Phone cameras are getting really damn good.
Samsung’s Galaxy S7, the Google Pixel, and the iPhone 7 all take photos that sometimes border on astonishing. In that sense, the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus aren’t as distinctive as phones anymore. They’re excellently made, superfast, and this time they’re water-resistant, too. They’re great phones, but we already knew that about the iPhone.
When Apple first made the larger Plus phones back in 2014, the appeal was always about screen size, battery life, and to a small extent, the camera. Really, all the larger 5.5-inch model had that the standard 4.7-incher didn’t was optical image stabilization(OIS). This year, the iPhone 7 finally gets OIS - great for smoothing out shaky-handed pics and videos.
That’s just one of the many similarities between the 7 and 7 Plus. Really, they’re two variants on the same phone:
Both are water-resistant.
Both have the same fast A10 Fusion processor.
Both have optical image stabilization on the rear camera for better low-light photos.
Both lack headphone jacks.
The iPhone 7 Plus has a few distinct advantages:
Two rear cameras - one wide angle, one telephoto - that can zoom in at 2x or even further digitally. And it can create depth-of-field blur effects, or "bokeh" type effects, with portrait photos in a unique camera mode.
Better battery life, but not by a huge amount.
Larger 5.5-inch 1080p display.
3GB of RAM, instead of 2GB
It’s heavier and bigger.
And, of course, it costs more.