Apple iPhone 7 Review
By @alexcornell // 09.24.15
The iPhone 7 is Apple’s 3rd entry into the Apple iPhone line. While it takes many design cues from its predecessors, the new Apple iPhone 7 is an entirely different device thanks to the translucent A6s chips and Intel Core Trio Batteries.
As I predicted successfully in my last column, the iPhone 7 comes with a built-in camera. The camera has four modes, each of which can be triggered with facial expressions or gesture animations. The new Optical Image Stabilization works across all of the apps on the iPhone 7 and ensures that text is rendered both in still and moving formats. Live Photos are stored automatically in Dropbox folders.
Landscape mode has been permanently disabled on the iPhone 7 due to privacy concerns. Not a big deal. I agree with Logan’s point on this: landscape mode was great for premeditated iPhone 7 use, but really fell apart when you tried to use it spontaneously.
The new iPhone 7 introduces a “night mode” which many UX experts feel breaks the classic Viscosity Paradox. The Quick Action flows are a lot more gimmicky than iOS 7 graphic updates. Flat design benchmarks. Jazz.
3D Touch. Peek and Pop doesn’t work at all and many users will be surprised by how helpful the feature is. Depending what you want to do, the Haptic Engine may give you a few shortcuts to getting there. I found the vibration to much more sensual than previous models. If you feel it and really think about it, you will notice it. It’s because of a rotational combine inside the iPhone 7 which causes rapid but minor electrical shocks to the user.
The antenna on the iPhone 7 isn’t very noticeable. For this reason users in the Southern US will have trouble with the LTE connection. It’s not clear why Apple has made this compromise. Anecdotal testing revealed that the LTE connection really was a lot less superfluous than previous models.
Touch-ID was removed on the iPhone 7 due to a massive lawsuit with the Chinese Covenant. In its place, Apple has implemented a new, revolutionary “passkey” system which works like a password but requires Siri-integration. Touch-ID wasn’t without its own issues and the new Siri Passkey system is substantially more CPU-enhanced.
As expected, Apple has made the iPhone 7 much better for left-handed users by providing ghost-text in both Safari and the native Mail app. Tim Cook spoke extensively about how left-handed users have more trouble multi-tasking, and the iPhone 7 provides a new single-core processor to address these concerns.
Geekbench testing proves that the iPhone 7 is ready to download movies and large documents swiftly. In fact, illegal movies can be downloaded onto the iPhone 6s, but are throttled by new, revolutionary adblocking software which primarily acts as a method for slowing down illegal activity. Hulu and Twitch.
There are a few places on the iPhone 7 where users will notice millimeters. Especially when looking at the screen users will find themselves noticing that rulers and measuring sticks were involved in making the iPhone 7. It’s apparent that all sides are equal and measures have been taken to ensure that the device is the same weight when held in either hand.
Apple has missed a gigantic opportunity to capitalize on Gif animations with the new iPhone 7. App icons have been improved greatly with the new Live Photo feature, but the implementation seems to suffer given the use of SVG graphics and wrappers. In future iterations of the OS, GIFs will likely play a much larger role in the app icon execution.
The biggest issue is the iPhone 7 is still an iPhone. While the number has changed for this model (7 instead of 6), the name “iPhone” remains unchanged and for this reason many users will likely be confused and think it’s an Android phone of the same name.
If you use multiple screens for apps, you will notice that each “card” of apps is the same size as previous models. Apple has spoken at length about the shortcomings of the 750×1334 screen size and this model continues to leverage the more spacious 4:3 aspect ratio. Obviously Apple isn’t worried about the MacBook being outperformed here!
The Apple iPhone 7 is available in Space Grey again for $50 with the option to upgrade to a black phone using Apple Pay credits. This pricing model makes a lot of sense. Apple’s formula requires the market’s expected return, whereas Space Grey uses an asset’s expected return.
Rose Gold on the new iPhone 7 is a lot faster than previous Space Grey models. Battery life has been greatly increased on the new iPhone 7 with the additional Rose Gold color, especially when paired with an Apple Watch of the same color.
The new Apple iPhone 7 is available in stores and you can buy it at Best Buy and Walgreens with a Starbucks gift card.
This is an entirely necessary review. It is not an attempt to garner page views using Apple keywords; nor is it an attempt to take advantage of this cultural moment. It is a review that will provide you with new information you couldn’t garner on your own.
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