Filip Brož I get into the car. I clamp the new iPhone 7 Plus in silver color and 128 GB capacity to the stand from ExoGear. From the first moment it saw the light of day, the phone has been protected by the original silicone cover, which I didn't even allow for older models. "This is the new seven," I answer to my friends, who gradually sit down, but I point this out mainly because of their curiosity. Otherwise - especially in the packaging - you can't tell the iPhone 7 (or Plus) from the previous generation at first glance. However, the weekend is upon us and I want to get the most out of my new iPhone.
I open Apple Maps and start navigation towards Máchovo jezero. The iPhone 7 Plus weekend begins…
Friday
"The lady on the phone is kind of strict and very loud," says one of my friends when the Apple Maps navigator speaks. It's true that in a closed space, the sound from the iPhone 7 is more pronounced than from previous iPhones, because the "sevens" have a new stereo set of speakers. According to Apple, it should be up to twice as strong, and a larger dynamic range, deep bass and quite clear highs even at maximum volume are noticeable.
We see this when I randomly play the American indie band Matt and Kim and their single Hey Now in Apple Music. While the lower speaker remained in the same place, Apple hid the new, upper one in the upper microphone and it shows. On the other hand, it does not yet have the well-thought-out system from the iPad Pro, where even the four stereo speakers switch according to the current recording, but for example, watching a video is still more pleasant thanks to it. In short, the sound no longer only comes from one side.
After one hundred and fifty kilometers and three hours of driving, we find ourselves in the dark. But before that, we stop for a quick purchase. I pick up my iPhone and find that the battery is almost forty percent dead during the trip, and I only played a few songs and had the navigation on. I quickly connect the phone to an external battery. I'll need it tonight. However, the rapid decline is largely due to the developer beta, which I am testing for the new photo mode on the iPhone 7 Plus. With the next beta version, the battery life has already stabilized at the corresponding values.
Music without a jack
After a quick unpacking and inspection of the apartment in the small village of Staré Splavy not far from the lake, I grab my iPhone and go to document the preparation of dinner. In the kitchen, there are poor lighting conditions, in which iPhones have always had inconsistent results. In the end, even without a flash, I manage to take some decent shots. I'm also trying the new portrait mode right now, but it's bad in low light. The camera warns me that it needs more light, so I wait for another day with one of the biggest innovations associated with the iPhone 7 Plus.
I play music again while eating. I let the iPhone 7 Plus itself play for a while, which is actually a little louder than its predecessors thanks to the second speaker, and in many situations it is certainly enough, but then I connect JBL Flip 3, because even such smaller iPhone Bluetooth speakers are not enough.
I browse Twitter, answer a few emails and read the news while playing music. These are common and simple operations, but still it is better to know the more powerful iron. The iPhone 7 Plus handles everything really quickly and especially multitasking is faster, thanks to which the efficiency of work on the larger iPhone is a bit greater. For a while, I start editing the photos and that's when I really notice the display for the first time.
"The new wide color gamut is the bomb," I say to myself as I deliberately pick up the work iPhone 6 and compare how they both display the same photo. On the iPhone 7 Plus, images are noticeably more colorful, more vivid and overall more true to reality. However, some shots may look unnatural due to the color, but mostly the improved display is to the benefit of the cause. In addition, it has up to a quarter better brightness, which you will often appreciate.
The evening is slowly coming to an end, the Apple Watch is already reporting a few minutes after midnight, but I want to try out the new headphones before going to sleep. I usually fall asleep with music on, so I pull out the new Lightning EarPods that come with every new iPhone. "No big deal, it sounds the same as the original apple jack headphones" I think, so the only change is that so much washed connector.
In order to soften the shock of the removed 3,5 mm jack, which is available in the vast majority of headphones on the planet, Apple has included a titration adapter with the iPhone 7, which unfortunately cannot be done without by anyone who wants to use their old headphones. I'm the same case with my Beats Solo HD 2, so I connect the 3,5mm jack to Lightning via the connector. I am mainly curious if the presence of a small converter from analog to digital signal (DAC), which is in the adapter discovered iFixit. However, after three songs by Muse from Apple Music and the subsequent connection of the headphones to the iPhone 6, I note that if the adapter somehow improves the reproduction, it is practically imperceptible.
So, above all, with the realization that I will either have to learn to live with the adapter (which means to carry it with me all the time and not lose it anywhere), or to buy a new model with Lightning, which Beats already offers in my case, to connect the headphones, I fall asleep.
Saturday
I wake up in the morning with a new alarm clock melody, which brought iOS 10. It also has a new Večerka app, which allows me to check how many hours I slept after waking up and compare the results with the data from the third-generation Jawbone UP. The sleep cycles show me that I slept well, and I head for breakfast in a good mood.
I mash my cereal and sip my coffee. "You won't let go of that miracle even during breakfast, will you?" the girls nudge me and again ask me for some pleasant music. I search for Beck in Apple Music and play with new News, because I want to send a greeting home. For answers from the locked screen, I use 3D Touch, which underwent a transformation in the iPhone 7 Plus, or the technology that powers it.
One of the reasons why the 3,5mm jack has disappeared is precisely the vibration engine (Taptic Engine) driving 3D Touch, which has settled in the lower left part of the iPhone's body and also replaced the hardware Home button. Thanks to this, it no longer physically clicks, and the larger motor has also improved the experience of pressing the display harder, which is precisely 3D Touch. On the other hand, I perceive that the closer I press Touch ID, which continues to work the same way, the more intense the motor's response. When I press the display at the very top, it's so shallow. "Damn, I'd expect Apple to be smarter," I wonder.
A performance cannon
Otherwise, however, the improved 3D Touch in conjunction with iOS 10 is very pleasant and I use it much more than before. I can write a new tweet faster, set the priority of downloading apps from the App Store or expand the display of widgets. The display of the iPhone 7 Plus seems to me to be similarly flexible as on the Apple Watch, where I have already gotten used to using Force Touch for various actions, which works practically the same as 3D Touch. Even on the iPhone, Apple now wants to teach us how to use another control element.
After breakfast I go to the terrace. I check what the weather will be like. "Twenty degrees, clear and sunny. Great, we'll take pictures," I cheer in my mind. But even before that, I let go Assassin's Creed Identity, one of the most challenging games for iOS. It runs like clockwork, everything is completely smooth and there are no jams. Missions load quickly, response is immediate. Games are one of the fields where you will welcome a two-fold increase in processor speed and a three-fold increase in the graphics chip, which is the A7 Fusion with the M10 coprocessor in the iPhone 10 Plus.
I didn't have a problem with the performance of the iPhone 6S Plus, but when you really perform the most demanding tasks, the iPhone 7 Plus flies even faster. The quad-core A10 Fusion chip has two high-performance cores and two high-efficiency cores, which the iPhone switches between depending on what performance is expected of it. Thanks to this, the larger iPhone 7 should last an hour longer than its predecessor, but I have yet to recognize this in practice. Also because I play with my phone all the time.
But I still have to go back to the missing hardware button, because I was constantly coming into contact with it, at least thanks to unlocking the iPhone and the fingerprint. That is also why this is a relatively fundamental change, because you use the single hardware button on the front of the iPhone very often, and it did not cease to fascinate me for a long time.
When the iPhone is off, you can press the button all you want, but nothing happens. It's the same stunning effect as when Apple first introduced MacBooks with the Force Touch trackpad. It feels like you're physically pressing the button, but in reality, it's just the vibrating motor that gives you such a believable response that you'll believe it, while the button doesn't even move. On the iPhone 7 Plus, Apple also gives you a choice of how intensely you want the button to "respond" to you. I use the strongest response and it really feels like the phone wants to communicate with you.
The vibrations accompany you not only when unlocking the iPhone, but throughout the entire system. When I pull up the Control Center, I feel a slight vibration. When I change a value in Settings, I feel the vibration in my fingers again. Again, a similar experience to the Apple Watch. In addition, some third-party developers have already caught on, so you get feedback with vibrations, for example in the popular game Alto's Adventure.
Finally a photo shoot
I go out to the terrace. There is a swimming pool at the house. "That I would test the waterproofness of the iPhone?" With the arrival of the seventh series, Apple also boasted a new IP67 certification, i.e. finally resistance to water and dust. In practice, this means that the iPhone should survive a meter under water for thirty minutes. In the end, I prefer not to try it, because if your device is damaged by water, you are not entitled to a claim. It might sound a little strange, but in the event of rain or an accident in the bathroom, you don't have to worry about the worst with iPhone 7.
We're off to the lake. Time to take pictures. I'm looking for interesting compositions and running the native Camera. I shoot in normal mode and the resulting images are vivid and colorful. The dynamic range of the iPhone 7 Plus is truly incredible. But the biggest photographic asset of this phone is – for the first time ever – the presence of two lenses. Both have a resolution of twelve megapixels, and while one lens functions as a wide-angle lens, the other replaces the telephoto lens. "Thanks to this, the iPhone 7 Plus offers twice the optical zoom," I explain to curious colleagues.
For a demonstration, I aim the lens at a tree and press the 1× symbol, which suddenly changes to 2× and I suddenly see the tree much closer on the display. "While zooming in, my aperture from f/1,8 dropped to f/2,8, but if the weather is this good, I don't see a problem with it," I comment on the behavior of the new optics in the iPhone 7 Plus, which again slightly improved when taking pictures at sunset or in the dark, but here the engineers still have room for improvement.
Due to the presence of optical zoom, Apple introduced a new zoom control. It is no longer necessary to perform the traditional gesture with two fingers, but just click on the 1× symbol and switch directly to the telephoto lens, or switch to up to 10x digital zoom by turning the wheel. However, it is understandable that the resulting quality of the photos is significantly distorted.
What brings me to my knees, however, is the new portrait mode. I installed the iOS 7 beta on my iPhone 10.1 Plus just because of him, because Apple hasn't had time to prepare a sharp version of the new photo mode yet. Even now, however, the results are often astounding. As soon as the girls present see what the new iPhone can do, they immediately ask for new profile pictures.
[twentytwenty] [/twentytwenty]
The joke is that the Portrait mode can automatically blur the background and, conversely, sharply focus the subject in front. Thanks to this, a photo will be created like from a SLR camera. I don't only have to photograph people, but also nature or any other objects. All it takes is a little patience. Sufficient light and the right distance are important. Once you are too close or too far, the result is not good, if any.
But the camera itself guides you with instructions and the ideal distance is around two meters. There is a lot of discussion about the new portrait mode, as Apple itself promoted it as a significant feature made possible by the presence of two lenses in the iPhone 7 Plus. It all revolves around depth of field, which every experienced photographer works with. This is the field where the image appears sharp, while everything around, front and back, is out of focus. In this way, you can easily highlight a certain detail and separate other distracting elements and the background.
The area outside the depth of field is called the Japanese word bokeh. Until now, this effect could only be achieved using a SLR camera and a suitable lens, while the equation applies: the better the lens, the more pronounced the bokeh (blurring) will be. The quality of the effect is also influenced by the shape of the aperture of the sun visor and the number of their slats. However, there are no similar technologies in the body of the iPhone and the camera.
[twentytwenty] [/twentytwenty]
Apple got around the hardware shortcomings by using software, measuring distance and calculating terrain data. As a result, we are looking at photos that the camera produces as it thinks they should probably look. In contrast to an SLR camera, in the iPhone 7 Plus the user cannot influence the resulting blur in any way, the software takes care of everything. In ideal conditions, however, the iPhone in the vast majority of cases serves up really great effects that, at least in the first few days, can repeatedly amaze.
"Let's take a group selfie," my friends shout at me after a while. We group up on the beach, the lake in the background, and I switch to the front FaceTime camera. Apple has also greatly improved this and now has a resolution of seven megapixels and can record in Full HD. Pleasant news, considering that the front camera is used more and more often.
I capture several snapshots with the front and rear cameras during lunch in a restaurant, where I find that the portrait mode can handle two objects at once. When you learn how to work with Portrait, taking pictures is as easy as any other. On the way home, I'm still trying to catch a swan swimming towards me and I'm trying to shoot 4K video at thirty frames per second. It looks great, but the storage on the iPhone is quickly disappearing. Fortunately, most ordinary users don't really need to shoot in 4K.
On Saturday evening, I once again try to focus on night photos. Apple boasted that the iPhone 7 Plus has a new True Tone flash with four diodes that shine half as bright as the iPhone 6S. In addition, the flash adapts to the ambient temperature, which should be known in the interior. I get a sharper, better-lit image, but as I've found out before, the results are still not as perfect as Apple and users would often like.
[twentytwenty]
[/twentytwenty]
Sunday
The weekend is slowly coming to an end. I spend Sunday mornings reading articles and books on the "seven" display. I also take off the silicone cover for a while and enjoy the details of the old design, which mainly offers better hidden plastic strips for the antennas. However, they are still much more pronounced on the silver iPhone than, for example, on the new black models. In terms of weight, there is only an imperceptible shift of four grams down between the new and the previous generation, and there is an enlarged speaker in the front, due to the stereo.
In my opinion, however, Apple solved the pair of lenses on the back in a much more elegant way, which still do not fit into the body, so they have to be raised. While in previous generations Apple seemed to be ashamed of the protruding lens and did not want to admit it, in the iPhone 7 Plus both lenses are elegantly rounded and admitted. After a short nostalgic moment and memories of older models, I pack my bags, get into the car and head home.
I have good feelings about the weekend with the iPhone 7 Plus. It was definitely not a bad investment for me, even though I was the owner of an iPhone 6S Plus. But it is often about the details, and many users in the "seven", even thanks to the three-year-old design, will not find the motivation to buy a new phone. I especially liked the new possibilities and functionality of 3D Touch and the associated haptics, optical zoom and, above all, portrait mode. After all, I think that the presence of the second lens will be the biggest motivation for many users to buy.
As for the absence of a jack connector, it is, at least in my case, just a matter of habit. I believe that Apple knows what it is doing and that the future is in wireless technology. However, I understand that for many users the absence of a jack is an insurmountable problem. But everyone has to decide that for themselves. But we will have to wait at least one more year for some truly fundamental changes.
About the photos in Portrait mode, perhaps only so much that I hope that they'll fix it before the sharp release. On the first one presented by you, the bokeh is quite tragic and it hurts the eyes..but I know from other tests of beta 10.1 available on the Internet that it is currently very much a matter of luck, how the software can handle it.
As for the display, I was shocked myself at how great the color reproduction and depth is, it's even better than my iMac 5k Retina.
I was upgrading from an iPhone6S. I'm still struggling with the size, but I'm getting used to it, for me it was the camera with two lenses that was the reason to buy it. And the JetBlack color..beautiful, it's almost like a return to the days of the elegant iPhone4.
The iPhone 7 is fine, but I don't understand at all why the Portrait Mode is good, I guess I'm old-fashioned...
In the last photo you can see the difference beautifully. And you have to admit that the second option (with bokeh) just looks better.
It doesn't look, it's too "artificial", as it has been said several times.
Apparently because they didn't see the bokeh even from the train. It's just a linear blur. It looks really cheap. :)
Fake bokeh definitely doesn't look better, you may like it, but it doesn't look better at all.
And now imagine that you will be able to buy this phone in the Czech Republic?
iStyle delivered it to me on October 6.10. .. iPhone 7 Plus 128GB Jet Black <3
That's good to know.. Alza hasn't delivered it to me yet and I've already paid for it.. And I willingly took it to Jet Black because there were few of them.. And I have a pre-order at O2 and nothing either.. I'm very curious when so they will be.. I didn't come across a stock anywhere on the net.. :'(
Fortunately, I've had it for a week now and I'm satisfied, just like a few other people who could already buy it in the Czech Republic :-D
And where did you give birth??
I saw him for example at iwant ..
in iStyle, but they only had one piece :)
So I don't share the enthusiasm about the Portrait function. It is of course true that the function "pulls out" the portrait person from the background, but I can't help but find it very artificial. It's probably because the fake bokeh from the iP has the same character throughout the entire image - i.e. the background is uniformly out of focus. This is especially noticeable in the photo with the Moss Lake in the background. Maybe I'm looking for nits but….
We have the same impression as I wrote below =). I'm glad I'm not the only one who "sees" it there.
It's enough for a picture book. For people who know what real bokeh looks like, which simply gave a big chip, brightness and focus, I won't use it anyway. I personally like the 50mm focal length for such filming and photography when there is nothing more at hand.
May I ask how you drove 150 km in 3 hours? :D :D as if you drove according to apple maps, I already understand
It was Friday (afternoon), I met three traffic accidents on the way and, as usual, we took at least four detours ;-) or the way from Vysočina to Máchova jezer on the old Prague road... there is no faster way, unfortunately
it's dug up there, at least a month ago it was .. he would have published the last section in an hour by himself :)
Where are the days when you went to Mácháč with girls under a tent, we drank like dogs, each night had sex with each other, back then there were no iPhones, only cheap wine, beer and marijuana.
Sometimes I baked burritos or pike perch.
So maybe they did what you write there ;)
So you will surely understand that such photos are not uploaded to Jablíčkár, they are hidden in iCloud, from where "hackers" can then download them with the wrong password :-D
"the equation applies, the better the lens, the more pronounced the bokeh (blurring) will be"
– that's like a layman's view??? The unsharpness is based physically on a completely different principle than the quality of the lens (even so, the question is what such a layman imagines by the term quality lens). However, in the presentation of the iPhone 7+, it is still fake.
Sure. But it will be enough for Facebook etc.
So many inaccuracies.
iFixit weren't the first to show off the DAC, so it wasn't a surprise either, but a necessary feature since the lightning doesn't have analog audio in its spec, so it's clear that the DAC isn't there to make the sound better, but to have any the sound was And as verified by measurement, the sound is worse than it was on older models, because the DAC in the connector is a cheap shunt. And why is it a shunt? Well, because Apple loves music. That's why he made it worse for us.
TapticEngine is not a motor.
The inability to use true bokeh is not a hardware shortcoming, but a feature. If it were a shortcoming, then even the brick has a hardware shortcoming that it cannot make phone calls.
But you loaded him...:D
I'm sure he won't sleep over it :)
That boy is right.