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The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus Review: Iterating on a Flagship

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Re: The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus Review: Iterating on a Flagship

#51

Post by quickben »

wtallis wrote: post #49
quickben wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably for the same reasons my current company is migrating away from anything Microsoft. Given the past actions, one just doesn't know what the pricing will be in future, and it makes sense to spend money to move to Linux now, instead in x years under deadlines. I realize this is unrelated to the main topic, but it illustrates human foresight.

> Given the past actions, one just doesn't know what the pricing will be in future, There's no reason to worry that Apple will resume charging for OS X updates after so many years of giving them away and after shifting to more frequent but less substantial releases.

Probably, but his point was about that ecosystem (iPhone or all?) becoming a wallet garden, and it did become one (sounds like he was referring to the phone one)

Re: The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus Review: Iterating on a Flagship

#52

Post by nextos »

DavidWanjiru wrote: post #41
nextos wrote: post #7

A bit offtopic but I am very disappointed only Apple seems to have a clear plan, and makes continuous progress in careful iterations. I quit Apple precisely when the iPhone 1 was released due to ideological reasons, as I realised the whole ecosystem would become a walled garden. But I concede they have good products. I was looking forward to the new Pixel and Pixel XL. Google devices are the only ones that have a san…

"I quit Apple precisely when the iPhone 1 was released..." Just so I understand, since the iPhone was the first phone Apple made, are you saying you stopped using their PCs (and music players?) because they'd made a phone? If you were happy with their other products up to that point, how does the phone change the grand scheme of things? I'd want to hear what your ideology is.

I expected iPhone to be like Newton. But it ended up being a walled garden. I realised trading a bit of my freedom for convenient user interfaces was not a good plan in the long run, so I gave up on Mac and went back to Linux.

I thought Macs would become less open and less important for Apple in the future, with their marked shift to mobile.

I think it was the right decision. Almost a decade later, Macs still lack components I think are key for a developer. For example, they don't ship with a package manager.

I understand Apple's focus on mobile, since that's what brings most earnings, but as a developer freedom is very important to me. Not just from an ideological point of view. Also for convenience reasons. E.g., I cannot imagine going back to floating window managers. Getting a tiling one running on Mac is a bit of a hack. I prefer Arch, Nix and friends.

Re: The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus Review: Iterating on a Flagship

#53

Post by tluyben2 »

> Apps like WeChat are fairly notorious for holding wakelocks on Android and never really stopping background resource usage

I thought everyone went mad when they said this as I never encountered this issue, but I see it everywhere... The app that drains my Android is always Skype. That is also the app the drains my laptop and the reason I started using the web version but when that is on, Chrome drains my laptop. Wechat seriously does not come close and I use it a lot more...

Re: The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus Review: Iterating on a Flagship

#54

Post by ak217 »

WhitneyLand wrote: post #14

Is anyone making different decisions based on the headphone jack? After a steady upgrade cadence since iPhone 1, this is the first time I've postponed my decision, still deciding how to proceed. Google is making the right moves but I'm not sure how much it can help them. Pixel is an excellent product, but you need a crowbar to pry people out of a well worn and comfortable habits.

In my opinion Pixel is a disappointment. iPhone 7 brought two features that I really like (waterproofing and a faster CPU) but screwed it up by removing the headphone jack. So I was really looking forward to the Pixel. But it has no water resistance, no wireless charging, a poor backplate design, and an uncompetitive starting price. So at this point I'm disappointed in both flagship launches of the year. I don't know what to get to replace my Nexus 5. Maybe I'll get an iPhone 6s, despite the ugly antenna bands.

I think if Apple kept the headphone jack and added wireless charging, they'd have a lot of very happy customers.

Re: The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus Review: Iterating on a Flagship

#55

Post by nikon »

I returned my 7+ as it's barely any different to the 6S+, and at £719 here in the UK for the 32GB model it was hard to stomach. £819 for 128GB model is now almost Macbook territory in my mind. I had barely any free space on the 32GB model, and using an adaptor for my headphones was annoying. The camera was good though.

A 64GB 6S+ is a much better proposition to me and will be my daily driver until I find something better. I've not noticed any difference since swapping.

Re: The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus Review: Iterating on a Flagship

#56

Post by gtk40 »

Yhippa wrote: post #50

> At the start of this review I said it was important to consider perspective because at the end of the day, I use Android devices. Doing the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus review is important, but also deeply disillusioning. With the iPhone 6s review I showed a number of clear and present issues in Android devices relative to the iPhone, and these issues continue to appear time and time again. More than ever it’s obvious to me…

To be fair, the Pixel is a horrible value, as it doesn't seem to be as significantly better than what it's replacing relative to the significant increase in price.

Re: The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus Review: Iterating on a Flagship

#57

Post by kyrra »

rayiner wrote: post #11

On several of the tests, Apple has basically lapped the competition with the 6s and 7 both beating the Snapdragon/Exynos-powered devices. In Jetstream and Kraken, which additionally take the JS engine into account, three generations of Apple devices are beating the latest flagship android devices. Really a phenomenal showing by Apple's CPU and compiler teams, especially considering that everyone uses the same fabs.

Owning the chip design, compilers and OS let you get out lots and lots of extra performance. There is a reason Intel has so many driver and software developers (they are one of the largest employers of software devs out there). Getting a chip working well takes a lot of effort of a lot of people.

Qualcomm is trying to do what apple does here, but they are spread across many more phones, OS versions and the like. They are trying to be more general purpose, which makes them not as great in most cases.

Re: The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus Review: Iterating on a Flagship

#58

Post by simonh »

throwaway_45 wrote: post #13

I am surprised cell phones are still selling for 650 bucks. You can get a Chinese cell phone for 200 dollars which will do 90% of what latest apple or Samsung will do. Maybe it will be a little bit slower, but not 450 dollars slower.

* Free immediate access to patches and OS upgrades

* Security and privacy

* The best range of high quality apps

* Pythonista

* The camera(s)

* Calibration - I don't trust Android devices to be correctly quality controlled in this regard

* Continuity and the universal clipboard

* System performance

* Product support / Apple Stores

* Device longevity. My daughter just upgraded from my old 3GS, which still even works with the app store!

Re: The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus Review: Iterating on a Flagship

#59

Post by jonknee »

Shivetya wrote: post #46
op00to wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When the $200 phone bursts into flames, are you able to sue the Chinese manufacturer for damages? When your $200 phone breaks, do you have to simply buy a new one rather than get it replaced? When there are security holes in your $200 phone, will the cheap skin over Android get patched? I buy Apple phones for one reason, and that's the fact that my business lives and dies through communication. With my $800 phone, I…

that is a large amount of FUD and baseless too. the majority of the world gets by not having eight hundred dollar phones just fine. Apple marketing simply has succeeded in convincing you and others that there is no viable alternative which in turn keeps you from accepting such a possibility

The majority of the world gets by without air conditioning, personal vehicles, Netflix memberships and all other sorts of luxury items and services. The iPhone is no different, but it's not marketing that Apple's support is better than a random vendor off Alibaba.

Re: The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus Review: Iterating on a Flagship

#60

Post by matwood »

WhitneyLand wrote: post #14

Is anyone making different decisions based on the headphone jack? After a steady upgrade cadence since iPhone 1, this is the first time I've postponed my decision, still deciding how to proceed. Google is making the right moves but I'm not sure how much it can help them. Pixel is an excellent product, but you need a crowbar to pry people out of a well worn and comfortable habits.

> Is anyone making different decisions based on the headphone jack?

Not me. I already use wireless headphones at the gym and while running. The only loss is I cannot charge and listen at the same time which is something I rarely did anyway.

Given how Google abruptly leaves projects behind, the Pixel needs a few releases before I would trust it staying around. Flagship priced Android phones are also a tough market because you can get decent ones at very low prices.

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