review for iphone 7 and 7 plus
Apple's latest iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are faster, sport significantly better cameras, expand system-wide haptics in iOS 10 with a new solid state Home button and Taptic Engine, introduce Wide Color and other major Retina HD technology improvements without changing their display resolutions, add new water resistance and include updates to system components ranging from RAM to storage to wireless capabilities.
iPhone 7 models deliver six major categories of enhancements over Apple's iPhone 6/6s (the world's top selling smartphones): a newly harmonized Home button and 3D Touch haptic user interface paired with an enhanced Taptic Engine actuator; Wide Color Retina HD Display; a significantly improved A10 Fusion Application Processor providing enhanced speed and efficiency, paired with 2 or 3GB of RAM andlarger batteries for an extra hour or two of use; new rear and FaceTime cameras and lenses with Optical Image Stabilization for more detailed low light photos and smoother video; louder new stereo speakers paired with Lightning and wireless audio and enhanced wireless connectivity that supports faster, feature-enhanced LTE Advanced mobile and MIMO WiFi; and new iP67 dust and liquid intrusion resistance.
Moving to the new non-mechanical Home button has some historical parallels, including Apple's shift from a mechanical Click Wheel on the first iPod to a solid state, capacitative Touch Wheel that contributed to the product's durability. Moving parts are generally among the weakest links on electronic devices.
The original iPhone similarly transitioned smartphone users from physical keyboards to its new multitouch virtual keyboard on the screen. Critics originally complained that the new iPhone was "kind of trending against what people are really liking in phones nowadays, which are those little keypads - the BlackJack from Samsung, the BlackBerry obviously," as John Dvorak opined at the time.
Dvorak, writing for economic bellwether Marketwatch, recommended shorting Apple stock in June 2007 back when it was under $20 per share (split adjusted), due to the idea that users would return iPhones "in droves" to buy something with a physical keyboard.
Apple (and its stock, up over 550 percent) ended up going the opposite direction, incrementally eliminating one mechanical component after the other from its computers every since: optical drives, spinning hard disks, MacBook trackpads and now the iPhone Home button.
In addition to eliminating a fragile part (recall when people were complaining that Touch ID stopped working after unauthorized repairs of broken Home buttons?), the new Home button also makes it easier to achieve dust and liquid intrusion resistance, as discussed later in this review.
The primary downside to the move toward haptics and 3D Touch was that the new layer of digitizer sophistication added some weight and a slight increase in thickness to the phone. The new iPhone 7 models are unchanged in their physical size compared to iPhone 6s, and are actually slightly lighter.
The standard iPhone 7 weighs 4.87 ounces (138 grams) compared to the 5.04oz (143g) iPhone 6s, while iPhone 7 Plus weighs 6.63oz (188g) vs 6.77oz (192g). While other dimensions haven't changed, old covers won't work on the new models unless you cut out a new hole for the larger and repositioned camera bumps. You can check out Apple's latest cover colors at the bottom of this review.
The new 7 and 7 Plus models continue to sell alongside last year's 6s/6s Plus, which are now $100 less (starting at $550), as well as the A9-powered, 4 inch iPhone SE, which starts at $399, Apple's least expensive iPhone ever, despite its modern processor and camera technology refresh earlier this year.
In addition to their new features, iPhone 7 and 7 Plus also stand apart as the only models offering 256GB capacities (iPhone 6s models are available in 32 and 128GB versions, while iPhone SE is sold in 16GB and 64GB versions), and are Apple's only handsets currently offered in the new Black or Jet Black finishes.
Since giving its eighth generation iPhone 6 models larger and higher resolution Retina HD Displays two years ago, Apple has focused on enhancing its display quality and the usability of multitouch rather than simply bumping up pixel count and screen size, as its competitors have been doing at regular intervals (while tacking on forgettable, dead end gimmicks as 3D stereoscopic displays and banana-curved screens).
Last year, Apple's 3D Touch introduced navigation shortcuts (with app Quick Actions) and an added dimension to multitouch gestures (including Peek and Pop, iOS' 3D Touch equivalent to the keyboard-invoked QuickLook and document launching on the Mac).
Given that most iPhone 7 buyers are upgrading from iPhone 6 or older models, or are cashing in their Note 7 recall check or otherwise switching from Android, 3D Touch remains a key new feature of interest on this year's new iPhone models.
Resembling Force Touch on Apple Watch, iPhone 3D Touch similarly employs a "Taptic Engine" to deliver haptic feedback—literally touch sensations—delivered by a precision vibration actuator (a linear induction motor that drives a payload back and forth using electromagnets, with the accuracy of a high fidelity speaker coil).
Over the past decade, Apple has increasingly expanded its use of vibration, starting out just as a crude way to deliver a quieter alternative to a ringing telephone. As a pioneer in accessibility, Apple has applied increasingly sophisticated vibration feedback hardware and software to assist users who can't hear audio feedback, or who are guided by touch rather than sight.
Last year, Apple brought its haptic accessibility technology to mainstream users by designing its new 3D Touch to literally strike a nerve in pairing it with sophisticated and emotive Taptic Engine feedback.
However, it seemed Apple was hard pressed to evoke much excitement for the new interface concept, perhaps largely due to the fact that it was so conservatively rolled out. Apart from enabling Peek and Popfor attachments and some sporadic apps supporting Quick Actions, 3D Touch didn't seem to do a whole lot.
More often than not, experimenting with 3D Touch seemed to lead to the embarrassment of "what are you trying to do, silly human?" rather than the sort of delightful, rewarding feedback afforded by the direct manipulation interface introduced by the Macintosh, or the novel magic of multitouch on the first iPhone.
However, unlike the gimmicky, flameout failures of Samsung's hand waving navigation or Google's Android face unlock or Amazon's face tilting parallax on the original Fire Phone (or the shockingly bad 3D Burns interface of the Galaxy Note 7), Apple's 3D Touch wasn't just a feature thrown out to get some attention—it was the first step in a long term strategy.
The new iOS 10 greatly expands the applications of 3D Touch as part of a continuum involving variable multitouch input and haptic feedback. There was once a time when adding sound effect feedback to the graphical UI of desktop computers was a novel idea. Similarly, haptic vibrations provide a layer of subtle skin feedback that can make touching a hard flat screen as familiar, emotive and intuitive as interacting with an organic being or manipulating a mechanical device.
The new iPhone 7 models get a bigger Taptic Engine capable of providing both more precise and more intense haptic feedback. This is not only used to reinforce 3D Touch gestures. In iOS 10, the system expands the use of haptics so much that audio settings are now labeled as "Sounds and Haptics."
Now activated by default in iOS 10, System Haptics provides subtle tap feedback for "system controls and interactions," including when you turn a virtual switch on or off.
Additionally, iOS 10 allows you to assign various system events (an incoming call, new email, AirDrop, reminder alerts) not just an audio alert (dings, boops and bleeps) or ringtone (short sequences of notes or other sound effects), but a custom vibration—ranging from a basic buzz to the more incessant "Rapid," an SOS signal or a half dozen other preprogrammed haptic sequences.
You can also make up your own vibration—basically a silent haptic ringtone—by tapping out a sequence. You can also assign a custom haptic vibration to a contact, so that when your lover calls, you are alerted with your own person tap sequence evoking Whitney Houston's I wanna dance with somebody (who loves me).
onversely, you can also send that sort of haptic message in iOS 10's new Digital Touch within iMessages, which now works like Apple Watch to send tap sequences. Oddly enough, while Digital Touch taps and heartbeats deliver with haptic feedback to Apple Watch, they only show up as visuals on iPhone 7 (or other iOS devices). If you're set to silent, you get a haptic alert of an incoming message, but you don't feel the taps or heartbeats, and there's no haptic reinforcement of fireballs or kisses or broken hearts. This seems oddly inconsistent.
Another curious omission, given Apple's focus on haptics, is that there's no option for adding haptic feedback to the virtual keyboard as you type. There's a couple reasons why this might be intentional—first off, subtle haptics can quickly grow excessive when over-applied. Getting feedback on a setting change seems a lot more useful than having a constant rumble from the keypad distracting you as you type.
Also, we already know how to type on glass, so adding haptic taps would not only feel excessive and foreign, but would also distract attention from meaningful incoming haptic alerts. Finally, the Taptic Engine uses electricity, so if it's constantly running, that could end up significantly draining the battery.
The haptic-backed 3D Touch introduced last year is now also making its way into the new solid state Home button in iPhone 7. Just like Force Touch on the Retina MacBook, the newest iPhones make use of the Taptic Engine to deliver haptic feedback that stands in for the physical click of former mechanical Home buttons.
This takes a little getting used to, and feels a bit synthetic. The effect is adjustable to one of three levels of intensity in Settings, and this preference is one of the options Apple presents when you first set up a new iPhone 7.
Moving to the new non-mechanical Home button has some historical parallels, including Apple's shift from a mechanical Click Wheel on the first iPod to a solid state, capacitative Touch Wheel that contributed to the product's durability. Moving parts are generally among the weakest links on electronic devices.
The original iPhone similarly transitioned smartphone users from physical keyboards to its new multitouch virtual keyboard on the screen. Critics originally complained that the new iPhone was "kind of trending against what people are really liking in phones nowadays, which are those little keypads - the BlackJack from Samsung, the BlackBerry obviously," as John Dvorak opined at the time.
Dvorak, writing for economic bellwether Marketwatch, recommended shorting Apple stock in June 2007 back when it was under $20 per share (split adjusted), due to the idea that users would return iPhones "in droves" to buy something with a physical keyboard.
Apple (and its stock, up over 550 percent) ended up going the opposite direction, incrementally eliminating one mechanical component after the other from its computers every since: optical drives, spinning hard disks, MacBook trackpads and now the iPhone Home button.
In addition to eliminating a fragile part (recall when people were complaining that Touch ID stopped working after unauthorized repairs of broken Home buttons?), the new Home button also makes it easier to achieve dust and liquid intrusion resistance, as discussed later in this review.
The primary downside to the move toward haptics and 3D Touch was that the new layer of digitizer sophistication added some weight and a slight increase in thickness to the phone. The new iPhone 7 models are unchanged in their physical size compared to iPhone 6s, and are actually slightly lighter.
The standard iPhone 7 weighs 4.87 ounces (138 grams) compared to the 5.04oz (143g) iPhone 6s, while iPhone 7 Plus weighs 6.63oz (188g) vs 6.77oz (192g). While other dimensions haven't changed, old covers won't work on the new models unless you cut out a new hole for the larger and repositioned camera bumps. You can check out Apple's latest cover colors at the bottom of this review.
iPhone 7 models deliver six major categories of enhancements over Apple's iPhone 6/6s (the world's top selling smartphones): a newly harmonized Home button and 3D Touch haptic user interface paired with an enhanced Taptic Engine actuator; Wide Color Retina HD Display; a significantly improved A10 Fusion Application Processor providing enhanced speed and efficiency, paired with 2 or 3GB of RAM andlarger batteries for an extra hour or two of use; new rear and FaceTime cameras and lenses with Optical Image Stabilization for more detailed low light photos and smoother video; louder new stereo speakers paired with Lightning and wireless audio and enhanced wireless connectivity that supports faster, feature-enhanced LTE Advanced mobile and MIMO WiFi; and new iP67 dust and liquid intrusion resistance.
Moving to the new non-mechanical Home button has some historical parallels, including Apple's shift from a mechanical Click Wheel on the first iPod to a solid state, capacitative Touch Wheel that contributed to the product's durability. Moving parts are generally among the weakest links on electronic devices.
The original iPhone similarly transitioned smartphone users from physical keyboards to its new multitouch virtual keyboard on the screen. Critics originally complained that the new iPhone was "kind of trending against what people are really liking in phones nowadays, which are those little keypads - the BlackJack from Samsung, the BlackBerry obviously," as John Dvorak opined at the time.
Dvorak, writing for economic bellwether Marketwatch, recommended shorting Apple stock in June 2007 back when it was under $20 per share (split adjusted), due to the idea that users would return iPhones "in droves" to buy something with a physical keyboard.
Apple (and its stock, up over 550 percent) ended up going the opposite direction, incrementally eliminating one mechanical component after the other from its computers every since: optical drives, spinning hard disks, MacBook trackpads and now the iPhone Home button.
In addition to eliminating a fragile part (recall when people were complaining that Touch ID stopped working after unauthorized repairs of broken Home buttons?), the new Home button also makes it easier to achieve dust and liquid intrusion resistance, as discussed later in this review.
The primary downside to the move toward haptics and 3D Touch was that the new layer of digitizer sophistication added some weight and a slight increase in thickness to the phone. The new iPhone 7 models are unchanged in their physical size compared to iPhone 6s, and are actually slightly lighter.
The standard iPhone 7 weighs 4.87 ounces (138 grams) compared to the 5.04oz (143g) iPhone 6s, while iPhone 7 Plus weighs 6.63oz (188g) vs 6.77oz (192g). While other dimensions haven't changed, old covers won't work on the new models unless you cut out a new hole for the larger and repositioned camera bumps. You can check out Apple's latest cover colors at the bottom of this review.
The new 7 and 7 Plus models continue to sell alongside last year's 6s/6s Plus, which are now $100 less (starting at $550), as well as the A9-powered, 4 inch iPhone SE, which starts at $399, Apple's least expensive iPhone ever, despite its modern processor and camera technology refresh earlier this year.
In addition to their new features, iPhone 7 and 7 Plus also stand apart as the only models offering 256GB capacities (iPhone 6s models are available in 32 and 128GB versions, while iPhone SE is sold in 16GB and 64GB versions), and are Apple's only handsets currently offered in the new Black or Jet Black finishes.
What's new #1: 3D Touch, Taptic Engine, iOS 10 haptics & new Home button
Since giving its eighth generation iPhone 6 models larger and higher resolution Retina HD Displays two years ago, Apple has focused on enhancing its display quality and the usability of multitouch rather than simply bumping up pixel count and screen size, as its competitors have been doing at regular intervals (while tacking on forgettable, dead end gimmicks as 3D stereoscopic displays and banana-curved screens).
Last year, Apple's 3D Touch introduced navigation shortcuts (with app Quick Actions) and an added dimension to multitouch gestures (including Peek and Pop, iOS' 3D Touch equivalent to the keyboard-invoked QuickLook and document launching on the Mac).
Given that most iPhone 7 buyers are upgrading from iPhone 6 or older models, or are cashing in their Note 7 recall check or otherwise switching from Android, 3D Touch remains a key new feature of interest on this year's new iPhone models.
Resembling Force Touch on Apple Watch, iPhone 3D Touch similarly employs a "Taptic Engine" to deliver haptic feedback—literally touch sensations—delivered by a precision vibration actuator (a linear induction motor that drives a payload back and forth using electromagnets, with the accuracy of a high fidelity speaker coil).
Over the past decade, Apple has increasingly expanded its use of vibration, starting out just as a crude way to deliver a quieter alternative to a ringing telephone. As a pioneer in accessibility, Apple has applied increasingly sophisticated vibration feedback hardware and software to assist users who can't hear audio feedback, or who are guided by touch rather than sight.
Last year, Apple brought its haptic accessibility technology to mainstream users by designing its new 3D Touch to literally strike a nerve in pairing it with sophisticated and emotive Taptic Engine feedback.
However, it seemed Apple was hard pressed to evoke much excitement for the new interface concept, perhaps largely due to the fact that it was so conservatively rolled out. Apart from enabling Peek and Popfor attachments and some sporadic apps supporting Quick Actions, 3D Touch didn't seem to do a whole lot.
More often than not, experimenting with 3D Touch seemed to lead to the embarrassment of "what are you trying to do, silly human?" rather than the sort of delightful, rewarding feedback afforded by the direct manipulation interface introduced by the Macintosh, or the novel magic of multitouch on the first iPhone.
Apple's 3D Touch wasn't just a feature thrown out to get some attention—it was the first step in a long term strategy.
However, unlike the gimmicky, flameout failures of Samsung's hand waving navigation or Google's Android face unlock or Amazon's face tilting parallax on the original Fire Phone (or the shockingly bad 3D Burns interface of the Galaxy Note 7), Apple's 3D Touch wasn't just a feature thrown out to get some attention—it was the first step in a long term strategy.
The new iOS 10 greatly expands the applications of 3D Touch as part of a continuum involving variable multitouch input and haptic feedback. There was once a time when adding sound effect feedback to the graphical UI of desktop computers was a novel idea. Similarly, haptic vibrations provide a layer of subtle skin feedback that can make touching a hard flat screen as familiar, emotive and intuitive as interacting with an organic being or manipulating a mechanical device.
The new iPhone 7 models get a bigger Taptic Engine capable of providing both more precise and more intense haptic feedback. This is not only used to reinforce 3D Touch gestures. In iOS 10, the system expands the use of haptics so much that audio settings are now labeled as "Sounds and Haptics."
Now activated by default in iOS 10, System Haptics provides subtle tap feedback for "system controls and interactions," including when you turn a virtual switch on or off.
Additionally, iOS 10 allows you to assign various system events (an incoming call, new email, AirDrop, reminder alerts) not just an audio alert (dings, boops and bleeps) or ringtone (short sequences of notes or other sound effects), but a custom vibration—ranging from a basic buzz to the more incessant "Rapid," an SOS signal or a half dozen other preprogrammed haptic sequences.
You can also make up your own vibration—basically a silent haptic ringtone—by tapping out a sequence. You can also assign a custom haptic vibration to a contact, so that when your lover calls, you are alerted with your own person tap sequence evoking Whitney Houston's I wanna dance with somebody (who loves me).
onversely, you can also send that sort of haptic message in iOS 10's new Digital Touch within iMessages, which now works like Apple Watch to send tap sequences. Oddly enough, while Digital Touch taps and heartbeats deliver with haptic feedback to Apple Watch, they only show up as visuals on iPhone 7 (or other iOS devices). If you're set to silent, you get a haptic alert of an incoming message, but you don't feel the taps or heartbeats, and there's no haptic reinforcement of fireballs or kisses or broken hearts. This seems oddly inconsistent.
Another curious omission, given Apple's focus on haptics, is that there's no option for adding haptic feedback to the virtual keyboard as you type. There's a couple reasons why this might be intentional—first off, subtle haptics can quickly grow excessive when over-applied. Getting feedback on a setting change seems a lot more useful than having a constant rumble from the keypad distracting you as you type.
Also, we already know how to type on glass, so adding haptic taps would not only feel excessive and foreign, but would also distract attention from meaningful incoming haptic alerts. Finally, the Taptic Engine uses electricity, so if it's constantly running, that could end up significantly draining the battery.
The haptic-backed 3D Touch introduced last year is now also making its way into the new solid state Home button in iPhone 7. Just like Force Touch on the Retina MacBook, the newest iPhones make use of the Taptic Engine to deliver haptic feedback that stands in for the physical click of former mechanical Home buttons.
This takes a little getting used to, and feels a bit synthetic. The effect is adjustable to one of three levels of intensity in Settings, and this preference is one of the options Apple presents when you first set up a new iPhone 7.
Moving to the new non-mechanical Home button has some historical parallels, including Apple's shift from a mechanical Click Wheel on the first iPod to a solid state, capacitative Touch Wheel that contributed to the product's durability. Moving parts are generally among the weakest links on electronic devices.
The original iPhone similarly transitioned smartphone users from physical keyboards to its new multitouch virtual keyboard on the screen. Critics originally complained that the new iPhone was "kind of trending against what people are really liking in phones nowadays, which are those little keypads - the BlackJack from Samsung, the BlackBerry obviously," as John Dvorak opined at the time.
Dvorak, writing for economic bellwether Marketwatch, recommended shorting Apple stock in June 2007 back when it was under $20 per share (split adjusted), due to the idea that users would return iPhones "in droves" to buy something with a physical keyboard.
Apple (and its stock, up over 550 percent) ended up going the opposite direction, incrementally eliminating one mechanical component after the other from its computers every since: optical drives, spinning hard disks, MacBook trackpads and now the iPhone Home button.
In addition to eliminating a fragile part (recall when people were complaining that Touch ID stopped working after unauthorized repairs of broken Home buttons?), the new Home button also makes it easier to achieve dust and liquid intrusion resistance, as discussed later in this review.
The primary downside to the move toward haptics and 3D Touch was that the new layer of digitizer sophistication added some weight and a slight increase in thickness to the phone. The new iPhone 7 models are unchanged in their physical size compared to iPhone 6s, and are actually slightly lighter.
The standard iPhone 7 weighs 4.87 ounces (138 grams) compared to the 5.04oz (143g) iPhone 6s, while iPhone 7 Plus weighs 6.63oz (188g) vs 6.77oz (192g). While other dimensions haven't changed, old covers won't work on the new models unless you cut out a new hole for the larger and repositioned camera bumps. You can check out Apple's latest cover colors at the bottom of this review.
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