There are more changes than there are in a typical ‘S’ cycle, but if you have a Rose Gold iPhone 6s or a Silver iPhone 6 Plus, for example, the differences may not be apparent at first glance. In a world in which a device’s reception is driven by its looks, it was no surprise that the initial reaction to iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus was lukewarm.
Apple didn’t help matters with the "courageous" move of dropping the headphone port, with everyone and their friend Jack outraged even before anyone had a chance to test the impact of the move in the real world. So how do the new iPhone models stack up against their predecessors and competing flagships from the Android world? Like last year, we’ve spent more time than we do with most phones before sharing our thoughts with you, and here’s our review of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.
iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus design
As we mentioned earlier, the new iPhone models can easily be mistaken for their predecessors at first glance. The most visible change is that two of the antenna lines that marred the otherwise beautiful design of the previous iPhone models have been removed. The ones that remain are flush with the top and bottom edges, making them a lot less prominent than before; in fact, on the Black and Jet Black variants they are all but invisible.
Which brings us to another break from tradition - the launch of not one, but two new colours. Gone is our previous favourite Space Grey, replaced with two great new options – Black, and the rather imaginatively named Jet Black. While the former has the same classy, understated matte finish as before, the latter features a glossy finish that makes it a bit of fingerprint magnet.
Jet Black iPhone 7
This year, we received a Black iPhone 7 Plus and a Jet Black iPhone 7 as our review units. We spent our initial days alternating between using the two as our primary phones, before we ultimately settled on the iPhone 7.
This was down to two reasons. First, the Jet Black finish itself. As we stated in our Sony Xperia XZ review, the Jet Black finish gives the best in-hand feel we’ve experienced with a mobile device. The finish has just the right balance between grip and smoothness. In comparison, the Black finish on our iPhone 7 Plus felt a bit too boring. Of course as someone who’s looking to buy a new phone, you can get the Jet Black finish in both iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, so this won’t be a factor for you.
Second, as we will discuss through the course of the review, the differences in performance and features between the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus isn’t the same as between iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, so apart from the slightly cramped typing experience(we were using the iPhone 6s Plus as our primary device before), we didn’t feel like we were ‘settling’ for the smaller iPhone. Now we admit part of the appeal of the iPhone 7 could be our nostalgia for smaller phones in a world where every other new release seems to be pushing the envelope on how big a phone can get.
Back to the Jet Black finish, and fingerprints are not the only thing it attracts - as Apple itself points out on its website, the new finish is more scratch-prone than others. Since we love the finish so much, and have never been fans of cases, we used the iPhone 7 without any protection for the duration of our testing, and for most of this time we couldn’t see what the fuss was about. Despite using it as our primary device for over two months, we didn’t notice any scratches on our Jet Black iPhone 7 - until we saw our unit under a particular light and then dozens of tiny scratches at the back suddenly became visible!
Thankfully, this wasn’t a case of not being able to un-see something after having seen it. We went back to business without really being bothered, but if you are someone who worries about the resale value of your phone, this is something you might need to keep in mind.
Typing on the iPhone 7 felt just a little bit cramped
iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus display
The Camera app is pretty much what you’ve seen on earlier iPhone models. The one new option(introduced in iOS 10.2) that some may find useful allows the Camera app to remember the last Mode(e.g. Video/ Square etc.) and Filter(e.g. Chrome) that was applied, instead of automatically resetting the options to Photo and None respectively.
The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus both have quad-LED True Tone flashes, compared to the previous models’ dual-LED ones, and this is one of the most effective, least overbearing camera phone flash implementations we’ve come across. The screen flash on the front camera is another one of our favourite features, lighting up faces in a natural way even in completely dark settings.
Talking about the front camera, there are improvements like a bump to 7-megapixel sensor(compared to 5-megapixel), and full-HD video recording, compared to 720p seen on the iPhone 6s generation. As you would expect, the front camera also adds wide-gamut support, as well as auto image stabilisation.
The front and rear camera now also support body and face detection(compared to only face detection in previous generation iPhone models), and you can use the optical zoom on the bigger 7 Plus during videos too. Other than that, the experience is pretty much identical to that with the previous generation iPhone models.
iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus software
The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus come with iOS 10 out of the box, and while we’ve explored the new features elsewhere, let’s briefly touch upon some of them here. Perhaps the first thing you will notice is that the iconic Slide to Unlock is now gone; replaced by the initially confusing Press home to unlock. While this took some getting used on our previous-generation iOS devices, it feels a lot more natural on the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus thanks to the redesigned home button.
The other big change on the lock screen is the introduction of widgets. Swipe right and you will be greeted by a list of widgets, which were earlier restricted to the Notification Centre. The notifications that you see on the lock screen are also richer, letting you do a lot more than before. Whether you just want to check some information via the widgets or quickly respond to a message or an email, there are fewer reasons to unlock your iPhone.
Of course this means you are potentially exposing a lot more information than before to anyone who might have physical access to your device, even without unlocking it. Thankfully, iOS has always had the ability to control the kind of notifications that are displayed on the lock screen, and you can obviously choose the widgets you want to see as well. You can also disable lock screen widgets completely if you want.
Another big change that you might or might not notice is the ability to ‘uninstall’ some of the stock apps that iOS devices ship with. If you’ve ever looked at, say, the Stocks app or the Podcasts app, and thought you don’t have any use for them, there wasn’t really a way of getting rid of them from your device. What most people ended up doing is creating a folder(hello Apple Junk) that became the dumping ground for all such apps. Now, you don’t need the folder anymore; you can simply remove these apps like you’d remove any others.
There are still a few things you need to remember though. First, when you uninstall an app, you are not really removing it from the device - the only thing that gets removed is its icon. This means you won’t free up any space on your device, which is a bit of a shame. On the flipside, if you ever want those apps back, just search for them on the App Store and they will ‘install’ in seconds.
Lock screen widgets(left) and what happens when you tap a’mailto’ link with the Mail app uninstalled(right).
Second, while you can uninstall most of Apple’s apps including the likes of Mail, some apps deemed critical to the operating system’s functioning cannot be removed. These include Phone, Messages, Settings, Camera, Photos,