Apple iPhone 7 Plus Review

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Somewhat akin to Intel, Apple has trained consumers on its “tick-tock” cadence of releasing a newly designed iPhone and following it up a year later with an optimized “s” variant. That’s been the formula since the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS were released in 2008 and 2009, respectively. This year, however, Apple broke precedent by launching a third model on the same design as its two-year-old iPhone 6.

Add in the controversial decision to remove the venerable 3.5mm headphone jack as well as a major change in the new Home button and you have the making of a familiar iPhone that feels somewhat foreign.

Apple unveiled the iPhone 7 and its bigger brother, the iPhone 7 Plus, on September 7 at a media event in San Francisco. The phones went on sale a little over a week later in your choice of rose gold, gold, silver, black and jet black with 32GB, 128GB or 256GB or local storage (yes, Apple has finally retired the 16GB option). I’ll be taking a look at a 32GB silver iPhone 7 Plus, priced at $769.99 before tax.

The iPhone 7 Plus packs a 5.5-inch LED-backlit, IPS display with a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 (401 PPI) and a contrast ratio of 1,300:1. Apple has been criticized for using dated LED technology when competitors have moved to OLED panels with higher resolutions but that doesn’t mean the iPhone 7 Plus’ display is rubbish – quite the contrary, actually.

Dr. Raymond M. Soneira, a well-respected display expert and president of DisplayMate, found it to be the best performing mobile LCD screen he’s ever tested. The panel earned high marks for its use of multiple color gamuts, low reflectance, and high contrast ratio for an IPS LCD.

Indeed, the display on the iPhone 7 Plus looks great. In a side-by-side comparison, the newer handset exhibits a slightly warmer tint whereas the iPhone 6s Plus is slightly cooler. Outside under direct sunlight and with auto-brightness enabled, the iPhone 7 Plus can boost its brightness above Apple’s rated 625 cd/m2 max brightness to make things easier to see.

Why a 1080p screen, you ask, when virtually every other flagship smartphone has graduated to 1440p or higher panels? It’s a trade-off between performance and perception.

At 401 pixels per inch, Apple is banking on your inability to make out individual pixels during normal use (some will even struggle to do so when pixel-peeping). By having to drive fewer pixels, there’s less drain on the battery and more performance to go around. For better or for worse, this approach has consistently helped iPhones rank among the fastest smartphones money can buy.

The iPhone 7 Plus officially measures 158.2mm (L) x 77.9mm (W) x 7.3mm (H) and tips the scales at 188 grams. That’s right on the money as the 7 Plus registered 186 grams on my kitchen scale, slightly lighter than the 190 grams of the 6s Plus on hand.

It bears repeating that the iPhone 7 Plus looks a lot like the two iPhones before it. However, upon closer inspection, there are some unmistakable differences between new and old. Eagle-eyed observers may notice that the cutout for the earpiece is roughly 1/8th of an inch wider, no doubt to accommodate the new dual-purpose speaker -- but more on that in a bit.

On the reverse, the horizontal antenna bands that previously stretched directly across the top and bottom portions of the handset have been removed with Apple instead relying on the remaining upper and lower lines that frame the aluminum chassis.

The rear microphone hole is a bit smaller and the True Tone flash now consists of four LEDs that collectively put out more light. The biggest change here is the new dual camera system which consists of a 28mm wide-angle f/1.8 aperture lens and a 56mm telephoto lens with f/2.8 aperture. Both are capable of 12-megapixel photos and feature optical image stabilization, six-element lenses, autofocus, and more.

New for 2016 is a solid state Home button that replaces the physical one, an iPhone staple since the very first iteration arrived nearly a decade ago... this is one of the better features of the new iPhones. The learning curve was virtually non-existent and the simulated button press is incredibly convincing.

This dual camera approach allows Apple to offer a “portrait” mode in which data from both cameras will be used to create images sporting the depth of field typically associated with more expensive standalone cameras. I say “will” because Apple is still tweaking portrait mode and thus, hasn’t rolled it out to a stable release of iOS 10 as of writing.

In the interim, you can use the two cameras independently. The primary 28mm camera is the better of the two as it lets in more light thanks to its f/1.8 aperture, a boon in low-light situations. Tapping the “2x” onscreen button switches to the secondary 56mm camera that affords more reach by letting you zoom in optically. This is ideal when you simply can’t get physically closer to your subject – like at the zoo or during a football game, for example.

While combing through sample camera images for this review, I noticed something peculiar. In the EXIF data, some of the images I snapped using the 2x option – which should have been taken with the secondary telephoto lens – reported an aperture of f/1.8. That’s impossible if the telephoto camera is only capable of f/2.8, right?

As it turns out, the camera app / iOS is analyzing data from both cameras in real-time, regardless of which camera you think you’re using. If it determines that the primary camera would produce an overall better image than the inferior telephoto camera, it’ll take the picture with the better camera and crop / use digital zoom to make it look like what the 56mm camera would produce.

To try it out for yourself, all you need to do is place your finger over the primary camera and switch between the two in the camera app.

In my experience, this is only likely to crop up when shooting items very close up (macro) or in dimly-lit environments. I’d call it more of a benefit than anything as it helps you get the best possible image although it’s hard not to feel a little bit deceived.

When the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus arrived in 2014, many (myself included) criticized Apple’s decision to have the rear camera stick out from the body like a sore thumb. It looked like a last-minute decision and seemed uncharacteristic of Apple up to that point. Little did we know at the time that it would be another two years before Apple addressed the ugly duckling.

With this year’s iPhones, Apple designed the rear aluminum shell in a way that it contours the camera modules. This is much more aesthetically pleasing although ironically enough, the camera assembly sticks out even further than before. If you carry your phone in a typical case, this won’t really matter but for those that go caseless or use a simple bumper case, it’s somewhat concerning.

Something else worth noting is the material that covers the rear camera lenses. Apple on its website claims its lenses are constructed using sapphire crystal, a man-made material that’s extremely hard and very difficult to scratch. Independent testing, however, takes issue with this claim.

Upon further analysis, it appears as though Apple is using sapphire crystal for the lens but it isn’t pure. An Apple patent for its sapphire references thin “sapphire laminates” that could be used to coat regular glass for added durability. As noted in the patent, this technique could save Apple some money as sapphire is more expensive to obtain and process than glass.

All things considered, the lens is scratch resistant although not as much as some may assume when the term “sapphire” gets tossed around.

Continuing the design tour, we find that the SIM card tray now has a rubber gasket that helps keep liquids out. The power button appears unchanged, at least from the outside. Apple has reworked the volume buttons on the opposite side, moving away from placing them in a recessed cavity. They’re still made of aluminum and are as sturdy as ever, as is the mute switch.

Both new iPhones feature a 7-megapixel front-facing camera, up from 5-megapixels last year, with an f/2.2 aperture lens, Retina flash (which uses the screen as a flash), auto HDR, auto image stabilization and more.

New for 2016 is a solid state Home button that replaces the physical one, an iPhone staple since the very first iteration arrived nearly a decade ago. In addition to further bolstering the phone’s water resistance, the re-engineered Home button should be more reliable over the long haul as it eliminates a moving component that’s bound to wear out at some point.

Touch ID, Apple’s fingerprint reader technology, persists as does the tactile feeling you’d get by pressing a physical button. It’s essentially a force-sensitive trackpad that responds to input via a new version of Apple’s Taptic Engine, a customizable linear actuator that provides precise vibrational feedback as acknowledgment of various tasks or inputs.

The Taptic Engine is widely used across iOS 10 but with the Home button, it is tuned to simulate a button press. In my testing, this is one of the better features of the new iPhones. The learning curve was virtually non-existent and the simulated button press is incredibly convincing. My girlfriend had no idea it wasn’t a physical button to the point that I had to power down the phone to prove that it is indeed stationary.

By far, the biggest and most controversial change with this year’s iPhone is the removal of the industry-standard 3.5mm audio jack. In its absence, Apple is asking customers to either adopt its proprietary Lightning connector for wired use or cut the cord and go wireless.

Apple is no stranger when it comes to putting familiar hardware and practices out to pasture, having previously done so with the optical drive, the physical keyboard on smartphones, the removable battery and the 30-pin connector used by iPhones until 2012. That said, this decision is really hitting home for some.

Eliminating the 3.5mm headphone jack accomplishes a handful of goals for Apple.

For one, it frees up internal real estate that makes room for a larger battery – 11.1Wh, 2,900mAh in the iPhone 7 Plus versus 2,750mAh in last year’s iPhone 6s Plus – as well as the aforementioned Taptic Engine and a barometric vent that helps equalize internal and atmospheric pressure for a more accurate altimeter. It’ll also allow Apple to continue to reduce the thickness of future iPhones although that’s not something we’re seeing this generation.

The long-term play is to move customers – and by proxy, the industry – towards wireless connectivity as evident by the fact that you can’t simultaneously listen to music via wired headphones and charge the phone at the same time without yet another adapter.

Conveniently enough, Apple owns Beats who will gladly sell you wireless headphones packing its new W1 wireless chip that eliminates many of the pain points of traditional Bluetooth. One has to think Apple will eventually license out the W1 chip to third-parties if it intends for the wireless standard to gain much traction.

The long-term play is to move customers – and by proxy, the industry – towards wireless connectivity.

How big a deal the missing 3.5mm jack is will vary from one person to the next. Personally, I’ve hardly even noticed as I use a set of wireless headphones at home paired with my desktop on a daily basis, Bluetooth to stream from the iPhone to the Alpine head unit in my vehicle or the portable speaker in the bathroom that allows me to take in some tunes or a podcast while showering. Often times, I simply play podcasts out loud (not in public, I’m not that guy) from the iPhone speaker. Come to think of it, the only time I use wired headphones is when I’m traveling long distances or on vacation.

In this respect, I acknowledge that this is not what the average user does and there are millions who rely on wired headphones each and every day – on the subway or bus to and from work, while working out at the gym or even at home while around family members. It’s these users that will feel the impact of the missing 3.5mm jack the most (by using a dongle, at least for now).

Apple has demonstrated its ability to influence industries and consumer behavior multiple times in the past and given its massive install base of iOS devices, I think we’ll all be looking back in a few years and wondering how we got along with wired headphones for so long.

To ease the transition in the meantime, Apple includes both a Lightning-to-3.5mm adapter and a set of Lightning-equipped EarPods with every iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. There’s also a set of wireless earbuds from Apple dubbed AirPods that’ll set you back $159 later this month although if you aren’t fond of the fit that Apple’s current EarPods offer, you shouldn’t bother with the AirPods.

Speaking of audio, these are the first iPhones to feature dual speakers for stereo sound. The bottom speaker is positioned behind the right-side grill where it has sat for the past few years (the new grill on the left side hides the barometric vent discussed earlier). The additional speaker isn’t really a new speaker at all as Apple is simply asking the earpiece speaker to serve double duty as a loudspeaker.

It’s a good idea and it does create audio that’s more encompassing but the quality of the secondary speaker is far inferior to the traditional speaker on the bottom.

One of the first things I did with the iPhone 7 Plus was put the new speaker system to the test and boy was I disappointed. Something sounded off right away. I hopped into the accessibility section in the settings where I was able to adjust the balance slider from one speaker to the other.

The bottom speaker was comparable to what the iPhone 6s Plus uses which is very good but the earpiece speaker sounded as if it was on the verge of being overpowered. Worse yet, the top speaker creates a buzzing / vibration that dissipates across the entire phone when used at or near max volume.

Checking around some online forums, I found that this is not an isolated event. I was hoping to be able to simply disable the secondary speaker using the aforementioned balance slider which did work until you change the orientation of the phone, thus shifting audio to the other speaker. As someone who values quality audio, this was perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the new iPhone.

Performance: A10 Fusion, Benchmarks

Apple’s own A10 Fusion chip draws the assignment this season alongside an embedded M10 motion coprocessor and 3GB of LPDDR4 RAM (2GB in the iPhone 7). Manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) on a 16-nanometer FinFET process, this 64-bit SoC packs more than 3.3 billion transistors and is significant as it represents Apple’s first quad-core mobile processor.

Similar to the ARM big.LITTLE layout, the A10 Fusion is comprised of two performance cores clocked at 2.34GHz and two energy-efficient cores that run at 1/5th the power of the performance cores. Apple says the two high-performance cores run 40 percent faster than last year’s A9, twice as fast as the A8 before it and a whopping 120 times faster than the chip powering the original iPhone. An Apple-designed performance controller determines the best cores for a given job.

There’s also a new six-core GPU that Apple says is 50 percent faster than the A9 and three times as fast as the A8 in the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus while consuming 2/3 the power of the A9 and half the power of the A8. Compared to the first iPhone, today’s GPU is 240 times faster.

All things considered, Apple tells us that this is the most powerful chip ever put into a smartphone.

To test that claim, we put the iPhone 7 Plus through a battery of benchmarks that we’ve made a regular habit of running in of our smartphone reviews. As you can see, Apple’s latest absolutely decimated the competition as it posted record-high numbers in nearly every test just as the iPhone 6 Plus did a year ago.

Without sounding like a broken record, the results highlight the tremendous advantage Apple has in developing both hardware and software under one roof. The fact that Apple has managed to get by on just two cores when everyone else adopted anywhere from four to 10 cores is quite telling.

Of course, synthetic benchmarks are only one piece of the performance puzzle – most people simply want to know how well the handset carries itself on a day-to-day basis. In my experience over the past three weeks of using the iPhone 7 Plus exclusively, it performed flawlessly 99 percent of the time.

Demanding games like CSR Racing 2 looked downright stunning with absolutely no hint of lag. Similarly, surfing my favorite websites, fielding and receiving e-mail and text messages, tinkering in the Photo app and adjusting my Nest thermometer and Vivint home alarm system didn’t visibly tax the A10 Fusion SoC.

The only time I noticed any slowdown was when exiting apps. It doesn’t happen every time but when it does, there’s a tiny bit of hesitation as the animation begins which is uncharacteristic of a new iPhone with the latest version of iOS. Other than this, the phone felt buttery smooth.

In a side-by-side comparison with the iPhone 6s Plus, the 7 Plus more often than not was able to load a webpage or launch an app just a hair faster than last year’s iPhone. The performance increase wasn’t nearly as pronounced as I’ve witnessed in earlier generations which makes me wonder if mobile chips have hit a peak of sorts.

In the automotive world, once you surpass a certain threshold of horsepower and torque, it becomes more difficult to actually feel performance gains. For example, you’re not going to notice a huge difference when going from 1,000 horsepower to 1,100 like you would if you were going from 100 to 200 horsepower.

That kind of feels like what’s going on here as the iPhone 7 Plus hardly feels any faster than last year’s iPhone 6 Plus. I suppose that’s to be expected given the big.LITTLE-like configuration of the A10 Fusion but I digress.

iOS 10, Usage Impressions, A Sign of Things to Come?

The changes in iOS 10 are evident from the get-go. A new feature called Raise to Wake does just that – it wakes up the iPhone when you pick it up. It’s a nifty feature for sure, especially for those that often look at their phones to check notifications or the time.

On the lock screen, you can now swipe left to access the camera instead of having to swipe up over the camera icon. You can still access the Control Center by swiping up as was possible in iOS 9 and swipe down for notifications. Swiping to the right now brings you to a list of widgets you may be using such as sports scores or the weather.

Whereas 3D Touch was the standout feature of iOS 9 a year ago, one needs to look no further than Apple’s own Messages app to find iOS 10’s star attraction. It’s a wise move given the overwhelming po[CENSORED]rity of third-party messaging apps like Snapchat and WhatsApp but don’t expect the changes to appeal to everyone.

It all starts with emojis which, when sent by themselves, are now three times as large. What’s more, if you have predictive typing enabled, you’ll see that when you type a word with a corresponding emoji (like “koala” or “football”), said emoji will show up as an option to use in the QuickType bar.

Taking it a step further, you can switch to the emoji keyboard after typing out a message and iOS will highlight words in orange that you can tap on to replace with emojis.

If you’re messaging a fellow iOS user, you’ll also have access to two new visual effects over iMessage.

Bubble effects come in four forms. With Slam, the recipient will receive your message bubble as if it is slammed into the chat window. Similarly, the Loud option animates a message as if it is being yelled while Gentle messages arrive as smaller text that gradually gets bigger. Last but not least is Invisible Ink which masks a message until it is “scratched off” by the recipient.

The iPhone 7 Plus is more than capable of standing its ground among the sea of flagship smartphones flooding the market.

Screen effects, meanwhile, arrive with an animation that covers the entire chat window. Options here include Balloons, Confetti, Lasers, Fireworks and Shooting Star. To access either Bubble or Screen effects, simply press firmly (3D Touch) on the Send button after typing your message.

Another new Messages feature is Digital Touch, a carryover from watchOS that offers half a dozen different options – Sketch, Tap, Fireball, Kiss, Heartbeat and Heartbreak – to send messages. To access them, tap the Digital Touch icon when composing a message (it’s the one that looks like a heart with two fingers over it).

If animations aren’t your cup of tea and you’d prefer to keep messaging simple and to the point, you can disable predictive text and remove the emoji keyboard from the list of activated keyboards used in the settings menu although this won’t fully opt you out of all of the aforementioned Messages features.

This really only scratches the surface of what’s possible in the Messages app in iOS 10 but for the sake of brevity, we’ll stop here and look at some other new aspects of Apple’s latest mobile OS.

One welcomed change in iOS 10 is the ability to effectively remove default Apple apps that you may not use such as the News, Stocks or Watch apps. Up to this point, the best you could do was group unused apps into a single folder and pretend they don’t exist.

With iOS 10, you can now remove Apple apps that you’ll never use… sort of. To do so, simply long-press on an app to activate the ability to delete apps as you’ve always done. Now, you’ll notice that many of the default apps have an “X” to delete them. The catch, however, is that you aren’t really deleting them – they’re just being hidden out of view. To get an app back, just go to the App Store and re-enable it.

Another handy feature in iOS 10 is voicemail transcription. Rather than having to listen to each voicemail (yeah, some people still prefer to talk on the phone rather than text), you can tap on a visual voicemail to read a transcription of said message. In my experience, this feature needs some work as one of the messages it transcribed – an automated message to confirm an appointment with my doctor – contained several errors and blank spaces. I was able to gather the gist of the message but it was far from an accurate transcript.

Unfortunately, not all changes in iOS 10 will be welcomed.

If you’ve ready my previous iPhone reviews, you may remember that I was incredibly happy when Apple with iOS 9 finally baked in a “delete all” option in its Mail app. For someone that receives a lot of junk e-mail each day, this was a great feature as it allowed me to select and delete dozens or even hundreds of spam messages in one fell swoop.

For some explicable reason, Apple removed this functionality in iOS 10. Now, when I tap Edit then Mark All, the only options to choose from are Flag and Mark as Read. The Trash option is greyed out. Why Apple would backtrack on such a useful feature is a bit mind boggling.

iOS 10 feels like a solid, well-rounded update. In my experience, it was only marginally faster than an iPhone 6s Plus with iOS 9 but aside from speed, it introduces a wealth of new features. Sure, Apple is playing catch-up with Android in some aspects but you really have to dig deep to find reasons not to like iOS 10 (and many of the features you may not like can be disabled).

All-Around Package

The iPhone 7 Plus is more than capable of standing its ground among the sea of flagship smartphones flooding the market. With a ridiculously fast processor, up to 256GB of local storage, a dual camera system, newfound water resistance and two new color options, there’s plenty to hold consumers over for another cycle.

Official IP67 water and dust resistance is long overdue as other flagships have had this feature for years. I say official as last year’s models were found to be semi-water resistant. Not having to triple bag my phone if I’m at an outdoor concert and rain clouds move in will be nice, nor will I freak out if I accidentally drop my phone in the toilet -- speaking from experience unfortunately.

Do note, however, that water resistant and waterproof are two very different things. In practice, you should still try your best to avoid contact with liquids (don’t go swimming with it, for example) as damage from liquids is not covered under Apple’s standard warranty. You’ll need to purchase Apple’s extended warranty service, AppleCare+, for accidental liquid damage.

Heat was never a concern with the iPhone 7 Plus. While playing games like CSR Racing 2, the handset only ever became lukewarm to the touch. Things did get a bit warmer while charging and watching videos at the same time, for example, but never did it reach a point where it was uncomfortable to hold or prompt a temperature warning.

As it stands today, the twin camera approach is a bit of a mixed bag. The primary 26mm wide-angle camera with f/1.8 aperture is an improvement over last year’s shooter but that’s not necessarily the case with the 56mm telephoto camera due to its f/2.8 aperture lens. Is the difference between the two apertures that big of a deal, you ask? Yeah, it is.

Aperture is one of the three pillars of photography alongside shutter speed and ISO. In the simplest of terms, a lower f-stop number means more light is getting through to the sensor which is ideal when shooting pictures in dimly lit environments. Aperture is also responsible for mani[CENSORED]ting depth of field as it helps to create those blurred, out-out-focus backgrounds typically associated with a DSLR or mirrorless camera.

What the secondary telephoto lens loses in terms of aperture, it makes up for in reach thanks to its effective 2x optical zoom… that is, when it’s actually utilized. It’ll become even more of an asset once portrait mode graduates from beta status to the public build of iOS 10.

Apple during its iPhone 7 event praised the handset’s digital zoom which stretches all the way to 10x. Don’t be fooled, however, as digital zoom is a terrible option that should rarely – if ever – be used. You’d be better served using the primary camera and cropping it yourself.

As an amateur photographer, I would love to see Apple offer some advanced controls in its camera app. Using a third-party app like Manual or Slow Shutter affords the ability to manually adjust things like ISO and shutter speed which, if you’re photographing stationary objects and can prop the iPhone against something to eliminate movement, results in sharper images with far less noise, especially in low light situations.

While I applaud Apple’s decision to add a second speaker for true stereo sound, it is poorly implemented and ultimately comes up short. As I covered earlier, the quality of the earpiece speaker isn’t nearly as good as the primary one on the bottom of the phone. In use at higher volume, it sounds bad and causes the entire phone to vibrate / buzz. It reminds me a lot of the original iPhone which had a terrible loudspeaker.

Something else worth a mention is a slight quality control issue with my sample. After removing the plastic wrap and opening the box for the first time, I noticed two small scuffs on the aluminum near the speaker and baffle cutouts on the bottom of the phone. Fortunately, the marks buffed out with a bit of attention from a microfiber cloth.

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to coordinate a proper battery test using our standardized procedure in time for this review. Apple claims the battery in the iPhone 7 Plus is good for up to an additional one hour of battery life. Excluding the first several days when I was heavily using the phone for testing purposes, I found that on average I have anywhere from 30 to 60 percent battery life remaining come bedtime.

A Sign of Things to Come?

All things considered, I can’t help but feel as though this generation is more of a prologue than anything else. Allow me to explain.

The solid state Home button feels like a stepping stone to removing it entirely and integrating Touch ID directly into the front display as has previously been rumored. Jumping from a physical button to no button at all could conceivably confuse some users – not techies, mind you, but perhaps less tech-savvy users.

The removal of the 3.5mm headphone jack – which Apple wasn’t the first to do, by the way – also falls into this category. The move was bound to cause dissension among the ranks but again, doing it this cycle instead of next year when a full redesign is expected will give users time to acclimate. Whether it’s the Lightning port, audio over USB Type-C, or some form of wireless (my guess is the latter), time is ticking now that a major player has shed the jack.

The same could even be said about Apple’s use of an LED-backlit, multi-touch IPS display for yet another generation albeit for a different reason. Waiting one more year to bring OLED screens to the iPhone buys some time for the technology to further mature and prices to come down.

The iPhone 7 Plus is the best iPhone to date as it relates to design aesthetics, features, and performance, but that doesn’t mean you should go out and grab one ASAP.

I believe Apple’s agenda with the iPhone 7 line is to lay the foundation for the iPhone 8, a handset that has the potential to generate the same sort of excitement Apple enjoyed when the redesigned iPhone 6 series landed in 2014.

Jumping back to present-day, the iPhone 7 Plus is without a doubt the best iPhone to date as it relates to design aesthetics, features, and performance, but that doesn’t mean you should go out and grab one ASAP. Again, it’s a top-tier smartphone but unless your iPhone 6 or newer becomes lost, stolen or broken, Apple hasn’t presented a compelling enough reason to warrant an upgrade.

Review By: TechSpot