A Month With The iPhone 7 Plus

The iPhone 7 Plus

After five years with the iPhone 5S, i finally got myself an upgrade. I was really thinking hard on what phone to get. My first choice was actually an iPhone 6S Plus because it's much cheaper now and the headphone jack but the color i want, the Black one, is now out of stock and they're offering me the Gold and Rose Gold colors which is i'm not a fan of. So the last best thing i can think of and probably my last resort is the iPhone 7 Plus since its the one available with the Black color aside from the iPhone 8 and X which is out of my price range. I've been contemplating for quite a while before i choose an iPhone. Yes, an iPhone. I've been invested with Apple's ecosystem for five years now and the user experience is impressive on iPhones, hands down. There's no going back to Android now even though they honestly have great looking hardware. Check out the Samsung Galaxy S9 for proof.


Okay. So why the iPhone 7 Plus, you say. First, it's been out for almost two years as i write this review which means its now a tad cheaper compared to the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus which are really pricey especially the iPhone X. It's impractical at the moment plus, the absence of the fingerprint sensor or Touch ID is really a big turn off for me. It's really inconvenient to point my phone on my face all the time when i want to use it. Second, the battery life. People who are using the Plus-sized version of iPhones know that the battery life is much greater on this bigger iteration. Looking at the spec-sheet of iPhones ranging from the iPhone 6 Plus to the 8 Plus, the battery is almost around 3000 mAh meaning a whole day battery. Compare that to the regular sized iPhones which is averaging from 1800 to 1900 mAh. That's twice the size. Third and last reason why is the dual rear-facing cameras that have the ability to shoot in Portrait mode as well as the 2X Optical Zoom.

If you want to check out the full and detailed specifications of the phone, it can always be found via Apple's website. Now, with the review! Here are my thoughts after using the iPhone 7 Plus for a month.

Display

The 5.5 inch LCD panel is good enough even when there's sunlight.

One of the very first thing you'll notice when you get a phone like this is its size. It's really big. As someone who is coming from an iPhone 5S this is not a one-handed use friendly but to make up for it, the 5.5 inches of screen size with a 1920 x 1080 resolution making it really sharp and crisp to view contents on this screen.

The viewing angles are great and i don't have any problems with it so far. The bezels on the sides, top and bottom are pretty thick though. Good thing they went edge-to-edge with the iPhone X meaning the future iPhones will have the same display.

Build Quality

The aluminum back gives a premium look but is very slippery to the hands. You better have a case on.

The aluminum body build and the glass front feels premium as usual. It almost looks like an iPhone 6 and 6S Plus except they hidden the antenna lines in the back much better giving us this cleaner look especially the Jet Black and Slate Gray color options which makes the antenna bands in the back almost invisible to the eye. All the color variations except the Jet Black, because of its aluminum material in the back, lacks grip. I highly recommend that you get a case with a good grip.

The glass panel, capacitive home button and the bottom grill speakers

One thing the really took time for me to get used to is the new Home Button. Well, its not really a button anymore it's more like a pressure sensitive area now. Since it can't be pressed now mechanically this is where the Taptic Engine comes in. It's a new haptic (vibrations) technology from Apple and it works really well and i really like it. In regards to the Home Button it actually replicates the sensation and feeling of pressing the button and i should say it works. There's also a settings included with this where in you can adjust the Home Button press haptic feedback to your liking.

The speaker grills, Lightning port and the absence of the 3.5mm headphone jack

The absence of the 3.5mm headphone jack is a bit of a bummer since i'm currently using a Beats EP as my main headphones. Good thing, Apple included a headphone jack to Lightning adapter. Thanks, Apple. *sarcasm*

Software

As someone who is really curious on what the future will bring. I'm running the latest iOS 12 Beta which is currently at Beta 8. Originally, it was running iOS 11.4.1 and it was great as expected. Everything works fine and smooth but with iOS 12 there's a whole lot of features added as well as massive performance improvements especially on older devices that are supported. So far, even after those improvements from this release, it's still iOS. The same row of icons and menus, just a tweaked version. I commend Apple for not giving up on the iPhone 5S just yet which will be five years old this coming September and will still be receiving iOS 12.

Homescreen in landscape mode

Also, plus sized iPhones supports landscape mode on the homescreen to take advantage of the huge 5.5 inch screen. Too bad a some apps doesn't support landscape mode such as the Facebook app which is a bummer.

Performance

So far, the app launching time is really fast which only takes a few seconds compared to my five year-old iPhone which takes about five to twenty seconds before it launches the Facebook app. Switching between apps is fast giving the user a pleasant multitasking experience.

Minecraft running on the iPhone 7 Plus consistently on 60 FPS

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas runs like a dream on the iPhone 7 Plus

I have no problems at all when it comes to performance. It can run many great games like Minecraft and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas with no lags or stutters thanks to the Apple A10 Fusion chip making the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus a really capable and future proof phone. Expect the performance to last 2-3 more years providing support to the future software updates and applications.

Battery Life

My battery usage as of last week. Showing 24% as my lowest
battery charge by the end of the day

One of the reasons why i choose the Plus version instead of the regular one is the battery life. Like i mentioned above the battery capacity of the iPhone 7 Plus is 35% more compared to the regular one. Pretty much all of my usage goes to watching YouTube videos, internet browsing and a bit of playing games on Wi-Fi most of the time at home and light browsing using mobile data when i go to work. So far, since at work, this phone always stay in my locker for the most part. I sometimes leave my mobile data turned on intentionally just to see how its stand-by time holds up and too my surprise, I left it with 90% then 6 hours later its down to 88% which is really impressive. I never had a day with this phone where it went down to zero percent. There's always a remaining 20 to 25 percent by the end of the day.

Camera

The dual rear-facing 12 MP cameras.

I am very pleased with the cameras. Both 12-megapixel shooters takes really sharp and detailed photos which also gives accurate colors unlike the Samsung Galaxy S8's camera which gives an oversaturated result. I personally like the colors on this one.

Detailed shot and accurate colors

Low-light shot

One of the downsides of this camera are the low-light shots. It's acceptable to some extent but becomes too noisy at times. See the photo above for reference.

High Dynamic Range in action

The HDR or High Dynamic Range is also pretty good on this phone. It balances the lighting just right to make it look good. It works for the most part. There are some times that the shots will overexposed so you have to manually tap the bright area in the photo before you shoot it. The photo above shows the HDR balancing the brightness of the sky and the darkness of the area.

Normal shot

2x Optical Zoom showing no lost quality

Another great thing about the dual rear-facing cameras is the second telephoto camera which has the ability to do a 2x Optical Zoom meaning even if you zoom it in 2x there is no quality reduction. You can zoom in 8x more with the software zoom, making it 10x, but the quality will be noticeably reduced.

Portrait shot. The depth of field in action

The Portrait Mode is another reason why i chose the iPhone 7 Plus. I'm also impressed by the shots i took with this camera using this mode. The blur or depth of field is really giving the photos the sense of like its taken with a professional camera. There are still some misses when it comes to edge detection with the Portrait Mode but so far, if the lighting is good enough in the scene then it's going to be a impressive looking photo.

Even with its flaws, the cameras are great especially for someone who's coming from an iPhone 5S' camera, this is really impressive and worthy upgrade. Here's some more sample shots. Just click or tap them to zoom them in.

Final Thoughts

The iPhone 7 Plus from behind

I should say, i am very happy and satisfied with this phone. Coming from an iPhone 5S, i have nothing to ask for. The performance is great. It's way faster than the 5S of course thanks to the A10 Fusion chip, as a result, makes the user experience even greater than before. The all-day battery life is really top-notch and a camera that takes quality photos especially the Portrait Mode and HDR. Aside from the phone being too big for a one-handed use i have no other complaints. This phone is insanely great for its price and even in 2018.

Gabriel Anciano Sunday, August 19, 2018 Reviews