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

anandtech.com

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

#71

Post by hyperbovine »

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…

Of course it provides a better value, the upshot of this review is that if you sell your smartphone for the exact same price as an iPhone, you automatically lose. I had expected the headline with the Pixel phones to be something like "near iPhone performance for half the price". I can't possibly see how these new google phones are going to be a success at this price.

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

#72

Post by criddell »

mbel wrote: post #43
paulcole wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't it be a UX nightmare?

Is UX a nightmare on desktop right now? Nearly all desktop/laptop computers can have their OS changed to different one. There is technically nothing stopping mobiles form working in the same way.

> There is technically nothing stopping mobiles form working in the same way.

What about power consumption issues? If you load up Windows on a Mac laptop the battery drain rate is doubled. That's a pretty big user experience issue IMHO.

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

#73

Post by toomuchtodo »

nixy wrote: post #24
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.

Headphone jack doesn't matter to me at all. Headphones work perfectly with the adapter that comes with the 7. The lightning ear pods also work perfectly fine. It's really a non-issue.

Can you charge and use the headphones at the same time?

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

#74

Post by saturdaysaint »

I really don't understand the calls for higher pixel density - there are clear performance costs, and the only use case where it makes a meaningful difference is VR, where I'm more and more skeptical that mobile will be relevant for a while. I've noticed with TV's, tech reviewers have almost unanimously yawned at 4K for normal viewing, and are much more excited about HDR - this just sounds like specs for the sake of specs.

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

#75

Post by EduardoBautista »

grecy wrote: post #68
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.

I'm in West Africa and just bought a fully-functional phone for $20 - that was new price, in the box, no haggling. For another $10 I could have got a much bigger screen and better specs. It does absolutely everything I can think of a cell phone can do, even has dual sims. I'm tethering to it off 3G right now. It's running Android 5.1, and to be honest I have not even tried to upgrade it because it just doesn't matter…

4G is a big missing feature.

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

#76

Post by grecy »

EduardoBautista wrote: post #75
grecy wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in West Africa and just bought a fully-functional phone for $20 - that was new price, in the box, no haggling. For another $10 I could have got a much bigger screen and better specs. It does absolutely everything I can think of a cell phone can do, even has dual sims. I'm tethering to it off 3G right now. It's running Android 5.1, and to be honest I have not even tried to upgrade it because it just doesn't matter…

4G is a big missing feature.

Only one or two countries here even have 4G towers.

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

#77

Post by criddell »

gtk40 wrote: post #56
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.

Is the price difference that significant?

To me, the difference between a $1000 phone and a $400 is less than $1 per day (I keep my phones for 24 months). A buck a day is something I can afford and am willing to pay it for even a modestly better phone. I would guess a lot of HN readers are in a similar position.

I wish Google would have come out with something much better even if it would have been more expensive than an iPhone.

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

#78

Post by jpalomaki »

davidf18 wrote: post #64

Hardware feature table mentions WiFi, but not the LTE modem and radio which is far more important as LTE has to deal with skyscrapers and buildings with stone and steel which conveniently block LTE signals, population density, and spectrum consumption has been dramatically increasing year to year. The unit has the Qualcomm X12 modem but that modem doesn't cover AWS-3 (Band 66) which is a very large swath of spectrum,…

Or maybe they are not testing these kind of things, because proper testing of important aspects like signal reception and voice quality would require complicated test setups and expensive equipment.

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

#79

Post by samstave »

madeofpalk wrote: post #25
Steko wrote: post #12

I've always wondered what it is that Anand Lal Shimpi, Brian Klug (also formerly Anandtech) and (now) Chris Ziegler (formerly The Verge) do at Apple (or did if they've moved on). At first I thought they might be involved in PR and media outreach but that doesn't seem to be the case. Now I'd guess maybe they just painstakingly review devices just like they did before except now they do internal only reviews of Apple's…

> Chris Ziegler (formerly The Verge) I do wonder if he is _still_ at Apple after whatever was happening was made public (and possibly known to Apple as well)

can you expand, i am out of the loop

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

#80

Post by izacus »

jonknee wrote: post #59
Shivetya wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That still doesn't mean that your phone will burst into flames if it doesn't have an apple drawn on it.
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