPhone, the iPhone 7 is also the first with stereo speakers. Apple has also ditched the 3.5mm headphone jack and audio is now handled through the Lightning port (or wirelessly). Inside you're looking at Apple's new A10 Fusion processor chip, up from the iPhone 6s A9 chip. The A10 sips about a fifth the amount of battery life compared to the A9, while offering a 40% uplift in CPU and GPU performance.
The iPhone 6s came in 16GB, 64GB and 128GB storage flavours but both those lower tiers are gone in favour of a 32GB base model, a 128GB middle and a 256GB top tier!