Apple iPhone 7 Plus

This iPhone does not bring very significant changes to the 6S Plus. This time round I bought this phone from Apple with AppleCare so that I can change it out for a new one next year when Apple launches a redesigned iPhone – it’s rumored they will do a full redesign for the 10th anniversary. However, it is a bit too expensive as most carriers have now dropped the discounts they used to offer on new iPhones.

I justified the exorbitant price given that I use my phone for at least eight hours a day, and not only text, call, tweet, Instagram or email but also read business documents and books and watch TV so I bit the bullet and got it on the installment plan. (It’s 0% interest, and allows to exchange the phone next year, or you can pay 24 interest free installments and keep the phone, if you switch out then the cycle of 24 months begins again.)

What I love about this iPhone 7 Plus so far:
– Blazing fast, a performance improvement from 6S Plus, top-heavy apps download in seconds
-256 GB is great, I hated having to delete pictures off all the time so that I could take some more
– Black (matte) is great for viewing videos, screen is sharper and shows such great detail, it’s amazing. If you’re streaming HD you’ll be blown away at the difference between HD movies on 6 Plus and 7Plus – you can see film quality detail, it’s great. A higher resolution screen now shows pics in great detail. There is a Zoom setting that you can enable when you’re setting up the phone as the sharper screen has made the letters finer, and more can fit on the screen.
– Home button is now Taptic feedback and it’s very easy to get used to the new format. So a light touch on the home button now produces a knock from inside, like an Android rather than having to depress the button. This has helped me immensely as I used to press too hard earlier and bring up Siri all the time, it could be very disconcerting in a meeting.
– The lag for TouchID is reduced, this is important as I use it not only for opening the phone but for Apple Pay, Visa checkout and use TouchID for all my bank logins. Much safer on unsecured networks, I hope.
– Dual Speakers make it easier to watch videos with no headphones as it’s louder
– EarPods seem to sound better, but they’re still uncomfortable in my ears after 30 minutes. The lightning connector Headphones work on all my previous iOS devices. It’s nice that Apple gave the little accessory to connect mono audio jack but what’s with the tiny stuff. I’m so mystified since the tiny attachments of Apple Pencil!
– And finally the Dual camera- it takes really sharp pictures much sharper than my iPhone 6 Plus up to the 2X magnification. The lowlight performance is also better. I am waiting for the next iOS 10.1 update to really see the ability of the portrait mode that was showcased during the launch keynote. It’s also better for low light and pets as I’m getting sharper images of my dog who cannot sit still even for a second. However, I took my selfie and since this camera is so improved, I’m getting almost DSLR quality results. Now I can actually do my makeup with the selfie camera on! The flash is also now metered to 3 different levels rather than one.
– Water resistant – although my 6S also survived a few seconds in a river- I expect more from 7 Plus.
– And one more thing, the 7 Plus is rumored to have extra RAM (2GB?) and that makes it really, really fast. The webpages are up in an instant – the movies stream with no jitters, no more tapping my feet while waiting for something to load like with 6 Plus! Some apps can’t handle the improvements, and I see weird crashes but I am sure the developers of those apps will fix it soon.

Some stuff has improved due to iOS10 – love the new messaging enhancements, new Home app, the enhancements in the Health app, force touch is now better than ever, some keyboards have been added and I’m loving the Hinglish keyboard.

What I don’t like:
-Not a major redesign. Yes there is better speed, a better camera, a better screen but not a major change from 6S Plus, but for me it’s way more expensive as the carrier discounts are gone. To get a big discount I have to turn in my old phone, and get locked into a 2 year contract with a 30 month installment plan, no way!
– I’m ready for no audio jack, as I mainly use Bluetooth headphones but I would have to carry this tiny accessory around for my Bose headphones that I like using. I hope some accessory manufacturers come up with something smarter.
– I can’t charge and listen to the music at the same time as both use lightning connector, this is crazy as I use this feature a lot at work as my Bluetooth headphones sometimes can’t sync properly with YouTube audio. If anyone knows a fix please post in comments.
– There has been no redesign of the iPhone charger plug or the lightning cord! By this time I expected a better cord that doesn’t break easily, or wireless charging that actually works, and a charger that is more compact or at least charges 3X times faster like some newly designed Android chargers
– The phone is still a little too big for my grip with a protective case on it, I really wish they had improved on the screen to bezel ratio. The bezel needs to disappear.

Overall it’s still a nice phone, and it’s better than the previous version, but I expect something more revolutionary from Apple. This was more of an enhancement than complete innovation.