iPhone 7 review : The very first Look on jet black
- 7 years ago
Let's get right down to it: if Apple had launched the iPhone 7 in place of the iPhone 6S last year, it would probably have been the phone of the year.
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We're used to the S variants of the iPhone being minimal upgrades – just the right amount of change to encourage a purchase by those with ageing handsets – and if the myriad changes on this new iPhone had arrived in 2015, it would have been fantastic.
Instead of the iPhone 6S, with just a 3D Touch screen in the way of new features and a few power boosts here and there, we'd have had a waterproof handset with dual speakers, a brighter and more colorful screen and a boosted 12MP camera that took better pictures than the one on the iPhone 6.
Changing the home button from a clickable entity to something that responds to pressure – and possibly even the loss of the headphone jack – would have been seen as innovative and alternative in a sea of identikit handsets.
And if Apple had thrown in the new Jet Black finish with a top-end 256GB storage model… well, that would have been a real challenger, a chance for the brand to cast off the 'tick-tock' mentality of keeping the smaller upgrades confined to the S variants, and remind us that it just makes great phones.
But that didn't happen, and now the metronomic quality of Apple's upgrades seems to have come to a halt – or the pendulum is stuck.
Because with the iPhone 7 we've got another 'tock'. The initial reaction of dubbing this an iPhone 6SS is unfair, as it's more than just an S upgrade – but it's not as much of a push forward as many would have expected given the large changes on the iPhone 4 and 6 in particular.
Although maybe there's a second pattern emerging here – the odd-numbered iPhones keeping things incremental before the big changes on the even-numbered models. Either way, the iPhone 7 is another good, but not great, handset from Apple.
The reasoning is possibly becoming more clear in recent times - Apple's sales haven't been as stellar as in recent years, but that hasn't stopped the iPhone nabbing market share from the Android masses.
It's the most popular phone in the UK and US according to smartphone analyst Kantar, and to Apple that will mean it's done enough with this phone, withdrawing more advanced features and design tweaks to keep them for the much-vaunted iPhone 8 reboot later this year.
Launched on September 16
Price for 32GB starts at $649 (£599, AU$1,079)
Cheaper than iPhone 7 Plus by $120 (£120, AU$150)
The iPhone 7 price starts at $649 (£599, AU$1,079) for the 32GB model. If you fancy upping your storage to 128GB you'll need to shell out $749 (£699, AU$1,229) – which is the same cost as the 64GB iPhone 6S when it launched.
Power users, meanwhile, will want to check out the $849 (£799, AU$1,379) iPhone 7 with an mobile-first 256GB of storage, giving you masses of storage space.
The iPhone 7 inherits the same pricing structure as the iPhone 6S when it launched back in September 2015 – at least in the US and Australia it does; for those in the UK the aftershocks of Brexit are being felt, with a £60 price hike for the iPhone 7 over the 6S.
iphone 7 images
iphone 7 features and price
how much does iphone 7 cost
date release of iphone 7
iphone 6s vs iphone 7
apple iphone 7 plus release date
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We're used to the S variants of the iPhone being minimal upgrades – just the right amount of change to encourage a purchase by those with ageing handsets – and if the myriad changes on this new iPhone had arrived in 2015, it would have been fantastic.
Instead of the iPhone 6S, with just a 3D Touch screen in the way of new features and a few power boosts here and there, we'd have had a waterproof handset with dual speakers, a brighter and more colorful screen and a boosted 12MP camera that took better pictures than the one on the iPhone 6.
Changing the home button from a clickable entity to something that responds to pressure – and possibly even the loss of the headphone jack – would have been seen as innovative and alternative in a sea of identikit handsets.
And if Apple had thrown in the new Jet Black finish with a top-end 256GB storage model… well, that would have been a real challenger, a chance for the brand to cast off the 'tick-tock' mentality of keeping the smaller upgrades confined to the S variants, and remind us that it just makes great phones.
But that didn't happen, and now the metronomic quality of Apple's upgrades seems to have come to a halt – or the pendulum is stuck.
Because with the iPhone 7 we've got another 'tock'. The initial reaction of dubbing this an iPhone 6SS is unfair, as it's more than just an S upgrade – but it's not as much of a push forward as many would have expected given the large changes on the iPhone 4 and 6 in particular.
Although maybe there's a second pattern emerging here – the odd-numbered iPhones keeping things incremental before the big changes on the even-numbered models. Either way, the iPhone 7 is another good, but not great, handset from Apple.
The reasoning is possibly becoming more clear in recent times - Apple's sales haven't been as stellar as in recent years, but that hasn't stopped the iPhone nabbing market share from the Android masses.
It's the most popular phone in the UK and US according to smartphone analyst Kantar, and to Apple that will mean it's done enough with this phone, withdrawing more advanced features and design tweaks to keep them for the much-vaunted iPhone 8 reboot later this year.
Launched on September 16
Price for 32GB starts at $649 (£599, AU$1,079)
Cheaper than iPhone 7 Plus by $120 (£120, AU$150)
The iPhone 7 price starts at $649 (£599, AU$1,079) for the 32GB model. If you fancy upping your storage to 128GB you'll need to shell out $749 (£699, AU$1,229) – which is the same cost as the 64GB iPhone 6S when it launched.
Power users, meanwhile, will want to check out the $849 (£799, AU$1,379) iPhone 7 with an mobile-first 256GB of storage, giving you masses of storage space.
The iPhone 7 inherits the same pricing structure as the iPhone 6S when it launched back in September 2015 – at least in the US and Australia it does; for those in the UK the aftershocks of Brexit are being felt, with a £60 price hike for the iPhone 7 over the 6S.