iPhone 7 in NZ – Price, Features & Analysis
The iPhone 7
So the iPhone 7 was finally released this morning at Apple’s keynote event and the release was mostly underwhelming if you have been following the rumours about the device. Almost all the interesting features had already been leaked, but at the very least there are enough to make this a worthy iPhone 7 rather than (as some had speculated) an iPhone 6 SE. So here is a quick rundown of the features Apple has announced about their new phone.
Waterproofing
Following in Samsung’s Footsteps, the iPhone 7 will be water and dust resistant with a rating of IP67 slightly below the S7’s rating of IP68. What that means is that the iPhone 7 should be fine in water of depths up to a meter for 30 minutes, whereas the S7 can survive for the same length of time at 1.5 meters essentially not a huge amount of difference. Both should be protected from spills and toilet drops and have a reasonable chance of living through pool immersion in your pocket but still shouldn’t be taken for a swim intentionally.
R.I.P 3.5mm Headphone Jack
Probably the biggest cause of consternation about the new device, it has long been rumoured that Apple would drop the headphone jack completely in favour of Bluetooth headphones. Well, the rumours were correct, Apple had removed the headphone jack completely from the iPhone 7 and have debuted a new pair of wireless headphones they are calling Air pods. Apple hasn’t completely abandoned the old standard however; they will be providing a lightning connector to 3.5mm jack adaptor to allow the use of regular headphones. For a company which makes such elegant looking phones, it is a strange choice to require a hideous dongle to use such a common standard and I suspect anyone using the iPhone 7 will elect for the Bluetooth headphones simply so they don’t have to be seen using it.
Upgraded cameras
Apple are claiming to have made big strides in upgrading their cameras with optical image stabilization, brighter flash and increased aperture (f/1.8) for better low light shooting. The most interesting camera news though is that the 7 Plus will have a dual camera setup with a wide-angle camera and a telephoto camera working together. The inclusion of the telephoto camera should dramatically increase the zoom capacity of this iPhone over previous iPhones but will also increase the size of the maligned camera bump.
Home Button of the Future
The home button will no longer be a physical click button but rather will be pressure sensitive and will simulate the clicking sensation through vibration. The haptic feedback (or Taptic Feedback according to Apple) will be able to be changed by third-party applications as well so it will be interesting to see what sort of sensations they can come up with and how this will integrate with apps.
Stereo Sound
With all that excess space freed up by the removal of the headphone jack Apple have added in another speaker to the iPhone 7. This new speaker will allow the phone to play all your favourite tunes in stereo sound just as nature intended.
Design
Not a lot has changed with the new design, it is mostly the same as the 6 and 6s. Some small changes including the introduction of new colours (Black & Jet Black) and the antenna lines now being built directly in the chassis
Storage
The iPhone 7 will bump up the base storage from a measly 16gb to a more respectable 32gb with the upgraded versions coming with 128GB and a whopping 256GB which is probably more memory than anyone will ever actually use.
Other Hardware
Minor upgrades for the screen with an increase in brightness of around 25% and an increase in the amount of colors it can display which should allow for more faithful color reproduction. The iPhone 7 also gets a brand new processing chip called the A10 Fusion, it’s a quad core chip which is 40% faster than the A9 powering the 6s and 6s Plus. The new chip also increases efficiency which should help increase the battery life of the device.
Thoughts
There was a real lack of enthusiasm surrounding the lead up to this release but the iPhone 7 is definitely a better upgrade then many had been speculating, however a lot of the features introduced have been done before (Waterproofing = Samsung, Dual Camera = LG ect) and the lack of a headphone will likely concern a lot of potential buyers. On the positive side the increase in storage is very welcome addition and the new A10 fusion chip should offer the best performance of any smartphone available now.
The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus will be able for preorder from the 9th September and will be priced from $1,199 for the 7 and from $1,429 for the 7 Plus