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- The iPhone 11 is right around the corner.
- But if you want to buy an iPhone right now, you should really consider buying the iPhone 7.
- It's the most affordable iPhone you can buy right now and one of Apple's best smartphone designs ever.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
We've been seeing rumors and reports of Apple's next-generation iPhone, presumably called the iPhone 11, for months now.
It will almost certainly be a stellar phone. But if you're in the market for an iPhone right now, there are several reasons you should consider Apple's diamond in the rough, the iPhone 7, instead of waiting.
You can save more than $550 by choosing the iPhone 7 instead of the next-generation iPhone 11.
The iPhone 7 starts at $449, and the iPhone 7 Plus starts at $569. (It's significantly cheaper if you trade in another iPhone to get it. You can also find discounted iPhone 7 Plus models on Apple's refurbished store.)
Meanwhile, expect the iPhone 11 to cost as much as the starting price of the iPhone XS, which is $999, before taxes and insurance.
In other words, you'll save about $550 — more than the starting price of an iPhone 7 — by choosing an iPhone 7 instead of the next-generation iPhone.
Keep these prices in mind.
The iPhone 11 looks like it's going to have a whole new set of cameras, but the cameras on the iPhone 7 hold up surprisingly well in 2019.
The iPhone 7 features a 7-megapixel FaceTime HD camera and a 12-megapixel rear camera.
For comparison, the iPhone 11's predecessor, the iPhone XS, features a 7-megapixel selfie camera and two 12-megapixel rear cameras.
By all accounts, the iPhone 11 will feature three rear cameras for improved depth sensing — possibly setting the table for Apple's augmented reality play, which is expected to come to fruition in 2020 with the introduction of smartglasses that work with the iPhone.
But for right now, do you really need a smartphone with three rear cameras? Of course not. The iPhone 7 camera will give you excellent-looking photos with just one camera on the front, and one on the back.
The iPhone 7 has Touch ID, which is still the gold standard for unlocking your phone quickly.
Apple says Face ID — the facial-recognition system used to unlock the iPhone X, iPhone XR, and iPhone XS — is more secure than Touch ID.
But in my experience, Touch ID is still faster and more reliable than Face ID. Touch ID may not work if your fingers are wet, but Face ID has failed on me on plenty of occasions: It doesn't work when my face isn't at the right angle, but also, not once has Face ID worked when I'm wearing sunglasses.
Unless Apple's Face ID software gets a lot better this year, I expect Touch ID to remain the superior unlocking method for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, the iPhone 11 will almost certainly not have Touch ID, as Face ID appears to be Apple's new standard.
