Let's break down the "10 Major Features"

[bbates123]

...as presented by Phil Schiller at the Apple event a few week ago. I went back through the event to note the 10 major feature that were announced related to the iPhone 7 and my own personal thoughts now that we've had the phones for several days now.

1. Design: Not sure now this was a new feature. This is basically the same design as the iPhone 6 from 2 years ago. To me this is a bit of an embarrassment.

2. Home button: I'm not sure how this is something to be lauded. I guess as a personal relief, it doesn't suck as bad as I thought it would, but honestly, was there anything wrong with the old home button besides not being water resistant? To me this is a stretch. I do like the new haptic engine...maybe this should have been the featured "feature".

3. Water and dust resistant: To me this is the major feature of the new phone and the only reason I'm keeping mine. But honestly, this is something Apple had to do to stay abreast of the competition.

4. Camera: Enough evidence has surfaced including Consumer Reports that the iPhone 7 camera really isn't any better than the iPhone 6S. This was the main reason I upgraded and the most disappointing thing for me. For 7+ users at least you have the 2x telephoto which is cool.

5. Retina HD display: I personally don't see any difference and enough people complaining about yellow/warm screens (including myself) to make this feel like a downgrade rather than an upgrade.

6. Speakers: I do like how they created louder/stereo speakers. Seems like a minor thing but it's nice.

7. Earpods: This is where they went into why they removed the audio jack. Not sure how this qualifies as a "feature".

8. Airpods: Regardless of how you feel about the new Airpods, this is a totally separate product. Again, how is this a new iPhone 7 "feature"?

9. Apple Pay/Felica: Maybe this would be a big deal if I lived in Japan.

10. A10 Fusion: I have seen no improvement in the performance of any of my apps. Maybe if I was a gamer, but for the stuff I use on a daily basis, apps load and run just as fast as they did on the 6S.


Despite all this I do agree that the new iPhones are the best phones Apple has made to date, but frankly I was expecting much more and I feel let down this year, more than any year before. Let's hope for some more relevant features next year with the 10 year anniversary phone.

 

[veedubshafer]

Going from a 6 plus to a 7 plus has been big for me. Much of it though is iOS 9 to iOS 10. But together I'm very happy. Upgrading every year you'll never see much difference. That's why after the 5s I decided not to do "s" years anymore. I'm not saying I wouldn't if there was something substantial that I really wanted.

 

[flappple]

You seem to have nothing positive to say without it being backed or turned around by a negative comment. I wonder if it's hard to be so annoyed about everything.
You're only wasting your own money when you purchase a product you aren't stoked about.

 

[KittyToy]

Well my 6plus been on iOS 10 for a while now so I don't really see any difference in the phones except active wallpaper. Speakers sound the same cause I just tested same song on both phones, Same sound. Well I did notice all my pores shown in the camera which wasn't noticeable on my 6plus lol. Speed is the same and battery the same. Either that or I have a bomb ass 6plus. I only upgraded cause the 6 screen is cracked and I wasn't about to pay to fix it again on a 2 year old phone.

 

[joonyaboy]

Love the water resistance
Love the new speaker (my finger always blocks the bottom speaker when playing games)
Love the home button (took a couple days to adjust)
Love the new camera (i don't see how people can't tell the difference)
Love the new performance and battery life (did some sidebyside comparisons and the new phone opens intensive apps quicker and renders video files faster)

Meh on everything else. Meh with the lack of headphone jack. Didn't care either way

 

[bbates123]

You seem to have nothing positive to say without it being backed or turned around by a negative comment. I wonder if it's hard to be so annoyed about everything.
You're only wasting your own money when you purchase a product you aren't stoked about.

It's not hard to be annoyed when you feel super let down by Apple. We all knew that the 7 was going to be an incremental upgrade, what we didn't know what how much of a letdown the new features would turn out to be. To me it's deceptive marketing and as a longtime fan of Apple that is a big disappointment. I still think it's overall a great phone and the best that Apple has ever made, just nothing like they made it out to be at the event.
[doublepost=1474425717][/doublepost]

Love the water resistance
Love the new camera (i don't see how people can't tell the difference)

I posted a bunch of sample pics in another thread. I see practically zero difference and for me that was the biggest letdown because I was really looking forward to the new low light improvements.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/disappointed-with-the-camera.1997789/

 

[rawlus]

I'm not sure people understand the meaning of new design....

 

[waitandwait]

Just return your phone.

Deceptive Marketing? The phone is ultra duper faster than my 6+, I can take clear and sharp photographs in pubs and on night sceneries now. I don't have fear water splattering and Jet Black design is simply the most gorgeous colour around. iOS10 is awesome - the new Music app is better with more playlists and radio, the notifications are bigger and clearer.

This is the best phone right now.. even better than other flagships.

 

[bigjnyc]

still within the 14 day return window. Take it back and stick with the 6S until next years iphone. Logical thing to do when one is let down and disappointed by a product, especially one this expensive

 

[dannyyankou]

You have really good points. If I had a 6s plus, I wouldn't upgrade.

But I have a 6s and I want the bigger screen and 256gb of storage

 

[itsray]

still boring to me

 

[Oridus]

...as presented by Phil Schiller at the Apple event a few week ago. I went back through the event to note the 10 major feature that were announced related to the iPhone 7 and my own personal thoughts now that we've had the phones for several days now.

1. Design: Not sure now this was a new feature. This is basically the same design as the iPhone 6 from 2 years ago. To me this is a bit of an embarrassment.

2. Home button: I'm not sure how this is something to be lauded. I guess as a personal relief, it doesn't suck as bad as I thought it would, but honestly, was there anything wrong with the old home button besides not being water resistant? To me this is a stretch. I do like the new haptic engine...maybe this should have been the featured "feature".

3. Water and dust resistant: To me this is the major feature of the new phone and the only reason I'm keeping mine. But honestly, this is something Apple had to do to stay abreast of the competition.

4. Camera: Enough evidence has surfaced including Consumer Reports that the iPhone 7 camera really isn't any better than the iPhone 6S. This was the main reason I upgraded and the most disappointing thing for me. For 7+ users at least you have the 2x telephoto which is cool.

5. Retina HD display: I personally don't see any difference and enough people complaining about yellow/warm screens (including myself) to make this feel like a downgrade rather than an upgrade.

6. Speakers: I do like how they created louder/stereo speakers. Seems like a minor thing but it's nice.

7. Earpods: This is where they went into why they removed the audio jack. Not sure how this qualifies as a "feature".

8. Airpods: Regardless of how you feel about the new Airpods, this is a totally separate product. Again, how is this a new iPhone 7 "feature"?

9. Apple Pay/Felica: Maybe this would be a big deal if I lived in Japan.

10. A10 Fusion: I have seen no improvement in the performance of any of my apps. Maybe if I was a gamer, but for the stuff I use on a daily basis, apps load and run just as fast as they did on the 6S.


Despite all this I do agree that the new iPhones are the best phones Apple has made to date, but frankly I was expecting much more and I feel let down this year, more than any year before. Let's hope for some more relevant features next year with the 10 year anniversary phone.

You lost me at "consumer reports".

 

[lordofthereef]

Since I know I'll get flack, please understand everything I'm about to say is my opinion...

This part of the keynote felt like a response to the negativity the forums and media had given to the iPhone for months. It felt like a "see? We really DID make a brand new phone!" All the whole they glossed over what I felt was the most amazing achievement; the processor. They literally could have compared it to a 2007 max pro...

Also reminded me of every click bait article that pops into my fscebook feed. "Ten reasons to buy the iPhone". The only thing missing was requiring me to click after every bullet point and load a new page and subsequently new ads.

All that said my wife has the 7 and it's fine. She's happy with it and I can't really complain about much; maybe still bitter about the headphone jack thing (Apple cables shred on me so the adapter they included wouldn't likely last past a few months; yeah I can warranty it out but doing that often for cables is a drag). The phone will do just fine for most everyone that uses it. I just don't know how upgrade worthy it was.

 

[Koobs]

...as presented by Phil Schiller at the Apple event a few week ago. I went back through the event to note the 10 major feature that were announced related to the iPhone 7 and my own personal thoughts now that we've had the phones for several days now.

1. Design: Not sure now this was a new feature. This is basically the same design as the iPhone 6 from 2 years ago. To me this is a bit of an embarrassment.

2. Home button: I'm not sure how this is something to be lauded. I guess as a personal relief, it doesn't suck as bad as I thought it would, but honestly, was there anything wrong with the old home button besides not being water resistant? To me this is a stretch. I do like the new haptic engine...maybe this should have been the featured "feature".

3. Water and dust resistant: To me this is the major feature of the new phone and the only reason I'm keeping mine. But honestly, this is something Apple had to do to stay abreast of the competition.

4. Camera: Enough evidence has surfaced including Consumer Reports that the iPhone 7 camera really isn't any better than the iPhone 6S. This was the main reason I upgraded and the most disappointing thing for me. For 7+ users at least you have the 2x telephoto which is cool.

5. Retina HD display: I personally don't see any difference and enough people complaining about yellow/warm screens (including myself) to make this feel like a downgrade rather than an upgrade.

6. Speakers: I do like how they created louder/stereo speakers. Seems like a minor thing but it's nice.

7. Earpods: This is where they went into why they removed the audio jack. Not sure how this qualifies as a "feature".

8. Airpods: Regardless of how you feel about the new Airpods, this is a totally separate product. Again, how is this a new iPhone 7 "feature"?

9. Apple Pay/Felica: Maybe this would be a big deal if I lived in Japan.

10. A10 Fusion: I have seen no improvement in the performance of any of my apps. Maybe if I was a gamer, but for the stuff I use on a daily basis, apps load and run just as fast as they did on the 6S.


Despite all this I do agree that the new iPhones are the best phones Apple has made to date, but frankly I was expecting much more and I feel let down this year, more than any year before. Let's hope for some more relevant features next year with the 10 year anniversary phone.

So you did zero research on the device before you bought it? You state that the design is embarrassing but you went ahead and bought it anyway? What am I missing here?

 

[Nozuka]

i love the new design. everything i didnt like about the 6 they changed. black and barely visible antennalines help alot too.

speakers: great

A10: amazing.

home button: like it alot. it feels weird to use the buttons on the side now..

water resistance: never needed it. but you never know

camera: haven't used it much yet..

screen: great colors!

 

[Booji]

It is an evolution - and enough to make customers happy enough to buy them

 

[caelius]

Dont like it? Dont buy it!
Never understood why people get so upset about a phone they dont seem to enjoy...

Btw: If you cant see the difference in camera and Display quality, you should really have your eyes checked...

 

[bbates123]

I think people are misunderstanding my post. I never said I don't like the phone...I do like it a little more than my 6S overall and I did say it's the best phone they have made so far. What I mainly like about it is the water resistance since I spend a lot of time on or near the water. If it wasn't for this I would return it. Everything else is a varying degree of disappointment. Perhaps I will find the battery to be much better after several days so I'm remaining optimistic for that.

I mainly bought it for the camera improvements which have proven to be little to no improvement whatsoever. If you look at the my other thread (see link above) you will see for yourself, and then you can apologize for telling me to get my eyes checked. If you disagree then please post your own sample shots taken with both cameras, I would love to see them. I haven't seen anybody else post any great side by side shots that show the superiority of the 7 - many shots where the exposure isn't the same, from which I don't think you can form a fair comparison. Even out the exposure and let's see the detail in the shot. Anyhow, it's not just me...I haven't seen a professional review out there where they are raving about the new iPhone camera (and I'm specifically referring to the 7, not the 7+). And again, I'm not saying that the 7 doesn't take great shots, because it does! It just takes the same shots that the 6s took.

Anyhow, I'm getting side tracked... My main point was how Phil's speech at the keynote, in retrospect, seems to have been mostly a bunch of marketing BS. It was all the breathless fawning over features (with the impressive graphics in the background) that really didn't turn out to be much in the way of actual features when they hit the cold hard light of day. I was let down by the Apple marketing machine. Let's be honest, there is little here in reality to justify an upgrade to 7 for most 6S users.

BTW, for those of you saying how great the A10 is, can you give me an example of where you see that? When I lay my iPhone 6s and 7 down side by side and launch the same apps at the same time they both load exactly the same, no difference. Now this is loading apps like mail, chrome, Yelp, weather, etc....but also several beefier apps like iBird Pro. Exactly the same.
[doublepost=1474446473][/doublepost]

So you did zero research on the device before you bought it? You state that the design is embarrassing but you went ahead and bought it anyway? What am I missing here?

To the contrary, I've been following the rumors since last spring and we all knew well before the phone was launched that it would be a bit of a yawner. But I did order it after that keynote going on and on about how great the camera is and I got sucked into the vortex. There was also the A10 which sounded very promising, which in real life has shown me zero improvement over my 6S. Maybe in the battery department, that remains to be seen.
[doublepost=1474446632][/doublepost]

You lost me at "consumer reports".

I'm not sure why. Are they not the most respected independent testing organization in the US? I would like to see a more thorough review than what they posted at some point.
[doublepost=1474446876][/doublepost]

It is an evolution - and enough to make customers happy enough to buy them

It is indeed an evolution and plenty of people have and will upgrade to it but I bet we'll see this will turn out to be Apple's flattest selling phone as people realize they're not getting a lot more than what they already have.

 

[waitandwait]

Anyhow, I'm getting side tracked... My main point was how Phil's speech at the keynote, in retrospect, seems to have been mostly a bunch of marketing BS. It was all the breathless fawning over features (with the impressive graphics in the background) that really didn't turn out to be much in the way of actual features when they hit the cold hard light of day. I was let down by the Apple marketing machine. Let's be honest, there is little here in reality to justify an upgrade to 7 for most 6S users.



Then what do you expect Shiller or Cook to say... "We have a really boring phone. There's nothing much about it. We have a camera with two lens. The phone has an A10 fusion chip. It's just 50% faster than a 6S. Nothing great about it. The phone is water resistant but it's ok, no big deal."

The marketing is ok. They did not behave like Samsung, laughing at the headphone jack removal and 6 months later their S8 is going to remove the headphone jack. They did not claim that their phones are water resistant but professional checks say otherwise. They did not claim to make a super beautiful phone with lots of pixel but end up much much slower that their previous Galaxy. They did not claim that their battery life is 12 hours but end up only 6-8 hours.

Their marketing is ok. They do not cheat.[/QUOTE]

 

[Steve686]

Deceptive marketing would be when they claim sapphire home button and camera lenses. Nothing else qualifies.

Disclaimer: I don't really know if the sapphire 'issue' is real or not.

 

[bbates123]

Anyhow, I'm getting side tracked... My main point was how Phil's speech at the keynote, in retrospect, seems to have been mostly a bunch of marketing BS. It was all the breathless fawning over features (with the impressive graphics in the background) that really didn't turn out to be much in the way of actual features when they hit the cold hard light of day. I was let down by the Apple marketing machine. Let's be honest, there is little here in reality to justify an upgrade to 7 for most 6S users.



Then what do you expect Shiller or Cook to say... "We have a really boring phone. There's nothing much about it. We have a camera with two lens. The phone has an A10 fusion chip. It's just 50% faster than a 6S. Nothing great about it. The phone is water resistant but it's ok, no big deal."

The marketing is ok. They did not behave like Samsung, laughing at the headphone jack removal and 6 months later their S8 is going to remove the headphone jack. They did not claim that their phones are water resistant but professional checks say otherwise. They did not claim to make a super beautiful phone with lots of pixel but end up much much slower that their previous Galaxy. They did not claim that their battery life is 12 hours but end up only 6-8 hours.

Their marketing is ok. They do not cheat.

[/QUOTE]

All I'm saying is, don't over hype something to the point that you're disappointing your customers when they find your statements were misleading at best. All the going on and on about the camera when it's barely different from the 6S in real life as a perfect example. The 25% brighter screen when most people don't see a difference (oh that's only in sunlight...well that would have been nice to know). Phil was raving about the A10 chip and how it was 40% faster than the A9 (and graphics 50% faster than the A9). I think most consumers would reasonably expect to see a noticeable bump in speed in their everyday apps. I see zero. I'm assuming you will see it only in games and standard apps like Facebook or Yelp run on the low power cores that aren't any faster. Would have been nice to know.

 

[Steve686]

All I'm saying is, don't over hype something to the point that you're disappointing your customers when they find your statements were misleading at best. All the going on and on about the camera when it's barely different from the 6S in real life as a perfect example. The 25% brighter screen when most people don't see a difference (oh that's only in sunlight...well that would have been nice to know). Phil was raving about the A10 chip and how it was 40% faster than the A9 (and graphics 50% faster than the A9). I think most consumers would reasonably expect to see a noticeable bump in speed in their everyday apps. I see zero. I'm assuming you will see it only in games and standard apps like Facebook or Yelp run on the low power cores that aren't any faster. Would have been nice to know.[/QUOTE]


You ever here of placebos, man?

 

[TJ82]

Water-resistance and telephoto lens. Phone is my main camera when cycling so both of these are massively welcomed and the only reason I ended up upgrading from the 6+ when wasn't originally planning to.

Rest is a lot of nonsense to me. All that taptic crap? Seriously. Why. Better battery or camera modules would be much preferred.

 

[bufffilm]

...as presented by Phil Schiller at the Apple event a few week ago. I went back through the event to note the 10 major feature that were announced related to the iPhone 7 and my own personal thoughts now that we've had the phones for several days now.

1. Design: Not sure now this was a new feature. This is basically the same design as the iPhone 6 from 2 years ago. To me this is a bit of an embarrassment.

2. Home button: I'm not sure how this is something to be lauded. I guess as a personal relief, it doesn't suck as bad as I thought it would, but honestly, was there anything wrong with the old home button besides not being water resistant? To me this is a stretch. I do like the new haptic engine...maybe this should have been the featured "feature".

3. Water and dust resistant: To me this is the major feature of the new phone and the only reason I'm keeping mine. But honestly, this is something Apple had to do to stay abreast of the competition.

4. Camera: Enough evidence has surfaced including Consumer Reports that the iPhone 7 camera really isn't any better than the iPhone 6S. This was the main reason I upgraded and the most disappointing thing for me. For 7+ users at least you have the 2x telephoto which is cool.

5. Retina HD display: I personally don't see any difference and enough people complaining about yellow/warm screens (including myself) to make this feel like a downgrade rather than an upgrade.

6. Speakers: I do like how they created louder/stereo speakers. Seems like a minor thing but it's nice.

7. Earpods: This is where they went into why they removed the audio jack. Not sure how this qualifies as a "feature".

8. Airpods: Regardless of how you feel about the new Airpods, this is a totally separate product. Again, how is this a new iPhone 7 "feature"?

9. Apple Pay/Felica: Maybe this would be a big deal if I lived in Japan.

10. A10 Fusion: I have seen no improvement in the performance of any of my apps. Maybe if I was a gamer, but for the stuff I use on a daily basis, apps load and run just as fast as they did on the 6S.


Despite all this I do agree that the new iPhones are the best phones Apple has made to date, but frankly I was expecting much more and I feel let down this year, more than any year before. Let's hope for some more relevant features next year with the 10 year anniversary phone.

6s/+ users were not the target group for this year's iphone...the 6/+ users were.

So of course, you are very underwhelmed by the new phone.

If the new colors, the water-resistance and the camera weren't enough to make it worth it, then you'll have to wait for the 2017 phone.

while the 2017 phone may have a redesign, it won't have a laundry list of improvements. IOW, if you expect it to be chock full of goodies, prepare to be mistaken.

Apple is smart and very calculating.

Each year, the new phone will feature a few things. Just enough to suck in the masses.

So be smart and weigh the features well before you buy. Next year, you get to do it all over again.

 

[oftheheavens]

Love the water resistance
Love the new speaker (my finger always blocks the bottom speaker when playing games)
Love the home button (took a couple days to adjust)
Love the new camera (i don't see how people can't tell the difference)
Love the new performance and battery life (did some sidebyside comparisons and the new phone opens intensive apps quicker and renders video files faster)

Meh on everything else. Meh with the lack of headphone jack. Didn't care either way

This is almost exactly my feelings. I will say that I don't agree with this keynote presentation at all. It really seemed like they were reaching to come up with 10 things the iPhone 7 could do not only to justify the lack of a physical difference which many people were/are complaining about and to match up with iOS "10". I feel they could have focused more on the features that you mentioned above that weren't already hit on to the fullest like the new speaker, water resistance (darn near waterproof as far as a phone goes), and battery life is about 20% better per day for my usage pattern.

I haven't even taken a picture with the new 7 yet, don't care much about the camera as long as it captures a picture that isn't grainy which was almost done away with 3-5 years ago for the average distance photo taken by an iPhone. The new home button is in no way a "feature". I do believe it helped achieve their water resistance rating but to include it as a feature is a stretch but I do like it and it didn't take long to get used to.