iPhone 7 & 7 Plus Review

iPhone 7 & 7 Plus is the most opinionated, powerful and attention-grabbing phone Apple has ever launched and of course, expresses the vision of the company towards a far-future.  In fact, when compared with its predecessor, it got waterproofing, dual speakers, best battery, improved screen and improved camera.  If this phone has reached our hands last year, it would have been the best phone of the year.

Even though the device comes with new innovations from convention, when wrapped up in a case, it looks exactly like the former two predecessors. However, when inside the case, iPhone 7 showcases itself as a future element.  The dual camera on iPhone 7 Plus assures new era for mobile photography.  The home button is not a physical button anymore, instead, incorporates pressure sensors & haptic vibration motors which enable us to feel it as a button.  The new A10 fusion processor integrates two high-power cores which can compete with the performance of a laptop and two low-power cores combine with a large battery enhances the battery life to two additional hours.

And of course, we will talk about headphone jack, which is removed by Apple in the successor.

Removing the Headphone Jack from the Successor:

iPhone 7 comes with no headphone jack.  According to Apple, removal of headphone jack was to accommodate more space for enhanced camera, the Taptic Engine, and for a larger battery.  Moreover, to be water resistant, a lesser hole would be a plus, even though Apple do not consider it to be a huge factor.  In a sea of identikit phones, this does look as an alternative option.

Removal of the headphone jack is not the first event of dropping a technology from its product.  Floppy drive, optical drives, USB were too dropped likely.  With a massive customer base who trust & love Apple products, definitely helps Apple to make this decision happen.

Without the headphone jack, Apple is really pushing wireless audio, suggesting how future tech should be.  Even though the case looks similar to dental floss.  This is a real inconvenient while everyone adapts.  The good news is, the guys who spend a good money on decent headphones can still use it in iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus with a lightning to 3.5mm headphone jack.  For those who aren’t ready for lightning cables, this will smooth the transition.

Design – following the Predecessor:

As said, iPhone 7 and 7 Plus almost looks like iPhone 6 and 6 Plus from 2014, when wrapped in a case.

The successor comes as water resistant, which is quite a good attribute, however not completely waterproof or not as quite as water resistant as Samsung Galaxy S7.  Still, you wouldn’t freak out when the phone gets wet casually, and that’s definitely a plus.

No headphone jack does come under the design upgrade.

The antenna lines on the back have been tweaked and coloured to blend right into the sides of the body for jet black and matte black models, which stands out to be a good alteration.  The jet black version is nice, shiny, feels news and absolutely loves fingerprints.  Having a case if highly recommended as it is prone to scratch.  The Sad part is, with the case on, it just looks like the predecessor and you can’t show off the new device. 

Home Button:

The new home button may provoke the instant response of the users as its totally different.  Like before it, not a physical button instead incorporates pressure sensors & haptic vibration motors which enable us to feel it as a button.  The button no longer moves, and totally solid.  The Taptic Engine makes it feel like a click when the pressure is applied on the button.

You can set it to different level of feedbacks but none of them feel like a real button.  Although it works terrifically fine with MaBooks, at iPhone 7 It makes a feeling that the entire bottom of the phone is clicking, rather than pushing a button.

Display:

Taptic Engine do add more fun feedback to iOS 10.  When the notification shade down is dropped, the phone does a little bump.  Making it feel as if the software on the screen do have weight as well as inertia.  Taptic Engine feedback do add new UI concept with 3D Touch as a gimmick, in effect enhancing the display – It's sharp, bright, with beautiful LCD.

Display always shows a wide range of colours, which is noticeable when you take a photo and view it with iPhone 7.  You can definitely sort the difference instantly when you view the photo taken by 7 and 6S at the 7’s screen.

Dual Speakers:

Another notable external hardware change is the integration of stereo speakers.  As usual, one speaker is at the bottom, and another one is integration into the earpiece.  This improves watching videos and conference calls to a great extent, however, doesn’t replace the real speakers.

Cameras:

Here iPhone 7 represents an upgrade on the predecessor with a new, faster f/1.8 lens, with optical image stabilization, wider colour capture, and four-colour True Tone flash.  Altogether, it adds up to be a good upgrade.  But it’s not a hugely been, it’s about the same as the Galaxy S7.  At low lights, the faster lens with optical image stabilization, 7 definitely beats of 6S. Camera bump has been enlarged and more artfully curved into the rear casing, looks exceptionally good with a single camera.

Major enhancement is seen on the iPhone 7 Plus, as it has two f/1.8 28 wide-angle lens and telephoto lens instead of a single lens and sensor when compared with iPhone 7.  Both the cameras work together, which entails true 2x zoom with just a tap on a button, which is definitely nice to have.  You are able to digitally zoom the 1x lens to 2x, with telephoto taking over, digitally zooming of the 2x lens can be carried out to 10x.  Even though digital zoom past 4x offers a grainy digital zoom, iPhone 7 Plus definitely crack the nuts of 6S.  You might not notice the quality in your day to day activity as its only little bit better, however, the performance edge, low-light with extreme details excels.  Lens leads to a slightly softer background and colours are a little bit more vibrant straight off the camera and you can really check out the increased vibrancy on the new iPhone 7 screen as it displays a much wider range of colours.

One can clearly tell a photo apart from the successor when you look at them on 7.

Performance:

iPhone 7 comes with new A10 Fusion chip with four cores.  Two high-performance cores and two low-power cores which consume less battery power at everyday tasks.

A10 Fusion is way faster than A9X available at iPad Pro, however, it isn’t noticeable unless the processor is pushed to use the high-performance cores.  High-end games and other absolute can definitely take advantage of the high-performance cores.

Battery:

iOS 10 improvement facilitate to run 2 additional hours when compared with 6S and 7 Plus goes an hour longer when compared with 6S Plus.  Under normal day-to-day activity iPhone 7 span 7-10 hours battery life, and 7 Plus span 10-12 hours, which is pretty much Apple claims.  However, under heavier load, it stands equivalent to the predecessor.

The additional hours which the battery saves definitely helps on the desperate moments.

iOS 10:

iOS 10 is really wonderful and one of the nicest updates.  It clearly senses on how you should flow between operations and a much more attractive visual design.  It comes with all new features, a new version of Siri which can be extended by third-party apps, smart home device integration, enhanced Control Center, better Music, and News apps along with tons of exciting new features.

Price of iPhone 7 & 7 Plus:

Phone	Price
iPhone 7 (32 GB)	AED 2,599.00
iPhone 7 (128 GB)	AED 2,999.00
iPhone 7 (256 GB)	AED 3,399.00
iPhone 7 Plus (32 GB)	AED 3,099.00
iPhone 7 Plus (128 GB)	AED 3,499.00
iPhone 7 Plus (256 GB)	AED 3,899.00

Pros of iPhone 7 & 7 Plus:

• Improved cameras
• Water resistance
• Enhanced battery life
• Taptic engine feedback is great
• Dual camera zoom at 7 Plus is exceptional
• Great display

Cons of iPhone 7 & & Plus:

• Inconvenience over no headphone jack
• Looks almost like iPhone 6 when in a case
• Jet Black absorbs fingerprints & gets scratches easily
• #donglelife
• Wireless audio ecosystem
• Design for iPhone 7 feels big when compared with its competition

Conclusion:

Do iPhone 7 stands for the price?

iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are among the attention-grabbing, opinionated phones Apple has ever launched, and of course, expresses the company’s vision in the long run.  It definitely comes with an enhanced camera, phenomenal performance and excellent iOS 10 and of course long lasting batteries.

These attributes make iPhone 7 & 7 Plus awesome.