The most comprehensive review of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus

Tick-on - so you can describe the schedule of releases of iPhones from the time of the 3GS model. One year the iPhone is released with a new design and a lot of new features. The next year there is a model with the same design and a faster processor, as well as a number of new features. From year to year this sequence remained unchanged, but now appeared iPhone 7 and 7 Plus and broke the orderly course of events.

Looking at them, you can think about the next minor updates within the familiar corps, but the situation is somewhat more complicated. Apple has created two world-class smartphones, which can be called a safer developer rate than an attempt to make works of art. It is not yet clear whether the novelty will go into the rating of smartphones in 2016.

Hardware

Apple believes that the design of the last two years remains relevant andnow, so that developers have focused their attention on the issues of aesthetics, correcting some existing flaws in the appearance of their smartphones. Some changes at first sight are difficult to notice. The antenna stripes are now located on the sides of the case, not behind. The 12 megapixel camera( two cameras in case of 7 Plus) is surrounded by an aluminum ledge, extending beyond the body beyond the previous one. Apple made the base model with 32 GB of flash memory instead of 16 GB, and the maximum was 256 GB of internal memory. Both models have exactly the same size as last year's, but have become a few grams lighter.

Then the list of changes begins to look more significant. If you are lucky, you will never learn from personal experience about the protection of the housing from water and dust( IP67 standard).At a depth of no more than a meter, the apparatus can work for half an hour. At many competitors smart phones have such protection for a long time, allowing not to worry about getting in the rain and not being afraid to drop the smartphone into the bath. Unfortunately, damage to liquids is not covered by Apple's warranty.

The Home button has stopped being physical. When pressed, it responds to user actions by vibration, not by clicking. At the same time, it is more difficult to understand that the pressing 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 from the look of the antenna strip. The second one does not feel like an aluminum device, but it seems plastic. It looks as glossy and thin as the screen glass, this unity gives it greater integrity.

Shortly after the start of use, prints and scratches appear. Without a cover for their appearance, it took less than 24 hours, which is facilitated by carrying in your pocket and placing on hard surfaces. Fans of the ideal look of the case can buy a case or another smartphone.

How many times it was said before the announcement of new products, the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 lost the usual 3.5-mm jack for headphones for decades. They got rid of it not only to increase the size of the battery and create a waterproof case, but also to use Apple's own traditionally proprietary connector where all the others use the standard version.

You can forget about simultaneously listening to music and charging your smartphone, unless the headphones are wireless or you have a splitter for the Lightning connector. Apple was not the only company to abandon the old headphone jack. Motorola previously released two flagship smartphones with a USB-type C for audio.

Screen and sound

The standard iPhone 7 again received a 4.7-inch screen Retina HD, and Plus has a 5.5-inch screen. The resolution and density of the pixels are the same. Not trying to catch up with other manufacturers in the race permits, Apple focused on displaying a screen of quality colors. The display supports the DCI-P3 color range, which displays more colors than the standard sRGB range. This means more vibrant and saturated colors than before.

What does this mean for everyday use of the device? It depends on the view of the user. The difference between the current screens and last year's is not always obvious. The colors became slightly brighter, small shades make them more authentic - the sky is bluer, sunsets are warmer, the skin of people is more alive.

When working outdoors, the screens of the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus got a new trick. An ambient light sensor is used to determine if the unit is in the room. If not, the screen brightness increases to better see it in the sun. Alas, but there is no system for adjusting the TrueTone color temperature from the iPad Pro tablet.

New smartphones became the first with stereo sound( long available on Android).Why it took so long, as is usually not clear. Movies, podcasts and calls began to sound much better.

Adapter between the connector Lightning and 3.5 mm allows you to use the available headphones, the sound quality compared to the previous iPhone does not differ.

Camera

On the back of the smartphone is an excellent camera with a resolution of 12 megapixels. The resolution did not increase in comparison with last year's, the pixel size of the sensor did not become bigger. At the same time, the quality of photos has improved, they have become more details, colors are more saturated and reliable.

The camera in the iPhone 7 captures more color information( which will have to be done with the growth in the color range of the screen).The photos are no worse than in the Galaxy S7 Edge. The latter has a larger viewing angle, but the color reproduction of the iPhone seems more accurate. Exposure is better than 6s. However, all smartphones are well photographed in the light, and how things are in case of poor lighting?

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

The front camera has also been updated. The resolution from 5 Mp has grown to 7 Mp, some possibilities of rear cameras are taken. To put it briefly, SELFI photos look better than the previous ones, as well as video, which also conveys the exact colors.

Rear camera for iPhone 7 Plus dual - wide-angle module 12 megapixel camera and 12 megapixel camera, giving a real zoom. Apple is by no means the first company to try a dual camera module and using zoom;LG earlier this year with varying success did the same. Apple's approach looks more elegant - a quick tap can switch between 1x and 2x zoom modes, you can use the slider or control 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, which will not be necessary for every user. In any case, the quality of photos is excellent, although you can notice differences in colors and exposure of two cameras iPhone 7 Plus. In the second of them, the aperture ratio is f / 2.8.She misses less light, due to which the image is different, that only experienced photographers will notice. So far this is the only 7 Plus trick that the standard version does not have, but it will change soon. Apple is going to update the Plus model with the ability to change the depth of the image.

The

software for the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus did not receive the most interesting hardware updates, but the iOS 10 operating system offers a lot of new features. Since the public beta version of the system was available for many months, we will not see any surprises.

It takes time to get used to the modified Photos application. The previous version was very simple, allowing you to scroll through all the photos and watch albums. The version from iOS 10 uses machine learning for thematic sorting of photos depending on where you were in these photos and what they were doing. The best innovation was search by keywords.

It was easier to get used to the modified Music application. At the first boot, a library of music files opens, icons are large and easy to press. An increasing application is found by the 3D Touch function. It allows you to extend notifications, displays context menus and shows application widgets.

Apple uses the vibration engine of the Taptic Engine. It is used when working with the 3D Touch and the Home button, when you open the control center, when you scroll through the music, giving you a feeling as if you are flipping your finger on the current page and allowing you to easily stop and make a choice.

Reloading 7 and 7 Plus is now not activated the same way as before. Instead of holding down the power button and Home, you need to keep the power and volume buttons.

Now the bad news: I have not been able to test some of the features of iOS 10 yet. The Siri intelligence should grow thanks to third-party applications, but it is not possible to call a taxi to Uber or send money to a friend through Venmo. The iMessage store is now almost empty.

Performance and autonomy

The next year brings a new chip series A. iPhone 7 and 7 Plus run on the A10 Fusion processor, where there are two fast cores and two economical, consuming five times less energy. This is the fastest mobile processor in the history of Apple, ahead of the A9X of the iPad Pro. The difference between 7 and 7 Plus is in the amount of RAM, 2 GB and 3 GB, respectively.

For tests, the data was transferred from a backup copy from the iPhone 6s and the difference was obvious. Almost no delay when clicking on the application icons, the transition between programs is also fast. Games like Warhammer 40,000: Freeblade, Submerged and Mortal Kombat X with high graphics requirements go without any problems.

6s and 6s Plus cope with them almost as well, but they consume more energy. This is partly because the 6s battery has degraded over time, but the high energy efficiency of the A10 Fusion is beyond doubt. When you work with your smartphone everyday, you do not have to remember the performance.

It is impossible not to mention batteries whose capacity has increased. One of the pluses of the rejection of the headphone jack is more free space, which is why the battery grew by 14% in the iPhone 7 and 5% at 7 Plus. In video tests, when working on a Wi-Fi network with a screen brightness of 50%, iPhone 7 worked 12 hours 18 minutes, two hours longer than 6s, and 7 Plus extended 14 hours 10 minutes, an hour and a half longer than the 6s Plus.

	iPhone 7	iPhone 7 Plus	iPhone 6s	iPhone 6s Plus
3DMark Unlimited IS	37,663	37,784	24,601	27,542
Geekbench 3( multi-core)	5.544	5.660	4.427	4.289
Basemark OS II	3.639	3.751	2,354	2,428

When working with Slack, mail, Spotify and Hearthstone applications, the device is available all day and even the next morning.7 Plus lives even longer, sometimes two days at an average level of use, which became a noticeable progress compared to the 6s Plus.

Conclusion

The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are the most technically advanced iPhones and the most controversial ones. Apple improved speed, camera, screen and battery, but every improvement in itself does not cause enthusiasm, although in the aggregate they are more important. That's just the Apple that is the locomotive of the smartphone market, this year we will not see.

If the buyer does not scare off the usual appearance and 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. Many of the functions we have already seen before in the apparatuses of other manufacturers. Apart from eliminating the headphone jack, Apple did not make any unexpected moves. In this there is nothing wrong, but now it remains to think about what the interesting will bring iPhones a year from now.

Pros:

• Pros:
  • Performance
  • Excellent camera with 12 megapixel resolution
  • Improved batteries
  • Waterproof case

  Cons:

  • No headphone jack
  • For the third consecutive year, the unchanged design of
  • The new button Home is getting used to

  Pros and cons of the iPhone7 Plus

  Pros:

  • Excellent performance
  • Excellent dual camera behind
  • The longest battery life in the history of iPhones
  • Waterproof case

  Cons:

  • No headphone jack
  • Price
  • For the third consecutive year, the unchanged design of
  • The new button Home will get used to