6 ms·

iPhone 7 Review

22 points by okneil 10y ago

m52go 10y ago
Much of the conclusions were not very positive...how'd it end up with a 9? The Verge always seems extra giddy about iPhones. They'd never rate a ho-hum Android phone with "disappointing" and "incomplete" features this highly.
mrmondo 10y ago
Does anyone have links to some sample (real) raw or full size unedited iPhone 7 Plus images?
- johansch 10y ago
  Using 900x676 pixel ~400kB JPEGs for demoing camera performance is hilarious.
  - mrmondo 10y ago
    I know right? Especially when you're looking at them on a 5K iMac ha!
johansch 10y ago
"Bad stuff: .. * Looks just like an iPhone 6 in a case"
dx034 10y ago
"my jet black review unit scratched and scuffed almost instantly" I don't see a point of making smartphones thinner if they are so fragile that they have to be in cases. A phone that's a few millimeters thicker and a bit heavier might still feel smaller for the customer if it's usable without a case.
- oDot 10y ago
  Also room for more battery. Priorities.
  - socmag 10y ago
    Neh, allows you to buy add-on battery case that wirelessly charges the phone that's in it. Marketing priorities!
    - socmag 10y ago
      Why the downvote? Oh right, the iPhone can't be charged wirelessly. Silly me. http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/apple-hasn-t-given-up-on-wireless-charging-for-the-iphone-yet-1328371 http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobil...
- leothekim 10y ago
  For me it's less about the fragility and more about the grip. My iPhone easily slips out of my hands unless I have a case covering it. I do find it odd that Apple sells an iPhone an attractive finish that people will instinctively want to cover up with a case.
- k-mcgrady 10y ago
  Pretty sure those two things (scratch/scuff on the jet black and thickness) are completely unrelated. It's scratches because of how they've created the finish. It could weigh 10kg and be 20cm X 20cm X 20cm and it would still scratch.
- asendra 10y ago
  What does that have to do with having an easily scratchable finish???
  - Jtsummers 10y ago
    If the phone has a nice showy fragile finish users may feel compelled to protect it by putting it in a case. Negating the benefit of a thinner phone.
    - Steko 10y ago
      The thin phone with special finish that "needs" a case is still thinner than thicker phone with finish that needs case just as much (or little). Thickness is a red herring here.
    - delecti 10y ago
      Alternatively, by making it thin and small, they've enabled customers to still have a reasonably sized phone after they've customized it with their choice of case.
- semi-extrinsic 10y ago
  Exactly this has crossed my mind many times. What's the point of having a super thin phone with really nice design if you're going to keep it in a thick pink rubber literally all the time?
column 10y ago
> Great display How can they write that as a plus when it is the same screen size and resolution as the previous model, and the competition as a better display overall? http://www.kimovil.com/en/compare/apple-iphone-6-plus,apple-iphone-7-plus-256gb,lg-v20 http://www.kimovil.com/en/compare/apple-iphone-6-plus,apple-... Why not mention the lack of SD card slot or removable battery? <-- EDIT : Thank you all for your openness of mind!
- dx034 10y ago
  >Why not mention the lack of SD card slot or removable battery? Because no one expects that from an iPhone. As much as I'm not a fan of the new 7, I don't think anyone really expected that.
- pvg 10y ago
  Might as well mention the lack of a hardware keyboard and possibly DVD drive and parallel port at that point - no iPhone ever has had an SD card slot or removable battery.
  - Zach_the_Lizard 10y ago
    A parallel port is useless junk at this point for all but very special use cases. A removable battery is quite useful and the norm for many home devices.
- thomasjoulin 10y ago
  It's not the same, it has "Wide Color" http://appleinsider.com/articles/16/07/08/iphone-7-and-apples-next-retina-display-frontier-wide-color- http://appleinsider.com/articles/16/07/08/iphone-7-and-apple...
- k-mcgrady 10y ago
  >> "How can they write that as a plus when it is the same screen size and resolution as the previous model" ...because there's more to a display than those two qualities? It's 25% brighter if I'm remembering right and now supports the DCI-P3 color space. >> "Why not mention the lack of SD card slot or removable battery?" Because these are things that have never featured on an iPhone, probably never will, and everybody knows that. Lack or removable battery is also something the main competition is switching to for better water resistance (S7 does not have a removable battery).
philipov 10y ago
How do you plug it in to charge at the same time as using the headphones so you can, for example, listen to music at work?
- nixy 10y ago
  Bluetooth headphones or this: http://www.belkin.com/us/p/P-F8J198/ http://www.belkin.com/us/p/P-F8J198/
- mhw 10y ago
  Another option is http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MNN62/iphone-lightning-dock-black http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MNN62/iphone-lightning-doc...
- ytch 10y ago
  or this one with lightning to 30 pin adapter: https://www.amazon.com/3-5mm-Audio-30pin-Cable-Iphone/dp/B00490OVM0 https://www.amazon.com/3-5mm-Audio-30pin-Cable-Iphone/dp/B00...
FussyZeus 10y ago
If nothing else, it's refreshing to see a more logical take on the headphone jack issue. All of tech media will not stop harping on this, just like they did when the optical drive was no longer standard on Macs (you need to buy a $35 USB optical drive, the HORROR). Maybe Apple was a little ahead of their time to remove the optical drive, and maybe they are with the headphone jack too. So far the more level headed of the user base don't seem to give too much of a shit.
- morbidhawk 10y ago
  My issue with the headphone jack removal is that it is a more reliable port than the lightning port. I've had a lightning port on an iPhone become damaged before through normal wear and tear. I have to now position the cable just right to charge it. There's no way that I'd want to use that lightning port even more by trying to play music on it and I definitely don't want to have to hold the adapter a certain way to get music to play.
  - k-mcgrady 10y ago
    Are you sure the port is actually damaged? A common issue is lint clogging it up. I had an issue where I had to jiggle the cable to get it to charge and when I finally brought it to an Apple store they disappeared out back and returned with so much lint I don't know how it even fit in the port. You can remove it yourself with a paperclip but I'd take it to the Apple store so that if the port really does get damaged removing the lint they're liable.
    - morbidhawk 10y ago
      Whoa, never thought of that. It's definitely possible. I'm going to give that a try. Thanks!! Edit: It worked! (I used the cut stem of a q-tip instead, wasn't brave enough to try a paperclip; lots of lint)
      - k-mcgrady 10y ago
        Great! It's a common issue apparently. It also happened to my lock switch which wouldn't move for a while.
DominikR 10y ago
The list of "bad stuff" in the article is longer than the list of "good stuff", yet it receives a 9/10. Looks strange (biased) to me, yet I'm not an Apple hater, in fact I've ordered an iPhone 7 Plus for myself last Friday. But I have to say that I would have bought the Note 7 if they had the same US promotional offer in the EU with a free Samsung Gear Fit2 if you preorder a Note 7. (instead we get the Gear VR - which is less interesting for most consumers) Also the Note seems to take better pictures, at least that's true for the images compared in the video review. At least the removal of the headphone jack is no issue for me as I'm a happy user of wireless headsets for quite some time now and I don't plan to ever go back to wired ones.
Steko 10y ago
This is marked as a dupe but is clearly not. Of course flag abuse is nothing new on HN for Apple articles.
- sctb 10y ago
  We can't have two iPhone 7 reviews on the front page. The discussion about this particular review is welcome to continue here, or on the article currently on the front page: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12486946 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12486946.
  - whiddershins 10y ago
    Why can't there be two reviews on the front page? They are (or should be) genuinely unique pieces of content that could be more valuable together than apart ... having two perspectives on such a widely used piece of gear might be 10x as useful as one, no?
  - whiddershins 10y ago
    Also, now the daring fireball one is down to the second page, so the dupe flag seems possibly to have unilaterally made it so there are no reviews on the front.
  - johansch 10y ago
    You should probably implement a merge comments thing for situations like these.

22 points by okneil 10y ago

m52go 10y ago

Much of the conclusions were not very positive...how'd it end up with a 9? The Verge always seems extra giddy about iPhones. They'd never rate a ho-hum Android phone with "disappointing" and "incomplete" features this highly.

mrmondo 10y ago

Does anyone have links to some sample (real) raw or full size unedited iPhone 7 Plus images?

johansch 10y ago
Using 900x676 pixel ~400kB JPEGs for demoing camera performance is hilarious.
- mrmondo 10y ago
  I know right? Especially when you're looking at them on a 5K iMac ha!

johansch 10y ago

"Bad stuff: .. * Looks just like an iPhone 6 in a case"

dx034 10y ago

"my jet black review unit scratched and scuffed almost instantly" I don't see a point of making smartphones thinner if they are so fragile that they have to be in cases. A phone that's a few millimeters thicker and a bit heavier might still feel smaller for the customer if it's usable without a case.

oDot 10y ago
Also room for more battery. Priorities.
- socmag 10y ago
  Neh, allows you to buy add-on battery case that wirelessly charges the phone that's in it. Marketing priorities!
  - socmag 10y ago
    Why the downvote? Oh right, the iPhone can't be charged wirelessly. Silly me. http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/apple-hasn-t-given-up-on-wireless-charging-for-the-iphone-yet-1328371 http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobil...
leothekim 10y ago
For me it's less about the fragility and more about the grip. My iPhone easily slips out of my hands unless I have a case covering it. I do find it odd that Apple sells an iPhone an attractive finish that people will instinctively want to cover up with a case.
k-mcgrady 10y ago
Pretty sure those two things (scratch/scuff on the jet black and thickness) are completely unrelated. It's scratches because of how they've created the finish. It could weigh 10kg and be 20cm X 20cm X 20cm and it would still scratch.
asendra 10y ago
What does that have to do with having an easily scratchable finish???
- Jtsummers 10y ago
  If the phone has a nice showy fragile finish users may feel compelled to protect it by putting it in a case. Negating the benefit of a thinner phone.
  - Steko 10y ago
    The thin phone with special finish that "needs" a case is still thinner than thicker phone with finish that needs case just as much (or little). Thickness is a red herring here.
  - delecti 10y ago
    Alternatively, by making it thin and small, they've enabled customers to still have a reasonably sized phone after they've customized it with their choice of case.
semi-extrinsic 10y ago
Exactly this has crossed my mind many times. What's the point of having a super thin phone with really nice design if you're going to keep it in a thick pink rubber literally all the time?

column 10y ago

> Great display How can they write that as a plus when it is the same screen size and resolution as the previous model, and the competition as a better display overall? http://www.kimovil.com/en/compare/apple-iphone-6-plus,apple-iphone-7-plus-256gb,lg-v20 http://www.kimovil.com/en/compare/apple-iphone-6-plus,apple-... Why not mention the lack of SD card slot or removable battery? <-- EDIT : Thank you all for your openness of mind!

dx034 10y ago
>Why not mention the lack of SD card slot or removable battery? Because no one expects that from an iPhone. As much as I'm not a fan of the new 7, I don't think anyone really expected that.
pvg 10y ago
Might as well mention the lack of a hardware keyboard and possibly DVD drive and parallel port at that point - no iPhone ever has had an SD card slot or removable battery.
- Zach_the_Lizard 10y ago
  A parallel port is useless junk at this point for all but very special use cases. A removable battery is quite useful and the norm for many home devices.
thomasjoulin 10y ago
It's not the same, it has "Wide Color" http://appleinsider.com/articles/16/07/08/iphone-7-and-apples-next-retina-display-frontier-wide-color- http://appleinsider.com/articles/16/07/08/iphone-7-and-apple...
k-mcgrady 10y ago
>> "How can they write that as a plus when it is the same screen size and resolution as the previous model" ...because there's more to a display than those two qualities? It's 25% brighter if I'm remembering right and now supports the DCI-P3 color space. >> "Why not mention the lack of SD card slot or removable battery?" Because these are things that have never featured on an iPhone, probably never will, and everybody knows that. Lack or removable battery is also something the main competition is switching to for better water resistance (S7 does not have a removable battery).

philipov 10y ago

How do you plug it in to charge at the same time as using the headphones so you can, for example, listen to music at work?

nixy 10y ago
Bluetooth headphones or this: http://www.belkin.com/us/p/P-F8J198/ http://www.belkin.com/us/p/P-F8J198/
mhw 10y ago
Another option is http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MNN62/iphone-lightning-dock-black http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MNN62/iphone-lightning-doc...
ytch 10y ago
or this one with lightning to 30 pin adapter: https://www.amazon.com/3-5mm-Audio-30pin-Cable-Iphone/dp/B00490OVM0 https://www.amazon.com/3-5mm-Audio-30pin-Cable-Iphone/dp/B00...

FussyZeus 10y ago

If nothing else, it's refreshing to see a more logical take on the headphone jack issue. All of tech media will not stop harping on this, just like they did when the optical drive was no longer standard on Macs (you need to buy a $35 USB optical drive, the HORROR). Maybe Apple was a little ahead of their time to remove the optical drive, and maybe they are with the headphone jack too. So far the more level headed of the user base don't seem to give too much of a shit.

morbidhawk 10y ago
My issue with the headphone jack removal is that it is a more reliable port than the lightning port. I've had a lightning port on an iPhone become damaged before through normal wear and tear. I have to now position the cable just right to charge it. There's no way that I'd want to use that lightning port even more by trying to play music on it and I definitely don't want to have to hold the adapter a certain way to get music to play.
- k-mcgrady 10y ago
  Are you sure the port is actually damaged? A common issue is lint clogging it up. I had an issue where I had to jiggle the cable to get it to charge and when I finally brought it to an Apple store they disappeared out back and returned with so much lint I don't know how it even fit in the port. You can remove it yourself with a paperclip but I'd take it to the Apple store so that if the port really does get damaged removing the lint they're liable.
  - morbidhawk 10y ago
    Whoa, never thought of that. It's definitely possible. I'm going to give that a try. Thanks!! Edit: It worked! (I used the cut stem of a q-tip instead, wasn't brave enough to try a paperclip; lots of lint)
    - k-mcgrady 10y ago
      Great! It's a common issue apparently. It also happened to my lock switch which wouldn't move for a while.

DominikR 10y ago

The list of "bad stuff" in the article is longer than the list of "good stuff", yet it receives a 9/10. Looks strange (biased) to me, yet I'm not an Apple hater, in fact I've ordered an iPhone 7 Plus for myself last Friday. But I have to say that I would have bought the Note 7 if they had the same US promotional offer in the EU with a free Samsung Gear Fit2 if you preorder a Note 7. (instead we get the Gear VR - which is less interesting for most consumers) Also the Note seems to take better pictures, at least that's true for the images compared in the video review. At least the removal of the headphone jack is no issue for me as I'm a happy user of wireless headsets for quite some time now and I don't plan to ever go back to wired ones.

Steko 10y ago

This is marked as a dupe but is clearly not. Of course flag abuse is nothing new on HN for Apple articles.

sctb 10y ago
We can't have two iPhone 7 reviews on the front page. The discussion about this particular review is welcome to continue here, or on the article currently on the front page: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12486946 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12486946.
- whiddershins 10y ago
  Why can't there be two reviews on the front page? They are (or should be) genuinely unique pieces of content that could be more valuable together than apart ... having two perspectives on such a widely used piece of gear might be 10x as useful as one, no?
- whiddershins 10y ago
  Also, now the daring fireball one is down to the second page, so the dupe flag seems possibly to have unilaterally made it so there are no reviews on the front.
- johansch 10y ago
  You should probably implement a merge comments thing for situations like these.