To be fair, LTE support is kind of important. I believe RAM also got doubled with 5.
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Is the iPhone 7 the weakest non S model released ?
- Thread starter Math889
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Small White Car
macrumors G4
Yes, the OP is right - NOT because it looks the same, though, but because it wasn't made to be its own product. It was made to be a transitional testbed for new technologies that they want to test out before making them they way they intended - and we'll never see these again.
Let's look at what they added:
New Non-Click Home Button: A compromised half-attempt at seeing if they can make a virtual home button under the screen next year. Looks like they can, so be prepared for this year's design to be the odd, short-lived middle-child of home buttons.
Removal of the Audio Jack: A kick-in-the-pants warning to the headphone industry, this new concept even beat Apple's own wireless earbuds to the market by a few months. This is not a feature for the 2016 iPhone. It's actually an attempt to make sure that this year's iPhone is introduced into a robust wireless headphones market. 2017 iPhone buyers thank you for your sacrifice, 2016 buyers.
Sort-of Water Resistant: They're slowly getting themselves used to the day when they can claim full water resistance. They're curious to see how many of these come back to the Genius Bar before they make bolder claims. Another test that 7 owners get to be the guinea pigs for.
Dual Camera: Have fun, Plus owners, while we figure out how to shrink it for everyone else next year.
Dual Speakers: This one I like. I'll give them credit here.
- - - - - - -
The OP is right, there has never been an iPhone like this before. Usually they get incremental improvements that you expect to be incrementally improved again the following year. But not this time. But I strongly suspect that the iPhone 7 will be remembered as the "iPad 3 of Phones."
Let's look at what they added:
New Non-Click Home Button: A compromised half-attempt at seeing if they can make a virtual home button under the screen next year. Looks like they can, so be prepared for this year's design to be the odd, short-lived middle-child of home buttons.
Removal of the Audio Jack: A kick-in-the-pants warning to the headphone industry, this new concept even beat Apple's own wireless earbuds to the market by a few months. This is not a feature for the 2016 iPhone. It's actually an attempt to make sure that this year's iPhone is introduced into a robust wireless headphones market. 2017 iPhone buyers thank you for your sacrifice, 2016 buyers.
Sort-of Water Resistant: They're slowly getting themselves used to the day when they can claim full water resistance. They're curious to see how many of these come back to the Genius Bar before they make bolder claims. Another test that 7 owners get to be the guinea pigs for.
Dual Camera: Have fun, Plus owners, while we figure out how to shrink it for everyone else next year.
Dual Speakers: This one I like. I'll give them credit here.
- - - - - - -
The OP is right, there has never been an iPhone like this before. Usually they get incremental improvements that you expect to be incrementally improved again the following year. But not this time. But I strongly suspect that the iPhone 7 will be remembered as the "iPad 3 of Phones."
Applejuiced
macrumors Westmere
They will never claim full waster resistance.
Nothing will be completely resistant, they might improve the rating but its still a risk.
Besides the negative post I love my 7 plus.
And don't miss the actual headphone jack at all😉
Small White Car
macrumors G4
I never said you shouldn't.
Look - I owned the one MacBook model that took away firewire the year before they decided to put it back. The laptop worked fine for me. But all the same, the next year I was like "geez...the one year..."
I think that's what the 7 will be and why I compared it to the iPad 3. Nothing wrong with the 3, it was just clearly not Apple's favorite thing.
No reason you can't enjoy it, though.
I7guy
macrumors Westmere
The dual lens is a huge deal for some people, not so much for others. Every new iphone, basically these types of comments surface. Different strokes for different folks is all. Home button, stereo speakers, wide gamut display, fusion a10, memory increments, ois, dual lens on the plus along with 3 gig memory, seems like a worthwhile upgrade for both models at least from the 6. YMMV.
Applejuiced
macrumors Westmere
True.
I tend to upgrade every few years so I'll see how it goes with the next iPhone.
If it's that spectacular I will get it.
But knowing Apple my guess is they will just add a few things every year.
The rumored oled screen and edge to edge display sounds nice. Wireless charging and better water resistance I'm not really interested in.
dcp10
macrumors 6502a
Thing about posts like this is those who complain never can say specifically what features or design change they'd make. Smartphones are in the maturity phase of product development/design which means smaller incremental changes. Anyone who thinks otherwise shouldn't be wasting their time here. They should be at Apple, Samsung, or somewhere else rocking the world with their ideas.
Apple_Robert
Contributor
People like the OP want to be constantly entertained. They want to be able to brag that they have the latest and greatest status symbol from Apple. And with what they see as minor updates on the outside, their status symbol starts feeling like an ordinary phone. Even though the phone is still meeting their needs, they expect Apple to keep seducing them like a boyfriend or girlfriend. This kind of mindset can never be content with what is, as the focus isn't really about the phone.
Phone speakers are typically used for the odd video or song here and there. Who listens to loudspeaker music on the iPhone? And if you turn it to the max the sound starts tearing .
The iPhone 7 was one of the most lame non S cycle upgrades. The most visible and stronger iPhone upgrades were the 4 to 4s , 5s to 6 and it looks like the iPhone 8 OLED model is gonna top both.
Also color me unimpressed with 3DT. Honestly in my natural workflow on the device the only place I use it is on the keyboard. Dual lens and the home button were the only user facing changes.
Hopefully when If prices drop on the OLED iPhone next year I may get it next year as an iPhone using OLED is something I have wanted for a long time
I7guy
macrumors Westmere
I found the i7 a worthwhile upgrade. As I said above YMMV. And I love my 3dt shortcuts. It's instant and much better than a long press, imo. I'm less impressed with oled. With the 6 to 6s, while the phone was basically gutted and internally redesigned, there were virtually no "user facing" changes...yet the 6s was quite the upgrade overall...something the "investment analysts" missed completely.
Applejuiced
macrumors Westmere
I really like listening to dual speakers when watching videos or even when playing music out without headphones. It's a good feature.
3DT honestly I don't use it at all.
The new home button I really like it. Pushing an actual mechanical home button now feels weird to me😀
It's your choice if you decide to buy it or not.
I liked it, it was a good upgrade from my old i6 so I got it. Good thing we have options and don't have to justify how we spend our money😉
An oled screen alone will not make me update to the next iPhone. Hope it's more than just that but we know Apple.
Oled and wireless charging might be it.
I don't understand why they call it stereo speakers though. On my Nexus 7 which has speakers at both ends I actually somewhat get stereo surround which I don't feel in the iPhone . It's just a lot louder than my iPhone 6
The home button is also one of my favourite features! I love it as my iPhone 6 and iPad buttons no longer have that tactile feel when they were new. They have become "softer" . It remains to be seen if the Taptic Engine wears out in a similar way. Because that makes it seem like more moving parts
The only reason I upgraded from my iPhone 6 was that it was getting a little too slow for my tastes. But sometimes I also think I made kinda a boneheaded decision getting the 7 Plus for almost 1k when the real iPhone upgrade with OLED wireless charging and glass back was just around the corner. At $1200 for 32GB it's just too expensive for me to buy but once it releases just looking at that beautiful curved edge screen is going to result in a serious case of buyers remorse. And that's not considering the iris scanner and no home button and no bezels. Literally every upgrade checkbox I wanted checked has been checked
When you compare the iPhone 7 to something like that it's not even close to even be called a upgrade
Yeah. And now compare that with how they OLED iPhone is going to sell. It going to wipe the floor with the sales figures of the 6s and 7. I am guessing something which destroys the record set by the 6. And as I mentioned above compared to that the 7 and 6s are not even an upgrade
[doublepost=1487391774][/doublepost]
We need a new Steve Jobs to come up with another revolutionary product category
I7guy
macrumors Westmere
Royksöpp
macrumors 68030
When compared to the 6s it is. However, when considering other models it's a worthy upgrade. The 6s was already a big advancement. The 7 just added a couple of minor things that people could live without. The removal of the headphone jack was a hostile and alienating move. I still can't understand it. As a 6s owner there was not one compelling or useful reason to upgrade. If I had a a 5s or lower I might have considered it.
pixel_junkie
macrumors 6502
I don't think so at all. The features introduced to the iPhone 7 were incremental, but great upgrades with the battery, A10 Fusion processor, stereo speakers and dual camera.
In my opinion, the most underrated feature is the speed of the iPhone 7 (I own the 7 Plus). It's far quicker than My 6s Plus in lot muti-tasking. The processor appears it's More efficient with managing the battery power as
Well, which two additional hours is a nice upgrade.
I must be in the minority but I upgraded to the 7 ONLY for the home button. I was tired and sick of the crappy low quality home button Apple had used since 2007. Wiggling home buttons, double clicks, loose parts.
With the 7 I never have to worry about it.
With the 7 I never have to worry about it.
Isn't this the first time Apple has released new colour options alongside a numbered upgrade (even though black technically isn't a colour).
I find it interesting that they made it such a big part of the keynote. To me it seems that if Apple offered the same colour options as the 6s it would have seemed like even less of an upgrade for customers which is why they made such a big fuss about it.
I find it interesting that they made it such a big part of the keynote. To me it seems that if Apple offered the same colour options as the 6s it would have seemed like even less of an upgrade for customers which is why they made such a big fuss about it.
goobot
macrumors 604
A lot of people here aren't going to count the iPhone 3g for one reason or another. Keep in mind the only new features of the iPhone 3g was
3G
GPS
New design
A headphone jack that allowed non apple headphones
Those were the only new features. The internals weren't even new and preformed the same as the original iPhone. That's why the identification # for the iPhone 3g is "1,2". The original was 1,1 and every iPhone since has had a front number increase (the iPhone 3GS was "2,1", the 4 was "3,1" ect.) The iPhone 3g was truly the smallest update to the line ever imo.
3G
GPS
New design
A headphone jack that allowed non apple headphones
Those were the only new features. The internals weren't even new and preformed the same as the original iPhone. That's why the identification # for the iPhone 3g is "1,2". The original was 1,1 and every iPhone since has had a front number increase (the iPhone 3GS was "2,1", the 4 was "3,1" ect.) The iPhone 3g was truly the smallest update to the line ever imo.
sunapple
macrumors 68040
I don't get why you (and some others here including TS) are trying so hard to make the iPhone 7 look bad. You're obviously not using one.
Water resistance, dual speakers, improved camera (even on the non-Plus) ,the HIGHLY underrated Taptic Engine are all in line with FaceTime, better screen, 4G wireless from previous models.
Everyone uses their phone differently and not all features are important to everyone. Just because you think dual speakers are pointless doesn't make them pointless. I actually appreciate the enhanced sound. Same goes for other features mentioned.
Where have I made the iPhone look bad?
If you actually read back through the thread you'll see my original response was to someone saying that people don't like the iPhone 7 because they can't show off a new design.
I then stated the reasons why I think the iPhone 7 is the weakest numbered upgrade compared to previous launches and stated that this was the reason I haven't upgraded, not because of design.
I still fail to see how Taptic Engine, slightly improved camera on non plus iPhone and water resistance are must have life improving features.
FaceTime allowed me to see my family away from home, 4g allowed me to watch videos without buffering on the move and Apple Pay allowed me to pay for things with my phone.
How can you compare that to slight vibrations around the os, stereo sound from speakers 5 inches apart, water resistance which isn't covered under warranty and a slightly clearer camera. I don't know maybe I'm missing something.
Also I've played around with my wife's iPhone 7 previously so I have used one. Even she admits it's hardly any different to her 6 and she only upgraded because she broke her old phone.
The-Real-Deal82
macrumors P6
I wasn't impressed enough with it to upgrade from a 6 so I would perhaps agree it wasn't their strongest release in terms of a jump in features and hardware. Whenever I've compared my 6S to my friends 7 Plus the differences in speed are not obvious and the home button and camera seem to be the only differences.
That was actually the smartest choice. I wish I had gotten the 6s Plus instead of my 7 so I would have been able to get the iPhone 8. Now thanks to that 1K price tag on the 32GB iPhone and me spending almost 1k on the 7 Plus I won't be able to get the iPhone 8. The 6S Plus doesn't lack anything notable compared to the lesser amount you pay