The secondary speaker grille on recent iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus mockups has led us to believe Apple’s next-generation smartphones will get an extra speaker, but according to a new leak, one of those grilles may be just for show.
We know Apple is doing away with the headphone jack for the iPhone 7 series, but recent rumors have promised the company will use the space created for a second speaker that will help deliver louder and richer sound. But don’t get your hopes up.
iPhone 7 housing schematics acquired by NowhereElse suggest the speaker grilles on one side of Apple’s upcoming handsets is purely cosmetic to make the bottom edge look more symmetrical, though it won’t be totally useless.
It appears Apple will place the iPhone’s microphone behind this grille, so some of the holes will serve a purpose. However, if the drawing is genuine, most of them won’t serve any purpose whatsoever — other than making the iPhone look slightly prettier.
It’s difficult to trust a drawing like this that could have easily been faked. But we have seen iPhone 7 design drawings in the past that show not every hole on one set of speaker grilles will be drilled all the way through.
We’ll find out for certain what Apple’s plans are for the iPhone 7 in under a month. Its big keynote is expected to take place on September 7, while pre-orders could kick off on September 9 followed by a September 16 launch.
