iPhone 7 Design

Design

• Water resistance brings confidence in robustness of device
• Same design as previous two years
• Headphone jack removal is inconvenient

The two big design changes on the iPhone 7 are big talking
 points: it can now survive plunges into a swimming pool,
 thanks to the water-resistant chassis, and the headphone
 jack on the bottom of the phone is no longer there.

Let's start with the biggest of those changes: the omission
of the headphone jack. It's a bold move from Apple – although
 calling it 'courageous' during the launch event was a bit much
, and has led to some warranted memes – and one that could
 shake up the headphone industry.

The loss of this port will impact users in varying degrees: for
 some people it'll be no more than a shrug before they get
 on with their day, because they only use the EarPods in
 the iPhone box – and those are still there, just with a
 Lightning connector.

For others, though, it'll be an inconvenience, as they'll
 need to attach the short white dongle to the 3.5mm jack
on the end of their headphones in order to plug them into
 the Lightning port.

In a survey conducted over three commutes, we noticed
that out of 60 people wearing headphones, 34 were using
the bundled EarPods that Apple offers – given than many
 of those people might not have been using an iPhone,
 that's a higher number than expected.