Apple iPhone 7 specs update: Device may feature massive 256GB internal storage

A woman uses her mobile phone, an iPhone 6 by Apple in Munich downtown, Germany, January 27, 2016. Reuters/Michaela Rehle

Apple is rumoured to be finally ditching the 16GB variant of the iPhone and considerably upgrade the storage capacity of its upcoming iPhone 7. There are speculations that the tech giant may pack the top-end version of the iPhone 7 series with a whopping 256GB of internal memory.

The successor to the iPhone 6s is rumoured to house more storage than any other iPhone, with Italian website HDBlog (via MacRumors) posting an image of a 256GB SanDisk NAND flash memory chip, which is even smaller than its 64GB counterpart.

The tiny chip will happily sit inside the next-generation iPhone, which could be thinner than ever. Such ultra-powerful memory units could also be used in other Apple devices including the iPad Pro and MacBook.

However, there is no confirmation that Apple will actually do away with its 16GB model for the iPhone 7 and offer larger storage sizes.

Apple previously used SanDisk flash memory chips in its iPhone 5, iPhone 6 and the latest iPhone 6 Plus. It is noteworthy that Apple also used NAND flash chips from Samsung, SK Hynix and Toshiba. Samsung had announced the world’s first mammoth 256GB embedded memory based on the Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 2.0 standards at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2016 earlier this year.

Apart from increased storage capacity, the iPhone 7 is expected to bring in a handful of changes to its design and display. Apple is said to be doing away with its rear camera hump, which is present in the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s series, and will make the device thinner.

The tech giant will also reportedly remove the antenna lines from the rear panels of the upcoming iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. Apple is yet to announce the iPhone 7 release date, but it is expected to happen in September.

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