iOS 7 Impressions: After 24 hours

[_Refurbished_]

Let me start by saying I love Jony Ive. He's brilliant. The iPhone is the best looking device on the market because of it's combination of simplicity and elegance. I appreciate a simple, uncluttered OS. I use a basic black background as my wallpaper on my desktop computer. I'm a man of simplicity. I was really excited for the flat look. You would think I would love iOS 7 after 24 hours, right?

Unfortunately that's not the case, I'm back on 6.1.4.

Here are my initial impressions of iOS7:

- Buttons are replaced with words or symbols throughout the OS, and lack consistency.

- Too much white, not enough contrast (iPod / Safari / Contacts / Notepad + more)
(In areas where contrast is present, the OS looks clean and modern. Beautiful really. The App store looks fantastic. Lots of contrast, simple, striking, white and easy to navigate. This is how iOS7 should behave)

- A few undesirable icons: Safari / Gamecenter / Settings. So far, the look of the icons has caused the most uproar. Hopefully Apple tweaks the icon set in future betas. Overall, I think they look good.

- Signal bar replaced with orbs. Not a fan.

- Default interface fonts are smaller super skinny, and harder to read (this can be changed, but I didn't test it)

- The Photos app interface is clunky

Things I liked

- Safari is SNAPPIER (Alright...it wasn't. But I couldn't resist)
- Automatic photo organizing / app updates / app refreshes. +1 to Apple
- Control Center (flashlight / iPod rocks!)
- Spotlight mid-screen gesture
- Dynamic / panoramic wallpapers
- OS Font is slick (when it's not too small)
- Slide to unlock from any point on the screen
- The App Store. Big improvement over iOS 6. 6 is the worst ever IMO.
- The red Notifications look "clean" and "slick. Small but noticeable.
- Translucent works well in most cases. Should get tweaked in GM release.
- Calander app rocks. Much better than previous iOS versions


I'm hoping Apple will address some of my complaints, but that's uncertain. I know there are many people out there that will disagree and welcome some of my complaints. If worse comes to worse, I'm sure you'll be able to to jailbreak iOS 7 to look like iOS6. So if I can't get used to the new interface, at least I should be able to remove the bad, while keeping the good.

 

[Defender2010]

For me, I feel there is so much to like about iOS 7 and hopefully more features are added in future betas too...BUT, I am not a fan of a lot of the new stock icons. I don't like the camera icon. I would have preferred a simple lens design echoing the iOS 6 icon. Nor the gloss of the "balls" on Game Center or the Newsstand, iTunes and App Store icons - they just look wrong. Shame the Swiss clock from iPad didn't make it through to the iPhone.
I love the new animations, font, dynamic wallpapers, Music app and mostly everything else. Downgraded though as the battery life is not so great - 50% in 2.5 hrs. I know icon design is a matter of taste, perhaps they may make a few tweaks before the GM, who knows!

 

[baller1308]

Camera is a lot faster at taking photos. No more shutter animation.

 

[nas2344]

i think its awesome!

 

[Satnam1989]

I love it, but the beta version is soo laggy that its not fun to use...(Yes I understand its Beta for a reason lol) otherwise I cant wait for them to iron out the quirks and release it