As with last year’s iPhone choices, you can also opt for the step-up iPhone 7 Plus, which offers a larger screen(5.5 inches vs. 4.7 inches). But that model’s big attraction is the dual rear cameras, which can stitch together two images to offer unique effects such as 2x optical zoom and - after a future software upgrade - a cool in-camera bokeh effect, which blurs the background while keeping the foreground in focus.
Now, should you wait until 2017? All the rumors point to Apple delivering a major design overhaul for the iPhone’s 10th anniversary - anything from a Galaxy Edge-style wraparound OLED screen to a fingerprint sensor hidden under the screen to wireless charging. It’s tempting. But in the meantime, especially if you want to take advantage of the various retro-contract "free with 2-year commitment" offers, know that the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are worthy, useful upgrades to their predecessors - even if they look almost identical from the outside.
Despite living in a mostly wearable, wireless world, I don’t like Bluetooth headphones. And I also hate dongles. I’m learning to deal with both now. Apple’s new AirPods make a case
In a world of curved eye-popping displays, the iPhone now looks a little old-fashioned. It’s slim and attractive and still very well-designed, but the iPhone 7 looks just like the iPhone 6 and 6S. It’s like the MacBook Air, or the iPad: A familiar, old form. Maybe more durable, but it’s mostly the same. Apple smoothed out the seams that used to hide the phone’s antennae, so the aluminum around the back looks smoother. The camera bump is larger, by just a bit.
You won’t wear down the button, though, because it doesn’t move. And really, it feels a bit like 3D Touch - Apple’s new pressure-sensitive touchscreen tech introduced on the 6S and returning on the 7 - moved into the home button.
So if that home button is now just a flat surface, it also feels like a carrot on a stick to use 3D Touch more. I still don’t use it much, but iOS 10 uses it a lot more.and to some effective ends. There are so many ways to pull up apps from the home screen, or check info, that the home button really isn’t needed much. Now that the screen auto-wakes on lifting, that’s doubly true. I bet that home button will just disappear next year, with the fingerprint reader absorbed into the display.