iPhone 7/7Plus: The Jet Black! But overrated?

THE IPHONE 7 + JET BLACK! 

When I saw the first iPhone , way back in 2007-2008 I really did not like it probably, because I was you can say a heavy user of Nokia phones, which I still consider the best phones of today. Nowadays, phones are all about specs , camera etc but no durability , no battery life. After that , I lost interest in iPhones for a couple of years, until... the iPhone 4 arrived in 2012, I considered this phone a masterpiece, if it wasn't for Apple continuously launching new iOS and making the older ones redundant I would still be using the iPhone 4 today. 

I considered it one of the best iPhones made till date, and then even the iPhone 5S was one of the best. However, post Steve Jobs demise, the Apple Design and more than that "Creativity" went for a toss. Trust me, it really did! 

Tell me how many of you really would have loved to see all cool features like better camera, Jet Black colour, 3D touch , waterproof design and so on, way back when the 6 or even the 6S plus launched? I think most of us would. Even then being blinded by Apple and its products we don't really consider what practically is important when you buy a phone that too of such a high budget. No doubts for me, a supreme phone is the one with the best Software and not so great hardware. If the software is built to the best User Experience and the gadget is priced well, anyone would buy it. 

DESIGN

Coming to the design of the iPhone 7 Plus. I don't think its unique at all, I mean c'mon most iPhones after the iPhone 6 look almost the same and sad part is all manufacturers are copying this kind of a design. 

      

As you can see from the pictures above from all angles, the phone is pitch dark. LOL. I mean you cannot even see the keys, yeah each and every portion is very dark. All of the pictures above have been shot from my Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. 

On the left hand side of the phone you have the volume buttons along with the hardware silent / loud toggle. On the right side of the phone you have the SIM Card tray and the power button. The front part of the screen has a front facing 7MP Camera and the infrared sensor along with the earpiece. The bottom of the phone has a Microphone and the high volume speakers, yes trust me they are much better than the previous generation iPhones. There is no headphone JACK :( Yeah I did make that face first but then got used to using the Thunderbolt cable to listen to music. 

The back of the Phone has Dual Cameras 12 MP, one being a telescopic one with 2x Optical Zoom and 10x Digital Zoom and a true tone LED Flash. The dimensions of the 4.7 inch iPhone is (0.28 inch x 2.64 inch x 5.44 inch ) (Depth x Width x Height) and the 5.5 inch iPhone is (0.29 inch x 3.07 inch x 6.23 inch ). The 4.7 inch iPhone weighs 138gms and the 7 plus weighs a whooping 188 gms and yeah  it is heavy! Both the phones have a waterproof and dust-proof design. The new iPhones come with a new Home Button, will talk about it in a while. 

Specifications

Both the iPhone models are powered by a A10 Fusion Chip and the M10 Motion Co-Processor. The 4.7 inch iPhone does not come with Dual Cameras. The 4.7 inch iPhone comes with 2 GB of RAM and the 5.5 inch 7 Plus comes with 3GB of RAM and yeah its damn fast. 

The rear facing camera of the iPhone 7 Plus comes with dual cameras, one with a f 1.8 Aperture for Wide Angle shots and better shots under low light conditions, and the telescopic camera with a lower Aperture opening of f 2.8 for distant shot. Yes its really good but I feel this could have been better. Both the iPhone models with with Retina HD displays with 3D Touch technology. The rear facing camera has OIS(Optical Image Stabilisation) and other camera modes that you get in older iPhones. Just that the 7 and the 7 Plus has a wider colour gamut. The FaceTime HD camera also has the Wide Colour Gamut and Auto Image Stabilisation.  

The 7 Plus comes with a PPI ( Pixel Per Inch ) 401 and thats pretty high resolution , however it feels different if your coming from SUPER AMOLED displays because they are much sharper. All depends on when you zoom into text and contents on Safari or browser, is where you feel the real difference.  

Coming to the new "Home" button on the iPhones. Its powered by something called as the new "Taptic Engine", a technology that is used on the Apple Watch as well. So what it does it, gives you vibration based feedback coupled with 3D touch . So on the iPhone you can set the amount of pressure you need for activating the button just like a click, but it feels totally different. Of course it sounds cool, but it isn't worth the money you pay for trust me. 

Good news for LTE users, the LTE now supports speeds upto 450 Mbps and lots of radio bands are supported as well. And in India, JIO users, VOLTE Support also is provided! As you can see from the picture I have a Reliance JIO Sim card, when its working well I get really high speeds. I always tend to go with bigger screen size iPhones as they have a better battery life because of a bigger battery, but Ive filed a bug with Apple , as the battery tends to drain like crazy post the iOS 10.1.1 update, hopefully they resolve it soon. 

iOS

So don't get intimated by the latest iOS versions being shipped with the new iPhones. These are just marketing gimmicks. All iPhone / iPad users know that you will get the same iOS versions that the new phones are shipped with. As far as iOS 10 goes, I think its a refreshing way to move into a more open OS kind of a feeling, as compared to a very limited set of features that used to be offered way back on iOS 6. iOS 7 was hated by many but eventually you get used to all the good stuff thats coming your way. 

Just to let you guys know, every year a new iOS version is launched by Apple during WWDC mostly and then it becomes available to you during fall. So by my experience by now iPhone 4S is redundant , and its high time you upgrade to a 6 or a 6S at-least, or you will definitely experience some performance issues, as Apple will stop supporting older iOS versions. 

Price and Variants

Coming to the price of the iPhones. They start from 60,000 INR onwards and go upto a whooping 92,000/-. The iPhone 7 32 GB variant will  be available at 60,000 INR and the 7 Plus 32 GB will be available for 12,000 INR extra , which is 72,000 INR. There is an incremental price of 10,000 each for 128GB and 256GB variants accordingly. 

I went mad literally searching to buy an iPhone, because the colour I choose was the Jet Black. However, I managed to get it through a local dealer in Goa. If you do plan to upgrade, go for the Jet or Matt Black, as you never know these colours might be your favourite and may be unavailable next year, considering the way new iPhone launches happen. But keep your fingers crossed, you may be in for a surprise as 2017 is Apple's 10 year iPhone anniversary! 

If your coming from a 6S or a 6S plus then the 7 and 7 Plus isn't that great except for the camera. Otherwise if you really want to spend a lot of money feel free to do so, its yours. I hope you liked the above review. Feel free to comment and subscribe to my blog.