Iphone 7 is still far behind the competition

[buster84]

Seriously, i was so hoping for something better this year. I'm currently on the jump on demand plan with t-mobile and i can easily upgrade but now i refuse to because of the way tim cook runs the company. Tim cook shouldn't be playing catch-up instead apple should be making the other company's play catch-up just like how they did in the past when Steve Jobs ran the company with their mac line... Instead Tim cook seems very content being in the re-view mirror of the competition.

Samsung and other androids have had

• Wireless charging
• Water resistant
• SD card slots
• OLED screens
• 8 core processors
• Larger screens
• Stereo speakers (2 speakers)
• Camera Image stabilization
• Higher Mega Pixels

Iphones have been behind for the last 2 years playing catch-up on these basic features and apple doesnt seem to want to change.

• It took 2 years after competitors for them to finally reach 32gb starter phones
• It 3 years after competitors before releasing an OLED screen (iPhone 7s or 8)
• It took 2 years after competitors increased there screen sizes to create the plus model
• It took 2 years after competitors to add water resistant
• Many years have passed and there still isn't an SD card slot
• It took 2 years after competitors they finally give the phone stereo speakers
• They are always behind in camera quality (No Raw format/lower Mega Pixels)
• They took years to finally implement image stabilization with the 6 plus (standard is still screwed out of this basic feature)

Then to top it all off apple removed the headphone jack. I'm sure to some this is a non-issue but to many this is a big issue.

• If you have a nice pair of expensive headphones you now have to use a stupid adapter to listen to music which means that you now have a higher chance of breaking your charging port by using the adapter with headphones while its in your pocket.
• If you enjoy running and you want to get an arm band you now have to have the stupid adapter hanging off the bottom of the phone just to continue to use your expensive headphones while running. (beats for example)
• You can not charge and listen at the same time. Another big issue for some if your like me you use the headphone jack connected to your receiver to listen to Pandora or spotify while wanting to keep the phone fully charged without having to buy a newer receiver/dock or adapter.
• If your a heavy music listener and you dont own a newer car with wireless bluetooth setup you have to use the headphone adapter to listen to music in the car. This means that for long drives you will have to go without music just to charge your phone, or for short drives you will now leave your car with a low battery instead of a fully charged one.
• If your a business and you use the headphone jack to accept credit cards you might as well never upgrade or switch out to samsungs since it'll be very frustrating/annoying and look very unprofessional like to swipe your customers card through a dangling credit card dongle.
• The Sound quality of the wireless headphones are worse than the wired ones that came with all other head phones
• You now have to worry about charging your phone and airbuds separately and the airbuds only last 5 hour. So much for long trips without a charger.

I really wanted to upgrade to the iphone 7 just like i really wanted to upgrade to the newest macbook pro 15, but yet again apple has pushed me away as a long time customer i cant help but feel like apple doesn't want us anymore. I ended up switching to windows 10 because i didnt want to buy a laptop computer that 450+ days outdated at full price. I dont want to buy a mac pro that hasn't been updated in 3 year and neither has the price, and now i dont want to buy an iphone 7 without outdated features that really should be the norm by now.

I'm really starting to wonder who apple is now targeting as customers anymore because i really feel like apple is purposely pushing the people away who were originally came to apple because of there ability to be the best in the market and always aim to stay ahead of the competition. Honestly, I really feel like Tim Cook is hurting apple more than helping it. I really miss Steve jobs!

I also wanted to add this quote to the first page for those who keep claiming that apple is faster than 8 cores. Its not about the speed, its about the efficiency and heat which is a huge deal in the cell phone community. Who wants to hold a hot phone to there ears and have to consistently recharge it.

It's about the battery power and reduced heat that you get from having more cores with a slower clock. It's not about the actual speed the processors. Iphones are at the point right now that any increase doesnt mean much for the average app anyways.

Xeon's are mult-core beats that have low power requirements which also reduces its heat output; they have always been designed this way for a long time now. This is why the Mac Pro desktops use xeons. They are superior chips over regular desktop chips, they just dont do well in gaming, but that's the fault of the game designers not the chip designers since games don't use more than 8 cores right now, but hopefully direct x12 will help to fix this problem and eventually we'll start to see games being designed for 20+ cores.

The biggest advantages to using this design in cell phones is to reduce the power requirements to boost battery time, as well as reduce the amount of heat the phone uses which makes it alot more easier to carry around and use for longer periods of times.

If people still dont understand why i added that to the list then i wont be able to help them and they are more likely gamer's that chase the clock speed because game designers are to lazy to add true multicore support which is far superior in every way anyways. Clock speed has already reached its maximum roof already, its why multicores have taken over and why we dont see 10ghz processors since increasing the clock speed increases heat drastically which also increases power requirements. This is definitely something you don't want in the cell phone category's.

 

[jamesrick80]

Fully agree....I don't care if I'm bashed but this is so true..no matter how fast the iPhone supposedly is with new processors or graphics.....they have done nothing to improve the user experience.....so basic when it comes to actual useful features.....

 

[MartyCan]

I'm not about to jump on a new 7 because none of the new is a game changer for me personally.

However I disagree with the OP. I don't think Apple is the great innovator that you recall them to be. Sure they did the original Smartphone. But Apple does not create a lot of the technology in the devices. Other companies do and they're out selling it all the phone makers. Apple only chooses how to use that technology to their advantage.

What Apple really does however is provide implementations of the technology that exceed their competition. Maybe Samsung put XX feature out first but was it the best use of the feature? Could it have been done better? What other considerations are there. Apple was the first to kill the optical drive in laptops and PC's. Nobody crying much about that now are they?

Likewise Apple controls all aspects of the user experience with their devices. Hardware, software, all integrated to work seamlessly with each other. That's really what "Steve Jobs" vision of Apple was about.

 

[OneMike]

I can't imagine running or working out without bluetooth. As far as car that is valid. I'm sure something like the current dock will work though where you can charge and use for music. although I think a cable that can both charge and be used for music should be provided. Shouldn't be up to the buyer for that.

 

[spronkey]

Hmm.

SD card is a big annoyance for me, mainly for moving files around, and printing photos. Water resistance is a biggie, and wireless charging would be rather nice to have (although it isn't exactly amazing on Android devices at the moment).

The other things you mention, however, are either not true or very minor... Apple were easily ahead of the curve in camera quality (with the Nokia crazycams an exception) until perhaps the iphone 6, when competitors finally caught up (and surpassed). The iPhone 4, 4s, 5, 5s all had superb cameras for the time.

OLED screens are also not necessarily better than their LCD equivalents. Really depends on what you want from your display on that one - I personally prefer IPS LCD to OLED.

8 core cpu? Apple's CPUs have been the best in the business for a looong time. Their 2-4 core CPUs have been better than the 8 core junk on Androids for a long time. Just because they have less cores doesn't mean they aren't better. Stereo speakers - again, they're so poor it's not really a big deal.

The headphone jack is annoying though, I use it primarily to plug my phone into things like stereos or cars. If Apple were onboard with USB-C or MicroUSB the situation would be better, but they persist with the annoying lightning port. Sigh.

 

[MrX8503]

Do yourself a favor and buy an Android phone and stop complaining.

 

[ArkieBiker]

Yeah...go run right out and pick up that Samsung Galaxy Note.

 

[MartyCan]

Hmm.

SD card is a big annoyance for me, mainly for moving files around, and printing photos. Water resistance is a biggie, and wireless charging would be rather nice to have (although it isn't exactly amazing on Android devices at the moment).

The other things you mention, however, are either not true or very minor... Apple were easily ahead of the curve in camera quality (with the Nokia crazycams an exception) until perhaps the iphone 6, when competitors finally caught up (and surpassed). The iPhone 4, 4s, 5, 5s all had superb cameras for the time.

OLED screens are also not necessarily better than their LCD equivalents. Really depends on what you want from your display on that one - I personally prefer IPS LCD to OLED.

8 core cpu? Apple's CPUs have been the best in the business for a looong time. Their 2-4 core CPUs have been better than the 8 core junk on Androids for a long time. Just because they have less cores doesn't mean they aren't better. Stereo speakers - again, they're so poor it's not really a big deal.

The headphone jack is annoying though, I use it primarily to plug my phone into things like stereos or cars. If Apple were onboard with USB-C or MicroUSB the situation would be better, but they persist with the annoying lightning port. Sigh.

Mostly agree but for the SD card not as much. Granted they probably do it to maintain the premium price for phones with more storage. But if your phone has adequate storage to begin with there are lots of ways to move files wirelessly. It is clearly Apple's plan to try and get people to go almost exclusively cloud based.

 

[CEmajr]

People are still whining about SD slots on the iPhone in 2016? You want flash too?

 

[Juan007]

Tell some more funny jokes OP, the fact is that iPhone is miles ahead of anything else at this point. It's not even close. It's why iPhone's margins are far and away the best.

One area Apple is falling behind is the exploding phone segment though. I hear that's an important market segment in Syria and part of Iraq, Samsung should be proud for the progress they have made.

 

[cynics]

You are cherry picking features (you also mentioned water resistance twice).

I could pick out any given still in production smartphone line and say "it took X years for finger print sensor" "it took X years for a two tone flash" "it took X years for their version of 3D Touch" "it took X years for caller ID prediction" "they STILL don't have dual camera setup" Etc etc etc..

They are so far behind!

Buy a device on the features that matter to you. If an 8 core processor matters to you then buy a device that has that (lol).

 

[br0adband]

Why do people always forget to add a "No, because I don't like Apple products" option or something like "No, because I have a <insert device here> that already does everything better for me and my own uses" to their poll?

 

[itsboi]

8 core processors and still slower than last year's dual-core iPhone due to poor RAM management and heavily skinned Androids with bloatware for days.
I'll take consistent performance instead.

 

[azfalcons]

Hmm.

SD card is a big annoyance for me, mainly for moving files around, and printing photos. Water resistance is a biggie, and wireless charging would be rather nice to have (although it isn't exactly amazing on Android devices at the moment).

The other things you mention, however, are either not true or very minor... Apple were easily ahead of the curve in camera quality (with the Nokia crazycams an exception) until perhaps the iphone 6, when competitors finally caught up (and surpassed). The iPhone 4, 4s, 5, 5s all had superb cameras for the time.

OLED screens are also not necessarily better than their LCD equivalents. Really depends on what you want from your display on that one - I personally prefer IPS LCD to OLED.

8 core cpu? Apple's CPUs have been the best in the business for a looong time. Their 2-4 core CPUs have been better than the 8 core junk on Androids for a long time. Just because they have less cores doesn't mean they aren't better. Stereo speakers - again, they're so poor it's not really a big deal.

The headphone jack is annoying though, I use it primarily to plug my phone into things like stereos or cars. If Apple were onboard with USB-C or MicroUSB the situation would be better, but they persist with the annoying lightning port. Sigh.

our local apple apologist..they can do no wrong can they?

SD card an annoyance? lol ok

Of course you prederf IPS LCD its what apple uses..

headphone jack is annoying? wow lol

 

[br0adband]

The reason Android devices are slower is because of Android, not because of the hardware.

 

[Zirel]

The reason Android devices are slower is because of Android, not because of the hardware.

The hardware is also slower and less power efficient.

Specially where the dumb average consumer is not looking, there's no Android phone that has storage that's decent, even compared to the cheapest iPhone ($399 iPhone SE)

 

[lchlch]

our local apple apologist..they can do no wrong can they?

SD card an annoyance? lol ok

Of course you prederf IPS LCD its what apple uses..

headphone jack is annoying? wow lol

ips can be better than OLED. The iPad Pro 9.7 is proof.

 

[JackieInCo]

My reason for not buying it is not included in the choices in the OP.

I bought a 6S and a 6S+ and a Note 5 in December and because it was less then a year ago, I see no reason to spend more money just to get more space and a few other minor improvements. Not only that, I bought two S7 Edge phones in February. I'm good on purchases till I see what happens with the Next Samsung phones and maybe even what Google does this year.

I've realized that I no longer want an iPhone every year due to the minimal improvements. I got more excited over buying the S7 Edge then I was when I ordered the 6S and 6S+ in December.

 

[sdwaltz]

While I understand OP's frustration in some aspects, he clearly doesn't understand that some of his requests are simply not Apple's MO.

SD Card slot? Never going to happen.

Octa-core processors? Cool I guess, and they'll come eventually, but doesn't it say something about Apple's engineering superiority when they're able to deliver much better performance with half the processing cores? The reason why these Android phones need an octa-core processor is because the metaphorical left hand doesn't know what the metaphorical right hand is doing. Android software and hardware is so badly paired in many cases that the only answer is pure horsepower. Apple's solution is to use a tightly-packed hardware and software solution. Put simply - Android phones use pure horsepower out of necessity while Apple's phones use finesse. It was the same with Macs back in the 2000's. They had lower specs because they didn't need higher specs.

The camera quality has always been top-tier. No idea what OP is talking about there.

I could care less about the headphone jack. Seriously. Could. Not. Care. Less.

The only thing that's a slight bummer on that list for me is wireless charging - but I charge my phone in bed and often use the phone while it's hooked in, whereas with wireless charging I wouldn't be able to do that. Oh, tradeoffs.

If you want a piece of s*** phone that will run great for about 3 months and then continually have problems for the rest of the life of the contract, buy an Android - particularly Samsung. Made that mistake once and will NOT make it again.

Apple always perfects features before they take them mainstream. The others? Yeah, they may bring out new features first, but they typically are not ready for prime time and the only reason they bring them out in the first place is so that they - guess what - can beat Apple at something.

We all miss Steve, but the fact is, the smartphone innovation game is slowing down. Steve Jobs' vision for the future involved an integrated software/hardware ecosystem that provided for seamless integration between devices, and multiple devices that were best used for specific tasks. I'd say Tim Cook's Apple is knocking it out of the park with regard to Steve's long-term vision for the future. Steve would be immensely proud.

iOS, watchOS, and MacOS offers the most fluid, most seamless, speedy, easy-to-use software ecosystem in existence. Bar none. If you want "cutting edge", gimmicky features, buy into Google's ecosystem. If you want something that will work without abandon, buy into Apple's. It's that simple.

And I didn't even talk about security...

 

[MartyCan]

Why do people always forget to add a "No, because I don't like Apple products" option or something like "No, because I have a <insert device here> that already does everything better for me and my own uses" to their poll?

Probably because this is a forum focussed on Apple products so it's kind of a given that if you are here reading it you are an Apple user or possibly just here to antagonize them.

The reason Android devices are slower is because of Android, not because of the hardware.

Is that supposed to make the Android option sound better?

Apple integration is why the hardware and software work better together. I tried to use a Samsung Android device a few years ago and found it to be a miserable experience.
[doublepost=1473306059][/doublepost]

My reason for not buying it is not included in the choices in the OP.

I bought a 6S and a 6S+ and a Note 5 in December and because it was less then a year ago, I see no reason to spend more money just to get more space and a few other minor improvements. Not only that, I bought two S7 Edge phones in February. I'm good on purchases till I see what happens with the Next Samsung phones and maybe even what Google does this year.

I've realized that I no longer want an iPhone every year due to the minimal improvements. I got more excited over buying the S7 Edge then I was when I ordered the 6S and 6S+ in December.

Then maybe the "No because the iPhone 7 isn't that much of an upgrage to me" option might have suited your needs?

 

[Gathomblipoob]

Yeah...go run right out and pick up that Samsung Galaxy Note.

But use oven mitts.

 

[TallManNY]

Lots of folks on 6S aren't going to upgrade because there were no new features added. But that doesn't mean the phone isn't a very nice improvement. The CPU is amazing (no we do not count "cores" when comparing CPU performance).

If you are running with wired headphones you have made a mistake. Now I used to do that. But after buying a $30 pair of bluetooth headphones it is very clear to me that using a wire while exercising was a mistake. I just needed a chance to go wireless and now I know. Wires from your head to your pocket or arm is nonsense.

But I probably won't upgrade because I have the 6S and I have a 3D touch screen which in my opinion (besides CPU power) was the last significant upgrade).

 

[sdwaltz]

If you are running with wired headphones you have made a mistake. Now I used to do that. But after buying a $30 pair of bluetooth headphones it is very clear to me that using a wire while exercising was a mistake. I just needed a chance to go wireless and now I know. Wires from your head to your pocket or arm is nonsense.

This. So much this.

 

[Gathomblipoob]

Lots of folks on 6S aren't going to upgrade because there were no new features added.

No new features added? What were we watching today, then?

 

[Jimmy James]

The iPhone is the quickest phone and doesn't explode. Everyone else is playing catch up.

Steve Jobs released a phone with no 3G, no copy & paste and it couldn't send a picture message. You couldn't even install third party programs. At no point was the iPhone further behind on features than that. But it was still a revolution.