TECH News: Apple iPhone 7

With over 1 billion handsets sold, the iPhone is the best-selling mobile handset ever.  Android models are catching up in popularity though, and with the world expecting a ground breaking 10th Anniversary iPhone to be launched in 2017, what have Apple added to make us want an upgrade this year?

Apple iPhone 7 & 7plus

On Wednesday evening (uk time) Tim Cook announced the iPhone7, calling it “…their best iPhone ever”.  Which is what we were kind of hoping a new release would be!

The new iPhone again comes in 2 forms, the 7 & 7plus, and along with the now familiar Silver, Gold and Rose Gold colour options are two new ones to choose from. Black and Jet Black have been added to the line up.  Although the Jet Black option already comes with the following warning:

The high-gloss finish of the jet black iPhone 7 is achieved through a precision nine-step anodisation and polishing process. Its surface is equally as hard as other anodised Apple products; however, its high shine may show fine micro-abrasions with use. If you are concerned about this, we suggest you use one of the many cases available to protect your iPhone.

So not off to a great start there, but it is the overall package of Hardware/Software/Services that have made the iPhone so successful previously.  So how have they built on the previous models?

The new handsets are dust and water-resistant, which although new to Apple, is more about keeping up with some Android devices which already offer this.

An important selling point for the iPhone7 has to be the cameras.  They are completely new designs with built in optical stabilisation, 12mp high speed sensor, true tone flash with 50% more light thanks to the 4 LEDs.  It will compute 100 billion processes in 25 milliseconds on every photo!  That sounds like a great stat, and they backed it up with some images taken by Pro photographers using the device.  They looked great and hugely improved in low light shots.

For those who stick with their DSLRs the new iPhone can also capture RAW and both models have a 7mp front facing camera for improved selfies!

The big change is on the 7plus which has 2 cameras at the rear allowing for optical zoom up to 10x.  Apple feel this is the best camera in any smartphone and with a host of powerful tools such as depth of field, faster focus and improved local tone mapping your photos will look better than ever.

As with touchscreen devices the interaction between you and your phone is via the screen and the iPhone7 now has a Retina HD display which is claimed to be 25% brighter than the iPhone6 models.

Ahead of the launch all the talk was about Apple planning to remove the 3.5mm headphone jack….. and they did not disappoint!

The new phones now ship with EarPods that have a Lightening connector instead of the old 3.55mm.  They will also ship a Lightening to 3.55mm connector so you can continue to use your current headphones with your new iPhone7.

Audio stereo speakers at the top and bottom of the handsets have also been included this time around, so when you are in landscape watching a film you should really notice the difference in sound.

The best news was that Apple ditched the base 16gb model and now offer both version in 32/128/256GB which is welcome news as they continue to shun expandable storage slots.

If you want a new iPhone7 or plus they are on Pre-order now from the Apple store with prices starting at £599 for the base 32gb iPhone7 and going up to £919 for the 256gb 7plus.