Matthew Lee
Staff Writer
On Sep. 7, Apple unveiled the new iPhone 7 and 7 Plus to the world. The public had already stirred up numerous rumors of changes to the design that many people disagreed with, such as the removal of the headphone jack. The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus were not exactly designs that were astronomically different from the previous generation models, but they do sport some differences that created a polarizing opinion among consumers.
From a purely technical standpoint, the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus have been upgraded with the expected hardware. The new “7” phones are both equipped with the new A10 and M10 processor chips, an obvious upgrade from the “6” era’s A9 and M9 chips. The “7” series also includes the option for 256 GB of storage, a desperately needed option for heavy consumption users.
Aesthetically, Apple has ditched the space grey color for the jet black color, which can be comparable to the black keys of a piano. The volume of the new phones have stayed the same, but they are a bit lighter than the previous phones, by 4 grams to be exact. Display sizes have also remained constant for the new devices as well.
In the photography department there is a noticeable distinction between the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, as the 7 Plus has two cameras while the 7 only has one. The 7 Plus’ camera remains a 12 MP beast with some minor additional features, but the 7 Plus’ dual camera allows users to switch between wide-angle and telephoto lenses, with f1.8 and f2.8 apertures respectively. The front-facing camera has received an upgrade from five to seven megapixels. The home button has also been replaced with a sensor. Lastly, the headphone jack has been replaced with a symmetrical speaker grill, with another speaker grill on the top of the phone beside the front-facing camera which gives the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus surround sound.
The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are also splash, water and dust resistant according to the IP67 standards. The iPhone 6s was only water resistant and it’s great to see that Apple has actually gone out of their way to include a feature which they had left unchecked. The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus score exceptionally well on benchmarks, as the A10 chip is a fierce workhorse when it comes to apps and games. Specs-wise, the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus have set the bar in terms of performance and power, beating out the Samsung Galaxy and Note 7.
The controversial removal of the headphone jack has raised a lot of eyebrows from consumers. Many people have argued that although this is a monumental sacrifice that Apple has taken, it is a pioneering step in wireless and Bluetooth technology. Apple has included a headphone jack-to-lightning cable adapter for each user in order to not completely obsolete all headphones, like they did to old iPhone accessories with the introduction of the lightning cable back with the iPhone 5.
Instead, Apple has introduced AirPods, wireless headphones that run off of battery power in order to spearhead their campaign for Bluetooth and wireless. The removal of the headphone jack has noticeably turned away many consumers, as many have voiced their complaints. The removal of the headphone jack brings up issues such as the inability to listen to music and charge your phone, the increasingly limited lifespan for the one lightning port which has to be used for both headphones and charging, the ridiculously high price of the AirPods and the design of the AirPods making them easy to lose.