Iphone 6s vs 7: Plus have arrived, and they have some significant changes. The iPhone 7 is projected to outsell its bigger brother by a wide margin.
Should you upgrade when it looks so much like the iPhone 6S, especially if the previous year’s model has recently gotten a price cut and an unexpected storage boost?
The Good and the Bad News About Design and Size
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The removal of the headphone port is the most visible external design difference between the iPhone 7 and iPhone 6S.
Yes, Apple has done the unthinkable (albeit inevitable) by invoking “courage” to advance standards and encouraging consumers to switch to wireless headphones if they wish to listen to music while charging their iPhone 7.
Users will understandably be enraged by the decision, especially as there is no wireless or speedy charging to alleviate the situation.
The iPhone 7 will come with a 3.5mm to Lightning adaptor, but for others, this dangerous shift may be a deal breaker.
The other potential deal breaker is that Apple hasn’t changed the iPhone’s outward design in three generations, and the iPhone 7 and iPhone 6S (and iPhone 6) are nearly identical physically:
• 138.3 x 67.1 x 7.1 mm (5.44 x 2.64 x 0.28 in) and 138 g iPhone 7 (4.87 oz)
• 138.3 x 67.1 x 7.1 mm (5.44 x 2.64 x 0.28 in) and 143 g iPhone 6S (5.04 oz)
The iPhone 7’s durability has improved, as it keeps the same strong Series 7000 aluminium as the iPhone 6S but adds IP67 dust and water resistance, allowing it to survive being fully submerged in water for up to 30 minutes.
Yes, it’s a catch-up feature compared to competitors, but it’s an excellent one.
Another minor alteration is that the home button has been replaced with a fixed touch sensitive surface that provides haptic feedback.
App developers will be able to create bespoke haptic feedback patterns, which should reduce button failures (a very prevalent issue).
Meanwhile, Apple has removed the antenna bands from the rear of the iPhone 7, giving it a cleaner design, and has integrated a speaker into the earpiece for the first time, allowing users to listen to loud external audio.
In a final flourish, Apple has enlarged the iPhone 7’s colour palette to include Rose Gold, Gold, Silver, Black, and (for the 128GB and 256GB models only) Jet Black, albeit the Space Gray option has been dropped.
Minor Changes to the Displays
Despite revolutionising the smartphone industry with the iPhone 4’s Retina Display in 2010, Apple has since been overtaken by competitors who produce 1080p, 2K, and even 4K OLED screens. Apple, on the other hand, has stuck to its guns yet again:
• iPhone 7 – 4.7-inch LED-backlit IPS LCD with a resolution of 1334 x 750 pixels (326 ppi) and a screen-to-body ratio of 65.6 percent
• iPhone 6 – 4.7-inch LED-backlit IPS LCD with a resolution of 1334 x 750 pixels (326 ppi) and a screen-to-body ratio of 65.6 percent
Although LED and 750p are certainly outdated, Apple has increased peak brightness on the iPhone 7 by 25%, added support for a broader (P3) colour gamut, and improved colour management.
All of this leads to Apple declaring the iPhone 7 to have a “cinema standard” display, but it won’t be able to compete with Samsung’s OLED displays on the Galaxy S7, S7 Edge, and Note 7.
Meanwhile, 3D Touch is still supported, even if its implementation in iOS 10 is inconsistent, forcing users to guess which interface components are enabled and which are not.
The Fastest Gets Faster in Performance
Even though some benchmarks show that the 2015 iPhone 6S is faster than Android’s 2016 flagships, Apple has given the iPhone 7 yet another speed boost:
• Apple A10 Fusion chipset in iPhone 7: quad-core CPU, six-core GPU, and 2GB of RAM
• iPhone 6S – Apple A9 chipset, dual-core 1.84 GHz Twister processor, PowerVR GT7600 GPU, 2GB RAM
Apple hasn’t revealed the iPhone 7’s actual CPU and GPU models or clock rates, but the company claims the iPhone 7’s first quad-core processor boosts performance by 40% and 50% over the iPhone 6S.
This isn’t a significant selling feature because the iPhone 6S is still lightning fast, but it does offer a lot of future proofing. Some power users will bemoan the absence of a RAM upgrade, but it doesn’t appear like iOS requires more at this time.
In a more subtle way, the iPhone 7 boosts 4G speeds by 50% by swapping out a 300Mbit modem with a 450Mbit one (how often you get to test this in real life remains to be seen). This year, Apple made no boasts about upgrading Touch ID, but it isn’t essential.
The Samsung Fightback Begins With Cameras
Samsung has dominated smartphone photography for the past two years, but the new iPhone 7 brings some much-needed improvements after the iPhone 6S plateaued:
• Rear: 12 megapixel sensor, f/1.8 aperture, Focus Pixels, Optical Image Stabilization, quad-LED (dual tone) flash, 4K video recording 7MP front camera with f/2.2 aperture and 1080p video recording
• iPhone 6S – Rear: 12 megapixel camera with f2.2 aperture, Focus Pixels, Software Image Stabilization, dual-LED flash, and 4K video recording. 5MP front-facing camera with f2.2 aperture and 720p video recording
• The f/1.8 aperture, optical image stabilisation, and a four-LED flash with cool and warm tones are the numbers to look for here, as they should address the iPhone’s main photographic weakness: low light photography.
• In addition, Apple has equipped the iPhone 7 with a new 6-element lens, an improved picture signal processor, and capability for broad colour capture, all of which will improve colour accuracy. Meanwhile,
The front-facing camera has been upgraded to 7MP, and while the aperture remains at f/2.2, it now captures more detail and 1080p video.
• The f/1.8 aperture, optical image stabilisation, and a four-LED flash with cool and warm tones are the numbers to look for here, as they should address the iPhone’s main photographic weakness: low light photography.
• In addition, Apple has equipped the iPhone 7 with a new 6-element lens, an improved picture signal processor, and capability for broad colour capture, all of which will improve colour accuracy. Meanwhile,
The front-facing camera has been upgraded to 7MP, and while the aperture remains at f/2.2, it now captures more detail and 1080p video.
Apple’s inability to equip its iPhones with either fast charging or wireless charging is arguably even more annoying.
Given that both have been standard features on Android rivals for years, and the iPhone 7 now only has a Lightning connection, their continued omission is very distressing.
Upgrades in terms of storage and price are available, but not for everyone.
However, storage is one area where Apple is catching up to competitors this year.
The iPhone 7 finally gets rid of the dreaded 16GB entry-level tier, increasing capacity from 16/64/128GB to 32/128/256GB across the board.
This improves the iPhone 7’s value for money, but it also complicates the upgrade decision because Apple has retrospectively improved iPhone 6S storage:
• 32GB iPhone 7 ($649), 128GB iPhone 7 ($749), 256GB iPhone 7 ($849)
• 32GB iPhone 6S ($549), 128GB iPhone 6S ($649)
This creates a quandary. Is a 128GB iPhone 6S, for example, better than a 32GB iPhone 7 at the same price? Personally, I’d go with the newer device,
but I can see why some customers could be tempted to go with the older model – especially since the iPhone 7 Plus is even more expensive.
Conclusion
The iPhone 7 is a more significant advance than sceptics claim. The increased durability, water resistance, updated camera, performance improvements, brighter display, and larger storage options are all welcome and, in some cases, long overdue.
However, the iPhone 7 isn’t as significant an upgrade as we’ve come to expect from an iPhone “number change” year.
In comparison to rivals such as the Galaxy S7 Edge and Note 7, the almost same design (fairly or unfairly) appears antiquated.
While the lack of fast and wireless charging is inexcusable in 2016, the removal of the headphone jack (which is less about “courage” than raising revenue from licencing fees) has the potential to backfire.
By now, everyone knows that the Edge iPhone, which will be made entirely of glass, will be released in 2017 to commemorate the line’s tenth anniversary.
Although the iPhone 7 is a significant advancement, it is unlikely to be remembered as a classic Apple product…
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