It appears the positioning support holes and electrical connections for a vertical grip are missing from the D7500 base. Also no vertical grip is mentioned in the accessories section so far.
No vertical grip, one SD slot, no AI metering, tilt-screen ... the specifications seem closer to the D5xxx line (except it has front and rear command dials). Disappointing for what has traditionally been the "enthusiast" line of cameras.
Center-weighted: Weight of 75% given to 8 mm circle in center of frame. Diameter of circle can be changed to 6, 10, or 13 mm, or weighting can be based on average of entire frame (non-CPU lenses use 8-mm circle)
[...]
Spot: Meters circle with diameter of about 3.5 mm (about 2.5% of frame) centered on selected focus point (on center focus point when non-CPU lens is used)
This clearly suggests that metering is available for non-CPU lenses, and if the camera does not support AI, surely this can only mean stop-down metering. If so, lack of AI support wouldn't be quite so bad. No AI linkage should also mean pre-AI lenses can fit without modification, so this might be an advantage for some users, although I guess the number or photographers who still use pre-AI lenses is very small.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if Nikon makes similar decisions for the D610 replacement
In the end, it makes little difference to me since I am not in the market for an FX or DX camera. My D600 is performing well enough, my wife needs to replace her ageing D50, but we will look for a more compact camera, something like m4/3 with 14-140 zoom or Panasonic ZS100/TZ100.