iPhone 7 review
KEY FEATURES
- 4.7-inch 326ppi wide-colour-gamut display
- 32, 128 and 256GB storage options
- Water-resistant IP67
- A10 Fusion chip
- 12MP camera with OIS
- 7MP front camera
- Taptic engine with 3D Touch
- Manufacturer: Apple
- Review Price: £599.00
WHAT IS THE IPHONE 7?
The iPhone 7 entered the world with a bang, thanks to headphone controversy and a price hike seemingly in the wake of Brexit.
But at first glance you’ll wonder what’s changed – it looks pretty much the same as an iPhone 6. I loved that design, but then I loved the design of the iPhone 4 – that doesn't mean I want a phone that looks like that in 2016. Still the 6 design was good, but would any other company get away with a two-year-old look for its flagship phone?
Get past this and the iPhone 7 delivers a unique experience among iPhones, which is both a good and bad thing. The new features – water resistance, an incredible quad-core processor and, crucially, a 32GB starting storage capacity – are all very welcome. So is the excellent camera that’s had the right upgrades to make photos look better.
IPHONE 7 – DESIGN
There’s not much to talk about when it comes to the aesthetics of the iPhone 7. If you’ve used an iPhone 6 or 6S you’ll feel like you've returned home after a long holiday and the window curtains have been changed.
For standing out from the iPhone crowd, the new Jet Black finish is really your only option. A Jet Black iPhone 7 looks like no other handset. It’s not like the plastic iPhone 5C – this is a phone made out of metal, but which is smooth to touch without being slippery. Yes, it attracts fingerprints, but who cares when it looks this good? One not of caution, though. It does mark up a little easily so you'll need to treat it with care if you want it to keep looking good.
The second new colour on offer is simply called Black. This replaces the Space Grey of previous models and makes the iPhone 7 looks like a mean machine. The other versions available are Silver, Gold and Rose Gold.
The iPhone 7’s size and shape is almost identical to the previous models, however the antenna bands that formerly ran across the back now tastefully curve around the ends, and the camera nub is more rounded. These changes are small, but welcome, although it does mean you won't be able to use an old 6 or 6S case.
IPHONE 7 – SCREEN
The iPhone 7’s screen is the same 4.7 inches in size as the one on the iPhone 6S, and doesn’t pack any more pixels. So it has a resolution of 1334 x 750 and a pixel density of 326ppi – what Apple calls "Retina".
Essentially what this means is that the iPhone 7 is plenty sharp – you can’t spot any blocky pixels unless you plonk it in a VR headset, just a couple of inches from your face.
I’m fine with the current resolution, especially since everything else Apple has done to the screen makes it a real winner.
The iPhone 7’s display is richer than ever before, without looking at all fake. Apple now uses the wider DCI-P3 colour gamut that the 9.7-inch iPad Pro, iMac and Hollywood filmmakers use, and that’s a very good thing. It means more colours, so everything looks more realistic and nuanced.
It’s perfect for a Netflix binge. Skin tones still look natural, but more lifelike than before, and dark scenes look very good for an IPS LCD screen. Colours are punchier without losing the refinement I’ve always liked about iPhone screens.
It’s brighter and less reflective, too. That makes it a lot easier to look at in bright sunlight. This is the best IPS screen you can get on a phone, but it still lags behind Samsung’s AMOLED screens when it comes to deep blacks.
I can’t quite decide which I prefer – both are excellent.
There’s one area of the display that I’m not quite as impressed with, and that’s with white areas. Whites have a pink tinge, and I actually prefer the old screen on the iPhone 6S when reading an eBook or websites that have a white background.
IPHONE 7 – SPEAKERS
Sound is one area that Samsung hasn’t really cracked with its Galaxy S range. HTC does a much better job thanks to the stereo Boomsound speakers on the HTC 10, and the iPhone 7 emulates these to some degree. It’s not quite as successful, though.
Let’s start with the good bits. The iPhone 7 is loud – very loud. In fact, it has double the top volume of the iPhone 6S, and that’s a good thing if you’ve left your Bluetooth speaker at home. You can happily use the iPhone 7 to listen to a few tunes around the campsite without it being drowned out by the lightest breeze or a crackling fire.
There are two speakers now: one at the bottom and one pumping straight out of the earphone slot. This means you get a little stereo separation, but they’re still too close to make it that noticeable. More importantly, the fact that there's more than one speaker means it sounds a lot fuller.
IPHONE 7 – PERFORMANCE
This is the most powerful phone I’ve ever used – a statement borne out by some incredible benchmark results.
The iPhone 7 may have kept the same 2GB of RAM as the 6S, but this seems more than adequate. You can have plenty of apps open at the same time and switching between them is fast and slick. That’s where RAM helps.
However, it also packs the new A10 Fusion core and it is a blinder. There’s a reason for the "Fusion" moniker. Apple is using a quad-core CPU for the first time, but it doesn’t use all four of them at once.
Two of the cores are powerful and used for the heavy lifting – 3D gaming, multitasking and the like. The other two are low-powered and much more efficient – perfect for light tasks such as sending texts or using the email app.
If that all sounds familiar, that’s because it’s not new. It’s based on ARM’s big.LITTLE design, and plenty of phones have been using this method to help preserve battery life. I’ve generally been impressed by phones that use it – and the iPhone 7 is no different.
Trusted's moved to the latest version of Geekbench 4 for its benchmarking, as it has a wider range of tests and better iPhone 7 compatibility compared to its predecessor.
IPHONE 7 – CAMERA
The new iPhone 7 feature I’ve been most anticipating is the upgraded camera.
Like many things Apple, the results of the photos taken by the iPhone 6S and its predecessors belied the specs of the camera. A whole lot of software cleverness goes into the pics, yet they remain natural-looking. It’s something I’ve always appreciated, even though top-end Samsung and LG smartphones have performed better in some scenarios.
The iPhone 7 comes with a new six-optic lens, OIS (optical image stabilisation) and a wider f/1.8 aperture. All this leads to improved low-light performance. If you like taking photos in dingy restaurants or bars, or out and about at night, you’ll really appreciate it.
Getting OIS on the smaller phone is great. It was a feature reserved for the bigger Plus models in the past. This reduces the minor shakes and judders your hands make when holding a phone, which means there's less chance of blurry shots in poor light – as long as your subject isn't moving around, of course.
The new iPhone 7 feature I’ve been most anticipating is the upgraded camera.
Like many things Apple, the results of the photos taken by the iPhone 6S and its predecessors belied the specs of the camera. A whole lot of software cleverness goes into the pics, yet they remain natural-looking. It’s something I’ve always appreciated, even though top-end Samsung and LG smartphones have performed better in some scenarios.
The iPhone 7 comes with a new six-optic lens, OIS (optical image stabilisation) and a wider f/1.8 aperture. All this leads to improved low-light performance. If you like taking photos in dingy restaurants or bars, or out and about at night, you’ll really appreciate it.
Getting OIS on the smaller phone is great. It was a feature reserved for the bigger Plus models in the past. This reduces the minor shakes and judders your hands make when holding a phone, which means there's less chance of blurry shots in poor light – as long as your subject isn't moving around, of course.
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