With the much anticipated release of the newest iPhone approaching us in the coming days, Apple has raised many questions to buyers regarding the “latest technological advancement.” These decisions they’ve made to enhance the iPhone have raised questions from people all over the country, including here at Middletown High School.

The iPhone 7 was released along with many new devices at Apple’s annual keynote event on September 7th. Apple is right on schedule for the release which was September 16. The phone included positive and negative additions from the previous 6s and 6s Plus, according to iPhone reviews and customers.

The newest smartphone is dirt and water resistant, pressure touch sensitive, has higher quality cameras, 256 megabyte capacity and comes in a new jet black color.

When interviewing the MHS students, they had some common responses, most of them being negative.

“I think the new iPhone is honestly a waste of money,” said Middletown High School sophomore Allie Watt. “I have the 6s and don’t understand why somebody would want to waste tons of money on it.”

Almost every student had a similar opinion to what Watt had said.

MHS sophomore Miles Bradford said that “the only advancement is the 256 MB capacity” and that “Apple hasn’t made any huge advancements in forever.”

MHS junior Garrett Posey said that he thinks the reason Apple iPhones haven’t been making huge improvements is because they come out with a new version too often.

The phone had one major change, sparking controversy over whether it was a smart decision or not. Apple decided to get rid of the headphone jack.

To figure out what MHS students thought of the removal, a random poll was taken, receiving over 50 responses from MHS students and staff.

49 of the responses said that discarding the headphone jack was not a smart idea with only 2 responses believing that it was.

The removal of the jack created Apple’s newest headphones, titled “AirPods.” The AirPods are wireless bluetooth headphones designed the same as the previous iphone’s headphones,which cost $150.

With the low quality enhancements that the iPhone has come out with, an important question pops up, why would you upgrade to a phone that doesn’t seem to be up to par?

“I would only upgrade if my phone was extremely old,” said MHS senior Hannah Truitt. “I have the iPhone 6 and wouldn’t waste money on a phone that seems worse.”

MHS sophomore Emmy Hudak said that she was “willing to wait for the next version,”

Despite the negative improvements on this years version, Apple continues to get customers to buy their products.

MHS sophomore Brian Walker said this was because Apple is such a big-name company. “Nowadays, people will buy anything because of the name.”

“I think it’s because they’re a reliable company,” said Garrett Posey. “…but this phone is a bust. It looks like we’ll have to wait for the iPhone 8.”