iPhone 5s, 6, 6 Plus Discontinued After iPhone 7 Launch, Storage Doubled on Other Models, Except iPhone SE
Apple with its new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus has acknowledged the biggest user complaint for its smartphones, and has discontinued 16GB storage for the base model – replacing it with 32GB storage. The new 32GB base storage is not meant for just the new iPhones however, the Cupertino-based company has also doubled the storage of all the available iPhone models except the iPhone SE. Additionally, Apple has discontinued the iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, and iPhone 6 Plus models which are no longer on the company’s website. However, it’s likely they will continue to be available in India via third-party retailers until the existing stocks last.
The new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus will be available in new 32GB, 128GB, and the highest capacity 256GB model. The earlier iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus will now come in 32GB and 128GB storage models which means there will be no 16GB and 64GB options. The iPhone SE, launched earlier this year, will be available in 16GB and 64GB storage options as before.
The storage bump makes sense for Apple as out of the 16GB storage on the base model previously, only 12GB was available for users to store apps, music, photos, videos, and other data. To recall, we’d criticised Apple for sticking with a 16GB base storage model for the last year’s iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus phones in our review, as it was hard to manage the storage with features like 4K video recording capability.
For pricing, the iPhone 7 starts at $649 (approximately Rs. 43,000) for the 32GB variant while the iPhone 7 Plus start at $769 (approximately Rs. 51,000) for same storage in the US. The 128GB and 256GB models of the iPhone 7 will be available in the US at $749 (approximately Rs. 50,000) and $849 (approximately Rs. 56,500) respectively. The 128GB and 256GB models of the iPhone 7 Plus will be available at $869 (approximately Rs. 57,750) and $969 (approximately Rs. 64,500) respectively. Apple without announcing the exact pricing details of all the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus models, Apple announced that the price in India for the iPhone 7 will start at Rs. 60,000. The new iPhones will be launched in India on October 7.
The iPhone 6s 32GB and 128GB models will be available at $549 (approximately Rs. 36,500) and $649 (approximately Rs. 43,000) respectively. The iPhone 6s Plus 32GB and 128GB models will be available at $649 (approximately Rs. 43,000) and $749 (approximately Rs. 50,000) respectively.