Apple Announces the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus

[DocSwag]

Source: http://www.anandtech.com/show/10658/apple-announces-iphone-7-iphone-7-plus-a10-fusion-soc-new-camera-wide-color-gamut-preorders-start-sept-9th

 

So today at their September 7th Apple Event, Apple has announces the newest, latest, and greatest iPhone, the iPhone 7.

Apple iPhone 7 and 7 Plus
	Apple iPhone 7	Apple iPhone 7 Plus	Apple iPhone 6s	Apple iPhone 6s Plus
SoC	Apple A10 Fusion 2 x "Fast Core" 2x "Efficient Core "		Apple A9 2 x 1.85GHz Apple Twister
GPU	"6 Core GPU"		PowerVR GT7600
Display	4.7-inch 1334 x 750 IPS LCD, DCI-P3	5.5-inch 1920 x 1080 IPS LCD, DCI-P3	4.7-inch 1334 x 750 IPS LCD, sRGB	5.5-inch 1920 x 1080 IPS LCD, sRGB
Size / Mass	138.3 x 67.1 x 7.1 mm, 138 grams	158.2 x 77.9 x 7.3 mm, 188 grams	138.3 x 67.1 x 7.1 mm, 143 grams	158.2 x 77.9 x 7.3mm, 192 grams
Rear Cameras	12MP ƒ/1.8 OIS, Wide Color Gamut, Quad LED True Tone Flash	12MP ƒ/1.8 wide angle, OIS, Wide Color Gamut, Quad LED True Tone Flash 12MP ƒ/2.8 telephoto, 2x optical zoom, OIS, Wide Color Gamut, Quad LED True Tone Flash	12MP with 1.22µm pixels + True Tone Flash	12MP with 1.22µm pixels + True Tone Flash + OIS
Front Camera	7MP ƒ/2.2, Wide Color Gamut, Retina Flash	7MP ƒ/2.2, Wide Color Gamut, Retina Flash	5MP F/2.2 + Retina Flash	5MP F/2.2 + Retina Flash
Storage	32GB/128GB/256GB		16GB/64GB/128GB (Launch) 32GB/128GB (Refresh)
I/O	Apple Lightning connector		Apple Lightning connector, 3.5mm headset
WiFi	2.4/5GHz 2x2 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, BT 4.2, NFC		2.4/5GHz 2x2 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, BT 4.2, NFC
Launch Price	$649/749/849 32/128/256GB	$769/869/969 32/128/256GB	$649/749/849 16/64/128GB	$749/849/949 16GB/64/128GB

 

The new iPhone 7 packs many new features that the 6s didn't have. But first we have to start with the specs. The big changes here are with the CPU, GPU and display. We now get a new A10 chip, which remarkably is built on big.LITTLE. The new A10 Fusion packs 2 "Fast Cores," which are supposed to be a lot more powerful than the A9. As well, it packs 2 "Efficient Cores," the nature of which we do not know (it may be something like an A53, or a custom Apple CPU). It is possible that most of the 20% battery life improvement Apple is touting is because of big.LITTLE. As well, the GPU is a lot more powerful. The display this time no longer uses sRGB but rather DCI-P3, which is a larger gamut, allowing a wider spectrum of colors.

Quote

In any case, the A10 implements two types of cores; a pair of high performance cores, and a pair of low power cores. The slower cores are said to consume one-fifth the power of the high performance cores, though Apple has not indicated what performance is like. As is traditional for Apple, they haven’t said anything about the CPU cores themselves, but it’s a safe bet that the high performance cores are a direct descendant of the Twister cores used in the A9. More curious will be what the low-power cores are – given Apple’s fondness for developing their own ARM CPU cores and various technical considerations (such as the core interfaces), it may very well be that these are also Apple-designed cores, as opposed to an off-the-shelf solution like ARM’s Cortex-A53.

 

The new iPhone also has gotten rid of the 16gb option and has added a 256 gb option. This is good to see as 16gb is just too little these days.

 

Another one of the neat things is the home button-Apple has gotten rid of the physical part and made the home button much like a force-touch display. Now, theoretically the home button could have a regular tap and a "click," though as far as we know it doesn't behave like this yet. Most likely this is implemented to make the button last longer as well as to make the phone more water-resistant. Which brings us to this...

 

The iPhone 7 is IP67 water resistant!

 

Yes, you heard that right! It may not be like the s7 which is IP68 (the difference is the S7 is rated for 30 minutes in up to 1.5 meters of water, whereas the iPhone 7 is rated for 30 minutes in up to 1 meter of water), but this is still neat to see. Now you no longer have to freak out if you accidentally get water on your iPhone!

 

There's also some other cool features like stereo speakers, a slightly new camera, dual cameras on the 7 plus, and a new jet black finish, but for the controversial part: The headphone jack.

Quote

However taking a step back, as rumors have previously indicated, Apple has removed the 3.5mm audio jack on the phone. For external audio, Apple is now telling users and accessory manufacturers alike to use the Lightning port. Of note, this necessitates putting a Digital to Analog Converter (DAC) in headphones and other devices that directly connect via Lightning, which is going to have interesting ramifications on audio quality differences between products and how they are priced. Otherwise for existing 3.5mm devices, Apple is also including a Lighting to 3.5mm audio adapter, which of course also integrates the necessary DAC.

 

Given that they’re removed the audio jack, Apple has upgraded their EarPod earbuds for the new iPhone. The new models are lightning based, though otherwise apparently unchanged from their predecessors. A bit farther down the line, Apple will be releasing a wireless earbud product, the AirPods, with which they intend to do away with concerns about wired connections entirely by going wireless.

The rumors were true, and the iPhone 7 really does not have a headphone jack. Apple does include an adapter in the box, though, which is good to see, but this will present a hurdle for some people who don't want to have to carry an adapter with them or charge their phone while listening to music. Apple does have a solution to this: The AirPods. Unfortunately, these cool wireless earbuds will set you back $159, which is quite a considerable amount of money.

 

Overall I think the iPhone 7 sounds like a really neat phone. There may be some drawbacks like the headphone jack, but there are also a lot of cool things like a new SoC and water resistant. What are your thoughts?

[ForumTryhard]

Oh boy. Yet another iphone!

[79wjd]

I'm tempted to buy the 7+ for the better camera....but I don't really take enough pictures to warrant spending $350~ to upgrade from my 6s+. 

[Clanscorpia]

Of course my rich snobby acquaintance already pre ordered one.

[Anir]

Good to see apple upgrade to quad core, finally some good multitasking :-)

[Clanscorpia]

Just now, Anir said:

Good to see apple upgrade to quad core, finally some good multitasking :-)

Apples dual core beat the 808 6 core and I believe the 810 most of the time.

[GoodBytes]

You must be joking.

From The Verge:

 

The phone is ONLY water resistant IP67, which means NOTHING. All phones are water resistant. We all used our phone, or aged old MP3 player at the time when it is raining, or drop it on snow, etc. The Galaxy S7 is water IP68, pretty much water proof, making ideal for using your phone in your shower, or under water as you swim. (but is more for kids taking parent phone and dropping it in water, which the Samsung phone can handle just fine due to its certification).

 

The Nexus 6P is the exact same thickness as the iPhone 7 Plus, and HAS the headphone jack. I read people comparing it to optical disk drive, but the problem is that optical disk drive where removed in a period where everyone has the Internet, it is well established and most have decent speed/service. People were no longer using their drives. Headphone jacks are STILL WIDELY used. So now you are stuck with wireless earphones on Bluetooth that suck, Apple wireless headphone that cost a fortune for the same shitty 10$ (sold at 40$) earphone sound at 160$, with barely 5h battery life. AND you can't use them on another device.  Sure you can use the adapter, but you better order a bunch, because I can assure you, it will break due to the twisting it it well get from inserting the phone in your pocket or bag in and out, multiple times. Try and plug your charging cable on your phone right now, and put it on your packet and sit down. No problem with earphones, but you'll be going "Oh shit! oh shit! oh shit", as you feel the pressure applying on the charging cable as you are sitting down, probably will break you phone, and not to mention that it will be annoying feel, because the adapter will be so clunky. No problem with standard headphone jack.

 

And what about accessories. They are many accessories, like credit card card swiper/reader that many small businesses uses, that uses the the headphone jack. Now, they can't charge or use a battery bank if they get a replacement card reader. They have to stop their business mid day, going "Oh, the phone is charging.. sorry come back in several hours, especially that there is no fast charging or wireless charging on this device"

 

The camera is also unimpressive, it is about the same as the old one which is pretty pathetic for a phone at this price range. Just about any premium phone, even Microsoft Lumia 950 / 950 XL destroys Apple best offering, and that is almost 1 year old phone, and cheaper.

 

The iPhone still uses an IPS display, while OLED is now pretty much standard, and to top things off, look at the other dimensions. The phone has a large border. Look at the width and height compared to the Galaxy S7 Edge Phone. The Galaxy is SMALLER, yet sports the same screen size. AND has expandable memory up to 256GB micro SD card, which you can get freaking fast ones, which getting the phone AND a fast memory card is cheaper than the iPhone S7 Plus 256GB.

 

Do I need to continue?

 

Oh and I think Apple knew that their presentation and product had nothing ... I mean to bring Nintendo on stage to get media attention... how many millions Apple paid? And honestly, Nintendo got more attention than Apple. And it shows that the game, probably partially paid by Apple to get exclusivity (and probably made by 1-2 people at Nintendo, as all those runner gamers are made, especially that all the art work is done already), I mean look at the presentation that Nintendo did, they didn't really care. I saw Nintendo do a better job with the reveal of the WiiU.

[GoodBytes]

8 minutes ago, Clanscorpia said:

Apples dual core beat the 808 6 core and I believe the 810 most of the time.

Honestly.. in these days.. no one cares about benchmarks. Phone CPUs/GPUs are powerful enougth. It all comes down to OS optimization. Android got massively better, now Android on low end phones providing you a super fast and fluid experience is a thing, Windows Phone has shown in the past and still showing that a 150$ phone can give you the same fast and responsive experience as an iPhone, and that was back then. Everything runs fine these days. So there is no point.

[Clanscorpia]

4 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

Honestly.. in these days.. no one cares about benchmarks. Phone CPUs/GPUs are powerful enougth. It all comes down to OS optimization. Android got massively better, Windows Phone has shown and still showing that a 150$ can give you the same fast and responsive experience as an iPhone. Everything runs fine these days. So there is no point.

^ Thats my opinion as well. As long as its faster than my iPod 4 I dont care  

[DocSwag]

7 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

You must be joking.

From The Verge:

 

The phone is ONLY water resistant IP67, which means NOTHING. All phones are water resistant. We all used our phone, or aged old MP3 player at the time when it is raining, or drop it on snow, etc. The Galaxy S7 is water IP68, pretty much water proof, making ideal for using your phone in your shower, or under water as you swim. (but is more for kids taking parent phone and dropping it in water, which the Samsung phone can handle just fine due to its certification).

 

The Nexus 6P is the exact same thickness as the iPhone 7 Plus, and HAS the headphone jack. I read people comparing it to optical disk drive, but the problem is that optical disk drive where removed in a period where everyone has the Internet, it is well established and most have decent speed/service. People were no longer using their drives. Headphone jacks are STILL WIDELY used. So now you are stuck with wireless earphones on Bluetooth that suck, Apple wireless headphone that cost a fortune for the same shitty 10$ (sold at 40$) earphone sound at 160$, with barely 5h battery life. AND you can't use them on another device.  Sure you can use the adapter, but you better order a bunch, because I can assure you, it will break due to the twisting it it well get from inserting the phone in your pocket or bag in and out, multiple times. Try and plug your charging cable on your phone right now, and put it on your packet and sit down. No problem with earphones, but you'll be going "Oh shit! oh shit! oh shit", as you feel the pressure applying on the charging cable as you are sitting down, probably will break you phone, and not to mention that it will be annoying feel, because the adapter will be so clunky. No problem with standard headphone jack.

 

And what about accessories. They are many accessories, like credit card card swiper/reader that many small businesses uses, that uses the the headphone jack. Now, they can't charge or use a battery bank if they get a replacement card reader. They have to stop their business mid day, going "Oh, the phone is charging.. sorry come back in several hours, especially that there is no fast charging or wireless charging on this device"

 

The camera is also unimpressive, it is about the same as the old one which is pretty pathetic for a phone at this price range. Just about any premium phone, even Microsoft Lumia 950 / 950 XL destroys Apple best offering, and that is almost 1 year old phone, and cheaper.

 

The iPhone still uses an IPS display, while OLED is now pretty much standard, and to top things off, look at the other dimensions. The phone has a large border. Look at the width and height compared to the Galaxy S7 Edge Phone. The Galaxy is SMALLER, yet sports the same screen size. AND has expandable memory up to 256GB micro SD card, which you can get freaking fast ones, which getting the phone AND a fast memory card is cheaper than the iPhone S7 Plus 256GB.

 

Do I need to continue?

IP67 means you can submerge it in a bit of water for up to 30 minutes. I'd be scared of shorting out my phone if I did the same.

 

 I never said I thought it was great apple got rid of the headphone jack. I think it's a bad move that had no good reason to be done.

 

Apple has a very good camera on the 6s. Just read Anandtech's reviews.

 

I never said it was great that they had an IPS display. I'm just saying it's nice they added a wider gamut. Of course OLED would be great, but a wider gamut gives a bigger range of colors which is always good.

 

[Dionyz]

All of apple products will become slower as newer updates release. Here is how the iphone 4s got wrecked by the updates.

 

 

[GoodBytes]

9 minutes ago, DocSwag said:

Apple has a very good camera on the 6s. Just read Anandtech's reviews.

 

I did, and checked again (http://www.anandtech.com/show/9686/the-apple-iphone-6s-and-iphone-6s-plus-review/10).

It is really unimpressive, and phones at the time and current ones does a far better job in both day and night. The amount loss in details, and the grain level at night is just incredibly bad.

[DocSwag]

2 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

I did, and checked again (http://www.anandtech.com/show/9686/the-apple-iphone-6s-and-iphone-6s-plus-review/10).

It is really unimpressive, and phones at the time and current ones does a far better job in both day and night. The amount loss in details, and the grain level at night is just incredibly bad.

As I hear it the impression is that it is a good, consistent camera. It may not be the best in daylight but it's pretty good at night. The s7 probably has a better camera than the 6s and 6s plus but the 7 has an improved camera plus it still puts it right up there as a camera belonging to a flagship.

[Mira Yurizaki]

25 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

Honestly.. in these days.. no one cares about benchmarks. Phone CPUs/GPUs are powerful enougth. It all comes down to OS optimization. Android got massively better, now Android on low end phones providing you a super fast and fluid experience is a thing, Windows Phone has shown in the past and still showing that a 150$ phone can give you the same fast and responsive experience as an iPhone, and that was back then. Everything runs fine these days. So there is no point.

I do from a technology progression standpoint, because mobile tech is like 90s desktop tech: it's rapidly advancing.

 

That'll probably hit a wall though once we get below 10nm.

[rattacko123]

How am I going to charge my phone if I have my headphones plugged in!?
This phone needs 2 charging ports, so that I can listen to headphones and charge at the same time, and when I'm not listening I can charge using Apple dual quick charge v69.420

[rattacko123]

1 hour ago, M.Yurizaki said:

That'll probably hit a wall though once we get below 10nm.

CARBON NANOTUUUBES!

[Misanthrope]

1 hour ago, GoodBytes said:

Honestly.. in these days.. no one cares about benchmarks. Phone CPUs/GPUs are powerful enougth. It all comes down to OS optimization. Android got massively better, now Android on low end phones providing you a super fast and fluid experience is a thing, Windows Phone has shown in the past and still showing that a 150$ phone can give you the same fast and responsive experience as an iPhone, and that was back then. Everything runs fine these days. So there is no point.

Aye I repeat this ad nausem: we need "killer" apps and games on mobiles but given how the market is oriented there that isn't going to happen either. It truly feels like a wasted spec wars where it's just specs for the sake of specs.

[Belgarathian]

It's big/little config, so might still be a dual-core for all intensive purposes. 

[Belgarathian]

1 hour ago, Dionyz said:

All of apple products will become slower as newer updates release. Here is how the iphone 4s got wrecked by the updates.

 

 

Yup..

 

That's usually the case with updates. Nothing new here, happens with Windows, OS X (mac OS), Android, Windows Phone... Literally everything tech. 

[79wjd]

12 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

Aye I repeat this ad nausem: we need "killer" apps and games on mobiles but given how the market is oriented there that isn't going to happen either. It truly feels like a wasted spec wars where it's just specs for the sake of specs.

In your opinion it's just for the sake of specs. 

 

I personally find that it makes the entire experience far better if the characters render .00004ns faster

 

 

2 minutes ago, Belgarathian said:

Yup..

 

That's usually the case with updates. Nothing new here, happens with Windows, OS X (mac OS), Android, Windows Phone... Literally everything tech.

Yes, but I'd rather not have the option to update at all than have the option to update to something a bit slower.

/s

 

[Belgarathian]

13 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

In your opinion it's just for the sake of specs. 

 

I personally find that it makes the entire experience far better if the characters render .00004ns faster

 

 

Yes, but I'd rather not have the option to update at all than have the option to update to something a bit slower.

/s

 

Really? You'd rather not have the option to update... Wouldn't you rather have the option and choose not to? 

[79wjd]

12 minutes ago, Belgarathian said:

Really? You'd rather not have the option to update... Wouldn't you rather have the option and choose not to? 

27 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

Yes, but I'd rather not have the option to update at all than have the option to update to something a bit slower.

/s

[dtaflorida]

AirPods... omg I want them.

[Repost]

2 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

-snip-

[ZombieMan762]

Can't wait. For the haters enjoy your slow updates if you even get one and your poor resale value.

 

For the headphone jack...rarely used it, and while you all complain now just wait a year or two when suddenly there are a ton of USB C and Lightening options out there. Everyone complains Apple doesn't innovate...here you go. Time to create new stuff or get left behind. The iPhone wagon is moving and you will all sheepishly accept it once Samsung does their usual and uses the iPhone launch as a guide to their next shitty Galaxy.

 

In the meantime I will look forward to actual real world results like system and app performance being 1-2 years ahead of any Android phone.