iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus review – Is it worth buying?

The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are out as of September 16, 2016.  If you bought it within the first hour online, chances are that you are goofing around with it right now.  If you ordered the new jet black color,  like I did, you’ll have to hold out until November!  That’s what happens when Apple showcases a new color.  This happened similarly like the new pink color that came out for the iPhone 6s.

Let’s talk about the jet black color for a moment.  It looks look and slick without a doubt.  It even has a more grippy feel to it although it has that polished look.  That bad part is you’ll see fingerprints on it non-stop along with the propensity to scratch often.  Case up people!  Get a good rubberized protective case.  Sort of defeats the purpose of flaunting your jet black phone, but do you really want to pay big bucks to replace your iPhone cracked screen?

Moving on, the biggest actual feature to discuss is the camera.  Once again, the Plus series gets more love, this time with a new dual camera.  Both have a 12 megapixel camera like last year, but this version has a wider aperture, new lens, new image processor, and optical image stabilization.  In layman’s terms, this means you’ll be able to let 50 percent more light in, allowing for better colors and less blurred shots.

The two lenses on the iPhone 7 Plus is telephoto, meaning both cameras work together to produce optical zoom, 1x and 2x.  You can actually get up to 10x versus 5x on older models.  What about selfies you ask?  Both models got a bump up from 5MP to 7MP on the front-facing camera.  Not bad.  Could have been much more, but we’ll take what we can, right?

Yup, you knew it was coming.  The headphone jack is gone.  To me, big deal.  Who cares.  If you’re not using bluetooth headphones by now, it’s time to upgrade to the modern world people!  And if you’re one of those cool DJ’s or audio freaks who complains that bluetooth isn’t as clear and crisp as in-line regular headphones, well then, you should just camp out in your studio and plug into your sound board system!  The point is that it’s still your phone.  Be happy you have options.  I know Apple give you the feeling that you can do anything with your iPhone: listen to music, make calls, surf the Internet, text, email, cook eggs, run a marathon, and more.  But, don’t go overboard thinking it is the master of the universe with all genres, species, and kingdoms!

Your lightning port has learned to share between your headphones and charger.  So, you’ll need to re-learn again how to play nicely in the sandbox as well.  As per the recommended AirPods that Apple sells, at $159, they are certainly ridiculously priced as I’d recommend buying Beats bluetooth headphones for that price level.  The Apple AirPods don’t fall out of the ear as much as you’d think, but they feel to light to be comfortable for me.  If you already are in love with your current headphones, your iPhone 7 will come with an adapter you can use to connect to the lightning port.

My favorite feature is up next, the pressure-sensitive solid-state home button.  No more clickety click.  It doesn’t move, but rather acts like the Apple watch in that it has a haptic vibration to simulate being pressed.  It instantly upgrades the iPhone 7 series to the Force Touch feeling like the MacBook and Apple Watch.

What’s the deal with the iPhone 7 being water and dust resistant?  The phone can theoretically withstand 30 minutes of light water or liquid.  Look, don’t go swimming in the ocean or pool with it.  Please note just because it can withstand water, that doesn’t mean your lightning port won’t go bad since it is exposed.  Your power button and volume buttons may also fail under the water test.  The liquid resistance simply means your phone won’t die.  But, everything else may.  This includes exposed ports and outside buttons.  As for being dust resistant, I have no clue what this means.  I’m not sure why we’d worry about dust now.  It’s not like you tuck your iPhone in the closet for weeks and come back to it.  You are constantly touching it so you, in essence, are the cleaner of dust anyway.

Let’s talk about some other less interesting, but still important features.  Another notable feature is the speakers.  Now, there is one at the top and bottom which is a nice upgrade for YouTube videos and music.

What with the speed?  It is faster with the upgraded A10 fusion chip.  This makes it 40 percent more powerful than the iPhone 6s.

Does that mean the battery will die even faster?  Nope.  The chip has an efficiency core feature which allows it to save battery life during intensive tasks.  Don’t ask me how, it just does.  In sum, you get a boost to battery life.  I’m skeptical of this as time will tell whether my iPhone 7 Plus will need 10 charges a day or not.

Size is everything with this model.  You can go as low as 32GB, mid-range at 128GB, or a whopping 256GB which is really huge (Donald Trump voice everyone, “Really huge!”).

Not to totally take away from the iPhone 7 and Plus, but the iOS 10, as all new releases occur, has been released with the iPhone 7 series.  So, many folks will think the new phone is the reason for the cool iOS feature when, in fact, it is the iOS 10 shining all along.  Don’t be fooled.  We’ll be reviewing the iOS 10 in another blog post.  It is a

The iPhone 7 and Plus are certainly good upgrades and worthy of purchasing.  The Plus packs more speed, battery, and a better camera to play with.  Of course, I’m a techie and iPhone enthusiast so maybe I’m a little biased with all this.