Canadians to pay a little extra for Apple's iPhone 7

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Canadians salivating over the new iPhone 7 will have to cough up a little more dough than their American neighbours, in order to buy one of the new devices without a contract.

Apple Canada's prices for an unlocked iPhone 7 are up to $84 higher than those set in the United States, when adjusting for the loonie's exchange rate ($1 in USD equals $1.29 Canadian at time of writing). The differences vary according to the specific model, as well as the storage size, but in every case, Canadians will be paying more than Americans for Apple's newest smartphones.

The smaller, cheaper iPhone 7 (with 32GB of storage) will cost Canadians $899, or $62 more than the price in the U.S. (US$649), when converted to Canadian dollars. The 256GB version of the phone will cost $1,029, or $66 more than in the United States.

For the Plus model of the phone, the 32GB is $84 more expensive in Canada, while the top-end, 256GB version is $61 more expensive.

Unlocked phones allow users to pay off the full cost of the phone and shop around for a wireless carrier, instead of subsidizing the cost of the phone over the length of a contract.

However, Canadians who opt to buy the phone as part of a cell phone plan will also likely pay more than those in the United States, to cover the cost of buying the phone from the manufacturer in U.S. dollars.

BNN reporter Jon Erlichman says the higher prices in Canada are a result of instability in the loonie's exchange rate, as well as a strong U.S. dollar. He says Apple is "baking that into the price" with its phone prices in Canada.

The price gap will also affect Apple's other big products announced on Wednesday. The new wireless AirPod headphones, for instance, will retail for $219 in Canada, or approximately $14 more than the price in the United States. Apple Watch pricing will start at $359 in Canada, which is $11 more than the price tag on the device in the United States.

The new iPhone design eliminates the standard headphone jack, with headphones now linking up to the phone through a wired lightning connector or via a Bluetooth wireless connection.

The phones go on sale Sept. 16.