The most complete iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus review

Tick ​​tock - this is how you can describe the iPhone release schedule since the 3GS model. IPhone has been released for one year with a new design and many new features. Next year, a model comes out with the same design and faster processor, as well as a number of new features. This sequence has remained unchanged from year to year, but now the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus have appeared and disrupted the orderly course of events.

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Looking at them, you can think about the next minor updates within the familiar corpus, but the situation is somewhat more complicated. Apple has created two world-class smartphones that can be described as a safe bet for developers rather than an attempt to make works of art. It is not yet clear whether the new product will be included in smartphone rating 2016 year.

Hardware

Apple believes that the design of the last two years remains relevant now, so the developers have focused on issues of aesthetics, correcting some of the existing flaws in the appearance of their smartphones. Some changes are difficult to notice at first glance. Antenna strips are now located on the sides of the chassis instead of at the back. The 12MP camera (two cameras in the 7 Plus case) is surrounded by an aluminum lip, extending beyond the body more than before. Apple made the base model with 32GB of storage instead of 16GB, with a maximum of 256GB of internal storage. Both models are exactly the same size as last year, but are a few grams lighter.

The list of changes then starts to look more significant. If you are lucky, you will never learn from personal experience about the protection of the case against water and dust (IP67 standard). At a depth of no more than a meter, the devices can work for half an hour. Many competitors have smartphones with similar protection for a long time, allowing you not to worry about getting caught in the rain and without fear of dropping your smartphone into the bath. Unfortunately, liquid damage is not covered under Apple's warranty.

The Home button is no longer physical. When pressed, it responds to user input with vibration, rather than clicking. At the same time, it became more difficult to understand that the press took place. It can take a couple of days to get used to such a button.

There are new color options for smartphones: matte black and shiny black. The first looks like a typical black iPhone, hiding the antenna stripes from view. The second one does not feel like an aluminum device in the hands, but seems to be plastic. It looks as glossy and thin as the glass of the screen, this unity gives it great integrity.

Imprints and scratches appear soon after use. Without a cover, they took less than a day to appear, which is facilitated by carrying in a pocket and placing on hard surfaces. Fans of the perfect case can only buy a case or another smartphone.

As has been said many times before the announcement of new products, the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 have lost their usual 3.5 mm headphone jack for decades. It got rid of it not only to increase the size of the battery and create a waterproof case, but also so that, according to Apple's long-standing tradition, use its own proprietary connector where everyone else uses the standard version.

You can forget about listening to music and charging your smartphone at the same time, unless the headphones are wireless or you have a Lightning splitter. Apple wasn't the only company to ditch the old headphone jack. Motorola has previously released two flagship smartphones with USB Type-C for audio.

Screen and sound

The stock iPhone 7 is back with a 4.7-inch Retina HD screen, while the Plus has a 5.5-inch screen. Resolution and pixel density remain the same. Not trying to catch up with other manufacturers in the resolution race, Apple has focused on displaying high-quality colors. The display supports the DCI-P3 color range, which displays more colors than the standard sRGB range. This means more vibrant and richer colors than before.

What does this mean in everyday use of the device? It depends on the user's vision. The difference between current screens and last year's is not always obvious. Colors have become a little brighter, small shades make them more authentic - the sky is bluer, sunsets are warmer, people's skin is livelier.

When working outdoors, the screens of the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus get a new trick. An ambient light sensor is used to detect if the unit is indoors. If not, the screen brightness is increased to better see it in the sun. Alas, there is no TrueTone color temperature adjustment system from the iPad Pro tablet.

The new smartphones are the first with stereo sound (available on Android for a long time). Why it took so long as usual is not clear. Movies, podcasts, and calls sound much better.

The adapter between the Lightning and 3.5 mm connector allows you to use your existing headphones, the sound quality is no different compared to previous iPhones.

Camera

On the back of the smartphone is an excellent 12MP camera. The resolution has not increased compared to last year, the pixel size of the sensor has not increased. At the same time, the quality of photos has improved, they have more details, colors are more saturated and reliable.

The camera in the iPhone 7 captures more color information (which will come in handy given the growing color range of the screen). Photos are no worse than the Galaxy S7 Edge. The latter has a larger viewing angle, but the iPhone's color rendition seems to be more accurate. The exposure turns out to be better than the 6s. However, all smartphones shoot well in the light, but what about in low light?

It all depends on luck. The inclusion of optical image stabilization in both versions helps to improve photo quality, as does the f / 1.8 aperture. Photos from the Samsung S7 Edge look brighter, but they are more natural on the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. Previously, the S7 and Note 7 cameras seemed to be the best in smartphones, but now Apple is not inferior.

The front camera has also been updated. The resolution has grown from 5 megapixels to 7 megapixels, taking some of the capabilities of the rear cameras. In short, selfies look better than before, as do videos that also deliver accurate colors.

The rear camera of the iPhone 7 Plus is dual - a 12MP wide-angle module and a 12MP telephoto camera, which gives a real zoom. Apple is far from the first company to try a dual camera module and use zoom; LG has done the same earlier this year with mixed success. Apple's approach looks more elegant - with a quick tap you can toggle between 1x and 2x zoom modes, you can use a slider, or operate with two fingers. Digital zoom works up to 10x; the closer to the limit, the more noise in the images.

All this looks like a marketing fad that not every user will need. In any case, the quality of the photos is excellent, although you can notice differences in color and exposure of the two cameras of the iPhone 7 Plus. The second of them has aperture of f / 2.8. It lets in less light, which makes the image look different, something only experienced photographers will notice. So far, this is the only 7 Plus trick that the standard version does not have, but this will soon change. Apple is going to update the Plus model with the ability to change the depth of the image.

Software

The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus received not the most interesting hardware updates, but the iOS 10 operating system offers a lot of new things. Since the public beta version of the system has been available for many months, we will not see any surprises.

It will take time to get used to the modified Photos application. The previous version was quite simple, allowing you to scroll through all the photos and view albums. The iOS 10 version uses machine learning to thematically sort photos based on where you were in those photos and what you were doing. The best innovation is keyword search.

It turned out to be easier to get used to the modified Music application. The first time you boot, the music library opens, the icons are large and easy to click. The 3D Touch function is increasingly used. It allows you to expand notifications, displays context menus, and shows application widgets.

Apple is using the Taptic Engine vibration engine. It is used when working with 3D Touch and the Home button, when opening the control center, when scrolling through music, giving the feeling of flipping a finger on a real page and making it easier to stop and make a choice.

Reboot 7 and 7 Plus will now activate differently than before. Instead of holding the Power and Home buttons, you need to hold the Power and Volume buttons.

Now the bad news: we have not yet been able to test some of the features of iOS 10. Siri's intelligence should be boosted by third-party apps, but it's still not possible to call a taxi in Uber or send money to a friend via Venmo. The iMessage store is now almost empty.

Performance and autonomy

The next year brings a new A-series chip. The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are powered by the A10 Fusion processor, which has two fast cores and two economical ones that use five times less power. It is the fastest mobile processor in Apple history, ahead of the iPad Pro's A9X. The difference between the 7 and 7 Plus lies in the amount of RAM, 2 GB and 3 GB respectively.

For the tests, the data was transferred from the backup from the iPhone 6s and the difference was obvious. There are almost no delays when clicking on application icons, the transition between programs is also fast. Games like Warhammer 40,000: Freeblade, Submerged and Mortal Kombat X with high graphics requirements run smoothly.

The 6s and 6s Plus do almost as well, but use more power. This is partly because the 6s battery has degraded over time, but the A10 Fusion's great energy efficiency is beyond question. When you work with a smartphone every day, you don't have to think about performance.

It is impossible not to mention the batteries, the capacity of which has grown. One of the benefits of ditching the headphone jack is the more free space, which is why the battery has grown by 14% in the iPhone 7 and 5% in the 7 Plus. In video tests on Wi-Fi with a screen brightness of 50%, the iPhone 7 lasted 12 hours and 18 minutes, two hours longer than the 6s, and the 7 Plus lasted 14 hours and 10 minutes, an hour and a half longer than the 6s Plus.

When working with Slack, Mail, Spotify and Hearthstone applications, the device lasts all day and even the next morning. The 7 Plus lives even longer, at times two days at average usage, which is a marked improvement over the 6s Plus.

Conclusion

The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are the most technologically advanced iPhones and the most controversial. Apple has made improvements to speed, camera, screen, and battery, but each improvement is underwhelming on its own, although collectively they matter more. That's just the Apple, which is the locomotive of the smartphone market, this year we will not see.

If the buyer is not deterred by the too familiar appearance and the lack of a headphone jack, then the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus can be considered a serious candidate for the title of the best device of the year. The best, but not the most innovative. We have already seen many of the presented functions in devices from other manufacturers. Apart from eliminating the headphone jack, Apple hasn't made any unexpected moves. There is nothing wrong with that, but now it remains to think about what interesting iPhones will bring in another year.

Pros and cons of iPhone 7

Pros:

• Performance
• Excellent 12MP camera
• Improved batteries
• Waterproof case

Minuses:

• No headphone jack
• Unchanged design for the third year in a row
• The new Home button takes some getting used to

Pros and cons of iPhone 7 Plus

Pros:

• Excellent performance
• Great dual cameras on the back
• Longest battery life in iPhone history
• Waterproof case

Minuses:

• No headphone jack
• Price
• Unchanged design for the third year in a row
• The new Home button takes some getting used to