What we love (and love to hate) when it comes to iPhone 7

Apple’s not afraid to shake up industry standards and the debut of its new iPhone 7 models represent that idea. Tim Cook says, “It’s the best iPhone that we have ever created.” And that’s what the company needs after sales for the iPhone have started to fall for the first time since the first iteration of the iPhone was released. Whether it gets the reception Apple hopes it gets still falls into the hands of the consumers and whether they think the new iPhones are worth the upgrade.

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Apple is playing catch up in certain respects and are looking to start new trends in others. There are things we love about them and some we’re not too happy with.

Love

Looks-wise, the iPhone doesn’t look any different from the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. It’s not something we have particularly strong feelings over but those looking for a completely new look might have to wait one more year (who knows what Apple plans for the 10th anniversary of its smartphone?). There are a lot from its insides though that we are excited about.

All hail more storage
If you’ve suffered many woes from the paltry 16GB storage of the iPhones of many year’s past, Apple has finally laid its entry-level version to rest and is now offering 32GB, 128GB, and 256GB models instead. Good riddance.

Better shooters
Apple has been putting one of the best sensors out on the market into its iPhones. There’s no difference this time around and the more premium iPhone even gets an extra sensor, which provides better image quality and works much like what the LG G5 does.

The iPhone 7 has a 12-megapixel rear camera with f/1.8 aperture, Focus Pixels, Optical Image Stabilization, quad-LED (dual tone) flash, and 4K video recording. It’s front camera has a 7-megapixel sensor, f/2.2 aperture, and 1080p recording. The iPhone 7 Plus’ front camera has the same specs but its rear shooter has the dual-camera setup. It has two 12-megapixel sensors (f/1.8, 28mm + f/2.8, 56mm) with the same additional features as the iPhone 7’s camera. The two sensors, though, differ, one is the same wide-angle lens in the iPhone 7, while the other is a telephoto lens that allows for 2x optical zoom and greater depth of field, which Apple says is great for portrait shots. One of the upcoming software enhancements (which wasn’t available at the launch) will be the camera’s ability to pick people’s faces out from the background and keep the humans in focus while blurring out the rest of the shot.

Just a bit more rugged
We have two words for this new feature: ABOUT TIME. The new iPhones finally get IP67 dust and water resistance rating, while still have the Series 7000 Aluminum introduced in the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. It submerged in water up to depths of 1m for 30 minutes at a time. Adding to the durability is the removal of a physical home button to make way for a touch-sensitive surface. It still mimics the haptic feedback of a click and app developers can even use the haptic feedback to create custom vibrations.

A little bit cleaner
The antenna bands on the iPhone 7 have been tucked to the top and bottom edges of the phone, meaning you can appreciate the design of the phone more. There are more color options this time around, too. You still get Rose Gold, Gold, and Silver. But there’s now a “matte” Black option and for the 128GB and 256GB models a Jet Black version (more on this later). And yes, there is no more Space Gray.

Performance bump
The great thing about new flagships is the performance boost these new phones get. The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus both get an Apple A10 Fusion chipset and 2GB of RAM. They’ll be the first iPhones with quad-core processors, Apple promises 40 percent faster CPU performance and up to 50 percent better graphics performance than its predecessors. The new iPhones also get updated 4G modems to support speeds of up to 450Mbit.

A new dual speaker setup is also in the iPhone 7 devices. But nope, they aren’t both in the bottom part of the phone. Just like the Huawei P9 Plus, the speaker earpiece serves as the second external speaker.

Love to hate

Now we’re turning the spotlight on the things you might have to consider if you’re thinking of upgrading to the new iPhones.

But what about our music?
This isn’t exactly the first time we’ve heard that Apple planned to ditch a headphone jack. But it’s official, guys. Now, you’ll have to either use Bluetooth headsets (of course, Apple is pushing its new wireless AirPods) or use an adaptor that can plug into the Lightning port to listen to music. If you do the latter, this means you can’t listen to music with headphones while charging.

The response to this change has definitely sent some users reeling (and some already poking fun at it). It gives people one more device to charge and no matter how much Apple claims audio quality is great and this is “something new that betters all of us,” wired headphones still provide a better listening experience. Apple isn’t the first to go without the 3.5mm socket, though. The Lenovo Moto Z has done the same thing. But Apple definitely has a bigger following so, of course, more people would react to the change.

But Apple being Apple hasn’t been afraid to ruffle feathers and while people may gripe, we don’t think it’ll affect the sales of the device that much. It doesn’t mean we’re still happy about it, though. And the thing that worries us is that more manufacturers might follow suit and that’s the kind of development we fear the most.

Saying no to the gloss
Apple’s newest color option Jet Black isn’t all its cracked up to be. Just like the many glossy Android phones that have passed through our hands, you’ll be leaving many fingerprints on this one. Plus, it scratches easily, too. Nope, not for us.

Better display?
We’re still on the fence with this one but if you look at it from the specs/numbers game, Apple is falling behind in a world filled with 4K smartphone displays. The iPhone 7 has a 4.7-inch LED-backlit IPS LCD with 1334 x 750 pixels (326 ppi) and 65.6 percent screen-to-body ratio, while the iPhone 7 Plus has a 5.5-inch LED-backlit IPS LCD with 1920 x 1080 pixels (401 ppi) and 67.7 percent screen-to-body ratio. Apple says these displays have 25 percent brighter “cinema standard” Retina HD display, wider color gamut, and improved color management. This is something we have to judge by seeing devices first.

Are better batteries finally here?
Apple still hasn’t disclosed the exact battery capacities of the new iPhones but promises two extra hours for the iPhone 7, when compared to the iPhone 6s, and an extra hour for the iPhone 7 Plus, when compared to the iPhone 6s Plus. There is also no fast or wireless charging support with these phones yet, which we think is a bummer.

Will you upgrade?

The new iPhones will be rolling out to 28 countries on September 16 with 30 more to follow after that. At the moment, we don’t have local prices yet but here’s the breakdown in US dollars: iPhone 7 – 32GB ($649 or around P30,000), 128GB ($749 or around P35,000), 256GB ($849 or around P39,000)and iPhone 7 Plus – 32GB ($749), 128GB ($849), 256GB ($949 or around P44,000).

There are a lot of features to love and hate about the new iPhones. In the end, it’s all about whether you have use for these or not. Function and getting the most out of your devices are important. It shouldn’t just be about getting the latest thing for the sake of it. But that’s just us. You spend the money you have the way you want to.