The iPhone 7 is the latest phone from the Apple brand that has taken over. Is it the best iPhone on the market or should you wait for the next one to emerge? Let’s take a look:

Overview

The Apple iPhone 7 has a 4.7-inch 326ppi wide-color-gamut display, 32, 128, or 256 GB storage options, an A10 Fusion chip, and a 12MP camera.

Pros: Excellent camera, water resistance, great performance, sound quality in speakers

Cons: Poor battery life, no headphone jack, expensive, not enough has changed

The Design

iPhones have really always looked like iPhones, so you won’t see much difference in the way they are designed. The same simple design is there: a home button, a screen, and side panel buttons. There are small changes in the placement of some things, which means you’ll have to buy a new case.

As for the color, you have the newest red, then the usual black, space grey, white, rose gold, silver, and gold.

Of course, the biggest change to the design is the lack of a 3.5 mm headphone jack. You can either use the Airpods or you can use the charging port as a headphone jack. Of course, this makes it impossible to charge your phone and listen to music at the same time.

For those not willing to give up their older headphones, you can get an adapter (one is included with the phone) that will turn your charging port into a 3.5 mm option. There are other adapters on the market as well from third party sources.

A somewhat smaller change comes from the home button. You now don’t get the “click” and instead there is a haptic engine that makes it feel like it does.

Screen

The screen is the same as it has been, 4.7 inches without any more pixels and a resolution of 1334x750. It is sharp enough but isn’t the sharpest phone on the market. Nothing looks fake and it is quite rich, which means that you will be able to get more out of it when watching YouTube or Netflix.

When it comes to durability of the glass the iPhone 7 is no better than its predecessors. Luckily, there are plenty of places that can fix that if you ever have the need for it. In Austin, we can replace a cracked iPhone screen in about an hour. And for those not located in Austin, try our mail in iPhone repair service.

Speakers

The iPhone 7 gets extremely loud, which is great for people who like to use their speakers and can’t get around the lack of a headphone jack. There are two speakers now, one at the bottom and one at the earphone slot. You’ll get some separation at times, but it makes for a louder, clearer tone on your phone.

There is still tinny quality about the sound because the iPhone is just too small to really give you that full quality sounds that you need. Don’t put the volume at the top level to avoid some of the worst of it.

Water Resistance

One of the biggest foes of a phone has been water. Now that the Home button has been changed, the phone is now water resistant as well. Now, you can drop your phone into 1 meter of water for up to 30 minutes and it should still be okay.

You can now use your phone in the shower without having to worry.

Performance

This is certainly the most powerful iPhone on the market, and the most powerful phone as well. You can do quite a bit on this phone and keep as many apps open as you want. You can play some great games and never really have to worry about it lagging.

For reference, this phone is 30% faster than the iPhone 6S and 12% more powerful than the Galaxy S7.

Camera

Most people who want the new iPhone want it because of the upgraded camera. This has been a major focus on Apple’s publicity. The iPhone 7 has different optic lenses (6 in total) and better editing functionality than any other iPhone.

The front facing camera, for Snapchat addicts, is also much improved.

One major complain is that the phone still has trouble with red coloring. Another complaint is that the flash still isn’t as great as it could be. If you tend to take pictures in darker spaces, you may want to avoid this or get a separate flash mechanism.

Battery Life

One of the main reasons people start looking at new phones it because their batteries are dying. Apple won’t necessarily be an improvement here because it still doesn’t have the power.

Even though the phone has a slightly larger battery than its predecessors, the battery really hasn’t improved at all. In fact, some complain that because of the new apps and iOS 10, it is worse. Turning down the screen brightness, not keeping your phone on at all times, and even turning your phone onto airplane mode can help – but it isn’t something that you should have to do to enjoy your phone. Add that to the fact that the phone doesn’t charge all that quickly either, and you have some serious problems.

For people who rarely make it through the day without charging, you won’t love this aspect of the phone. You’ll have to charge at some point.

Should I buy the iPhone 7?

Everyone has their own choice to make here, but the iPhone 7 is a fantastic phone. It is something that works almost everywhere and many people design specifically for Apple phones. Still, the battery life is something that you need to take into consideration. Other things to look at include storage size, cost, and the lack of a headphone port.

Still, an iPhone is an iPhone, and it says something when you have the latest model.

When having the latest model is not all important to you, buying a used iPhone that is 1 or 2 generations back will get the job done. This can literally save you hundreds for an iPhone that is not much different that the iPhone 7.