IPhone 7 review: The best iPhone ever is still very “meh”
BY TODD HASELTON | SEPTEMBER 27, 2016
Share The other day, a friend asked me if it was worth upgrading from his iPhone 6 Plus to an iPhone 7 Plus. My answer was “no.”
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That conversation helped me understand how I wanted to approach this review, which I found to be particularly difficult this year.
First, no matter what I write, Apple will almost certainly sell tens of millions of units over the coming months. Second, this is the first time ever that Apple hasn’t really made a huge upgrade after an “S” model release. The design is relatively unchanged and a user could very easily be none-the-wiser in thinking this iPhone 7 was an iPhone 6 or aniPhone 6s. Save for a few tweaks, namely the camera and the home button, it very much looks the same.
That’s not to say there aren’t upgrades. There certainly are. It is indeed the best iPhone to-date, certainly the most powerful. But there aren’t enough justifications for most people to upgrade from anything newer than an iPhone 6.
For this review, I’m going to discuss the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plusinterchangeably, only pointing out the differences when necessary as we move along. Hardware
With the iPhone 7, Apple very clearly refined the design it first introduced with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. It started to do that a bit last year, but the company really finished up with the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. While the phone feels the same, there are small bits here and there that make a difference, and the end result is excellent, if a bit boring to look at.
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The biggest change, of course, is the lack of a headphone jack. I didn’t find this to be as big of an issue as I originally thought, given that my favorite headphones are a pair of Bose QC35s, which are Bluetooth. In my car, I use either the USB port or Bluetooth for connectivity, so the lack of an aux connection wasn’t a big deal. Some folks might be a bit annoyed, especially audiophiles, but this isn’t a huge concern for the rest of us. Apple includes an adapter in the box, in addition to a set of new Apple EarPod headphones with a Lightning connector.
I want to address that one more time, because there seems to be confusion among friends and family I’ve talked to.Apple still includes headphones in the box. These aren’t the wireless AirPods you’ve read about, which don’t launch until October. They’re wired, they plug into the bottom of the phone like before, and there’s no discernible quality change ( to me) . The adapter will allow your old headphones to work.