Yes, the iPhone 7 Plus is a great phone, and yes I actually said it – Bigger is better with this iPhone! But, Before I start my review, I would like to point out that I already did a detailed unboxing and gave my initial impressions about the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus with the Interview Dialog had with me which you can checkout here. I will embed the main video below for your convenience as well.
Now that you saw my initial impressions let’s get to the Review after using the iPhone 7 Plus a little bit more. Well I would like to start off my review saying It’s another year and here we have another iPhone. This time around the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus were launched with quite a similar design to the iPhone 6S, which usually is not the case with an iPhone as usually every new number change in the past meant a completely new design and the “S” year meant improvement in performance; but with the iPhone celebrating the 10 year anniversary next year I think Apple is putting all their effort to make that better in every possible way which is why the design is quite similar to the iPhone 6S on the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. The antenna bands are on top and the bottom edge now which is quite good because i never really liked the bands at the back on the iPhone 6 and 6S. However, the best thing about this new iPhone is the Water resistance. You guys know how much I love water resistance. It is something we ned to have on all the electronic gadgets we get in my opinion. However, having a huge camera bump is disappointing. Try placing the iPhone 7 Plus face-up on a table and it won’t lie down flat; the back lens will prop it up slightly.
The iPhone 7 Plus hasn’t got a 3.5mm headphone jack. You’ll need to use Lightning headphones (a pair of Lightning-based EarPods are included with the phone), or go wireless, or use an adaptor. This will be a big problem for some but for me personally this wasn’t a big issue since I anyway use Bluetooth Headphones.
Talking about the iconic Home Button, Apple has kept the Home button but modified it, changing the button from a moving to a non-moving part, equipping it instead with the haptic technology from the MacBook’s Force Touch trackpad. In other words, it ‘buzzes’ when you apply pressure to simulate a downward press, while in actual fact not moving at all. It is like you’re pressing the entire bottom part of the phone. This felt odd at first, and on the whole isn’t as effective a deception as the MacBook’s Force Touch click. It didn’t work with gloves which is quite disappointing and it didn’t work at all if there was any water detected meaning you can not use it if you take it swimming which is quite stupid in my opinion because that makes it a big issue for most people and for me definitely it was a big issue. The Home button also holds the Touch ID Fingerprint scanner and it works great. No issues whatsoever.
Wireless charging is still not present on the iPhone and I think Apple should seriously consider putting it in because it is really convenient. Hopefully next year.
The iPhone 7 Plus has a very similar screen to the iPhone 6s Plus: it’s the same 5.5-inch phablet form factor that’s been a popular choice for the 6 Plus and 6s Plus, with the same resolution (1920 x 1080) and pixel density (401 pixels per inch). It worked well and I didn’t have any issues with the display. 3D touch is still present and I did use it occasionally. Messing with Live Photos is still what I like doing the most with it.
As expected, the iPhone 7 Plus comes with a dual-lens camera setup on the back and this is an exclusive thing on the iPhone 7 Plus. The iPhone 7 doesn’t have this option.
The iPhone 7 Plus features two different lenses, one of them a telephoto; this is what enables the 7 Plus to offer an optical zoom by switching from one lens to the other. It also has 10x digital zoom, compared to the 5x digital zoom on the iPhone 7 and on the previous generation. The new portrait mode works great too which you can use to get some bokeh effect on photos with the second camera. The Selfie camera has got a bump up to 7MP and it works great.
Talking about the Battery life; The iPhone 7 Plus has a greater battery life than the 6s Plus (Apple claims that for the average user, it’ll last an extra hour between charges). It has good battery life and I was able to get through an entire day. iOS has been optimized well for the new iPhones and it works well. Lack of fast charging was a deal breaker for me. Coming from a Galaxy S7 Edge which goes from 0-50 in like 30 minutes the iPhone just fell short. Yes the battery life is good but if we consider that the battery life on the S7 Edge is also quite good but having that fast charging feature has been a lifesaver for me many times. This is why I think Apple should implement some kind of quick charging to keep people like me satisfied. You will only understand what it is like if you have used it.
Talking about iOS, the new iPhones run on iOS 10, the latest software from Apple for the iDevices. It has some nice improvements and this time Apple is focusing so much on the 3D touch implementation and made it look like a bigger deal. There were some cool things on the iPhone but if you want Awesome features like an Android device has or more control over your device, sadly iPhones are not able to do it to that extent yet. However, stability wise iOS is still the king and it works great especially with multitasking. With the iPhone 7 Plus having 3GB of Ram which is the first for an iPhone it is great. With the Apple A10 Fusion Chip powering the iPhone 7 Plus it just beats through everything and performs like a beast. The Storage on the iPhone now starts from 32GB and goes up to a whopping 256GB and this is a life saver.
Like every year, this is the best iPhone out yet, and it works great. If you have enough money to grab one you should, but if you are not in a hurry I suggest you to wait for the iPhone refresh next year because like I mentioned the iPhone 8 launch next year is going to be quite a big deal and the improvements are going to be massive if the rumors are true.
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