The iPhone 7 is here. It has been a rollercoaster
ride in the rumors mill with regards to the latest and greatest Apple
smartphone. The fruit company breaks speculations surrounding the handset by
officially announcing it to the world. So let's not keep you waiting any
longer, let's do this - the iPhone 7 specs review.
The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7Plus
Read: Apple Watch Series 2 now official, runs Pokemon Go
Design
Everything we knew about the iPhone, so far, seems
right. The iPhone 7 features a similar design to the existing iPhone 6s except
the redrawn antenna bands. The protruding camera is still there yet we could
say that the handset is still the best looking iPhone to date.
Talking about dimensions, it is the same chassis
which features the full metal anodized aluminum back. This new generation
smartphone is blessed with five colors for you to choose from - Gold, Silver,
Rose Gold, Black and the Jet Black. The last two hues replaced the Space Gray
option.
Capacitive Home Button and Touch ID
The 3.5-millimeter headphone jack is gone but Apple
gave the smartphone a number of external changes. These include the revamped
home button. It comes with a capacitive technology rather than the old
mechanical module. Likewise, the new-generation Touch ID is now integrated with
the home button together with the taptic engine which vibrates on key-press.
Display and 3D Touch
Stunning. There's no other word to describe the current
iPhone Retina HD display which is 25 percent brighter than the old model. The
smaller iPhone 7 comes with the same 1134 x 750p resolution. Though it may not
have a quad-HD quality, Apple's display tech could simply make you forget QHD
panels exist. Underneath the display is the second-generation 3D Touch which is
now faster and power efficient.
Processor: Apple A10 Fusion
Fresh from the benchmark tests, the TSMC-made A10
Fusion chip is set to burry the competition in terms of speed. And speaking of speed,
we are talking about 2.4GHz clock speed. It's a new-generation 64-bit worker
which the company claims to be 40 percent faster than the iPhone 6s' A9 chip.
In terms of graphics, it clouds the iPhone 6s with 50 percent increase in
performance. Technically, it packs a quad-core CPU - two of which are
high-performance cores and two are high-efficiency cores
Of course, it is accompanied by the M10 motion
co-processor which gives you better support for fitness sensors and health
monitoring. The 4.7-inch iPhone 7 packs 2GB of RAM while the bigger iPhone 7
boasts 3GB of Random Access Memory. Combine this hardware with iOS 10, it'll
bring the best smartphone experience on the table.
Battery
We were very happy with the addition of the Low
Power Mode in iOS 9 on top of the efficient battery life of the iPhone 6s. Now,
the iPhone 7 tallies 14 hours on 3G and 40-hour music playback.
Since the handset is equipped with two high
efficiency cores. Expect that to have longer mileage when doing normal to
moderate activities.
Camera
Apple is banking on its bold moves in the camera
department to sell millions of iPhone 7. This year, the smartphone’s iSight
camera owns the spotlight. Both iPhone 7 models will have 12MP camera sensors
with the same 6-element lens. Both also have Optical Image Stabilization.
The standard iPhone 7 rocks a larger 1/2.6"
sensor, f/1.8 aperture and 1.3-micrometer pixel size for best low-light
performance. For the purpose of comparison, the last year's iPhone 6s settled
with 1/3" sensor, no OIS and f/2.2 aperture.
The bigger handset carriers more muscle with its
dual-lens camera set-up called the iSight Duo. One module is a wide-angle lens
with f/1.8 aperture, the other is a Telephoto lens with f/2.8 aperture. It is
also the first smartphone to rock 2X optical zoom.
Apple highlights the Bokeh capability of the iPhone
7 Plus camera. Its depth mapping allows the smartphone to Focus on the object
while blurring the background. This feature will be rolled out later this year
as a software update.
Moreover, both iPhone 7 will have four Quad LED
True Tone flash – two warm-tone LEDs and two cool-tone LEDs.
The Waterproof, Dustproof, Stereo Speakers
Apple finally treated the iPhone hardware with IP67
rating making the device water-resistant up to 1 meter for at least 30 minutes.
In line with the sacking of the 3.5-millimeter audio jack, Apple has included a
stereo speaker system in an iPhone for the first time. Both speakers are
mounted at the top and the bottom of the handset to offer enhanced audio experience.
Connectivity
Apple stresses that the iPhone is still the best in
LTE connectivity. The Voice over LTE feature is still one of its hallmarks.
WiFi is also faster with iPhone 7. Likewise NFC is also upgraded for enhanced
Apple Pay support
Storage, Price, Availability
The Apple iPhone 7 will be available in 32GB, 128GB
and 256GB configurations. This means that it scrapped the 16GB variant and 64GB
variant. Here are the prices:
iPhone 7
32 GB — USD 649
128 GB — USD 749
256 GB — USD 849
iPhone 7 Plus
32 GB — USD 769
128 GB — USD 869
256 GB — USD
969
Apple will accept pre-orders on September 9;
shipping starts on September 16. The iPhone 7 will be released in the following
countries:
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Canada
China
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Hong Kong
Ireland
Italy
Japan
Luxembourg
Mexico
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Portugal
Puerto Rico
Singapore
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
UAE
UK
US Virgin Islands
US
In the Philippines, we are looking forward for an
early iPhone 7 release this year. Will you get one?
