Phones Nexus nerd picked up an iPhone 7 Plus

[apolloa]

I had a play with a 7 Plus today, I really like how you just tap a button to switch the camera lenses. The display is nice too. Would have to get used to its size though..

How have you found the camera? How are the photos?

 

[Septembersrain]

I had a play with a 7 Plus today, I really like how you just tap a button to switch the camera lenses. The display is nice too. Would have to get used to its size though..

How have you found the camera? How are the photos?

I really thought I'd struggle going from my 6s to the 7+. It actually really doesn't feel any heavier. It's weird. Most people complain about extra bezel but man it helps when you're watching something and have the screen rotated. It also lets your thumb rest above the bottom of the phone when you're just using it casually.

I found the camera quite amazing. Portrait caught every single frown line of my guys resting b**** face. He was like "That's amazing, I hate it, delete that photo!". Haha.

 

[msavic]

I had a play with a 7 Plus today, I really like how you just tap a button to switch the camera lenses. The display is nice too. Would have to get used to its size though..

How have you found the camera? How are the photos?

One thing that originally led to me switching from the S7 Edge was the horrific camera processing. The S7 over sharpened every shot and applied crazy amount of noise reduction resulting in blotchiness and basically just ruined the image.
It got so bad that I ended up shooting every image in RAW and then processing them myself to ensure the image wasn't ruined.

The iPhone 7 Plus has much better image processing although not perfect but at least it doesn't ruin the shot by being overly aggressive. It does occasionally give a sort of painting/Moore effect for low light images though. The iPhone does produce images with more true to life colours compared to the S7E which can be good or bad depending on your perspective. As an aspiring photographer, the true colours are a bonus but the average consumer may call that same image "flat" or "boring", it does give you more range to post process should you choose too.

Auto Focus speed was without a doubt quicker on the S7E but the iPhone is not bad, the focus is quick enough for day to day shots and the burst mode is good enough to capture fast moving subjects if needed. I will say that Apple really needs to increase the sensor size for the next generation as they have physically extracted every ounce of quality out of the current sensor size.

Regarding video capture, the stabilization and 4K Video quality are noticeably better on the iPhone 7 Plus over the S7E but the biggest disappointment is the Audio recording which is still Mono on the iPhone compared to stereo on the S7E. Out of all the phones I have owned this year, the video recorded by the 7 Plus has been by far the best and other reviewers have echoed the same thoughts.

Portrait Mode works fairly well but it can't fully replicate the smooth bokeh achieved when shooting with a DSLR and a fast prime lens. The difference would only be noticeable if you know what to look for though, the general consumer would not be able to tell the difference. It does really give a unique look to your image and the effect works quite well for shots of people, it does break down a bit with complex subjects such as branches and other random objects.

If you have any more questions, I'd be happy to answer.

 

[Septembersrain]

One thing that originally led to me switching from the S7 Edge was the horrific camera processing. The S7 over sharpened every shot and applied crazy amount of noise reduction resulting in blotchiness and basically just ruined the image.
It got so bad that I ended up shooting every image in RAW and then processing them myself to ensure the image wasn't ruined.

The iPhone 7 Plus has much better image processing although not perfect but at least it doesn't ruin the shot by being overly aggressive. It does occasionally give a sort of painting/Moore effect for low light images though. The iPhone does produce images with more true to life colours compared to the S7E which can be good or bad depending on your perspective. As an aspiring photographer, the true colours are a bonus but the average consumer may call that same image "flat" or "boring", it does give you more range to post process should you choose too.

Auto Focus speed was without a doubt quicker on the S7E but the iPhone is not bad, the focus is quick enough for day to day shots and the burst mode is good enough to capture fast moving subjects if needed. I will say that Apple really needs to increase the sensor size for the next generation as they have physically extracted every ounce of quality out of the current sensor size.

Regarding video capture, the stabilization and 4K Video quality are noticeably better on the iPhone 7 Plus over the S7E but the biggest disappointment is the Audio recording which is still Mono on the iPhone compared to stereo on the S7E. Out of all the phones I have owned this year, the video recorded by the 7 Plus has been by far the best and other reviewers have echoed the same thoughts.

Portrait Mode works fairly well but it can't fully replicate the smooth bokeh achieved when shooting with a DSLR and a fast prime lens. The difference would only be noticeable if you know what to look for though, the general consumer would not be able to tell the difference. It does really give a unique look to your image and the effect works quite well for shots of people, it does break down a bit with complex subjects such as branches and other random objects.

If you have any more questions, I'd be happy to answer.

I'm glad you posted this. I was so on the fence about keeping my 6s and getting an S7 but I felt kind of leery after I'd wanted that Note 7 so bad only to see it blow up... Literally. This makes me grateful I chose the 7+ instead.

 

[apolloa]

I really thought I'd struggle going from my 6s to the 7+. It actually really doesn't feel any heavier. It's weird. Most people complain about extra bezel but man it helps when you're watching something and have the screen rotated. It also lets your thumb rest above the bottom of the phone when you're just using it casually.

I found the camera quite amazing. Portrait caught every single frown line of my guys resting b**** face. He was like "That's amazing, I hate it, delete that photo!". Haha.

One thing that originally led to me switching from the S7 Edge was the horrific camera processing. The S7 over sharpened every shot and applied crazy amount of noise reduction resulting in blotchiness and basically just ruined the image.
It got so bad that I ended up shooting every image in RAW and then processing them myself to ensure the image wasn't ruined.

The iPhone 7 Plus has much better image processing although not perfect but at least it doesn't ruin the shot by being overly aggressive. It does occasionally give a sort of painting/Moore effect for low light images though. The iPhone does produce images with more true to life colours compared to the S7E which can be good or bad depending on your perspective. As an aspiring photographer, the true colours are a bonus but the average consumer may call that same image "flat" or "boring", it does give you more range to post process should you choose too.

Auto Focus speed was without a doubt quicker on the S7E but the iPhone is not bad, the focus is quick enough for day to day shots and the burst mode is good enough to capture fast moving subjects if needed. I will say that Apple really needs to increase the sensor size for the next generation as they have physically extracted every ounce of quality out of the current sensor size.

Regarding video capture, the stabilization and 4K Video quality are noticeably better on the iPhone 7 Plus over the S7E but the biggest disappointment is the Audio recording which is still Mono on the iPhone compared to stereo on the S7E. Out of all the phones I have owned this year, the video recorded by the 7 Plus has been by far the best and other reviewers have echoed the same thoughts.

Portrait Mode works fairly well but it can't fully replicate the smooth bokeh achieved when shooting with a DSLR and a fast prime lens. The difference would only be noticeable if you know what to look for though, the general consumer would not be able to tell the difference. It does really give a unique look to your image and the effect works quite well for shots of people, it does break down a bit with complex subjects such as branches and other random objects.

If you have any more questions, I'd be happy to answer.

Good write ups, I had a Note 5 and noticed how it oversampled some images. I had a iPhone 7 twice, but it's camera didn't really impress me. So I went back to a 6S.
I take pictures of my dog and when we are out the iPhone can get confused and give a smudged blurry effect on his fur, I am wondering if the 7 Plus will be better with this? I won't get one till next year and wait for the new iPhone so it's cheaper. Unless a 5" iPhone is launched anyway.

See if this is any good at showing what I mean, this was taken with my 6S and as the light reflects of his fur the processing gets totally confused and smudges it:

Look behind his head and at his tail to see what I mean.

 

[Tig Bitties]

Ok now that I've owned this Silver iPhone 7 Plus 128GB for a week now, here's my review so far, compared to my most recent phone the Nexus 6P;

As you all know I'm a big stock Android guy, I root every phone I get the first day, and typically install ROM's within the first week to really get the full potential out of each phone, unlocking better battery life, smoother performance, and even more features and customization. Custom rom's and kernels can give you substantially better battery life than stock.

iPhone 7 Plus pro's;

- Battery life = Outstanding, really unbelievable so far. And the standby time is just off the charts great. I don't know how to tell the Screen On time for iPhone's ? I know it doesn't display the info the same as Android, but with my many years on Android, I have a very good feel for for battery life. My tweaked Nexus 6P would give me 5.5h Screen On time at best, that was the max, I would guess this 7 Plus is giving me 7.5h to 8h Screen On time, which would maybe comparable to the Exynos version of tweaked and ROM'd Galaxy S7 Edge's. Point being the 7 Plus battery life is a champion.

- Speakers = This was not expected. I wasn't even thinking of good sound with the 7 Plus beforehand, but holy cow, the speakers are very loud, and crisp clear. They blow my dual speakers from the 6P out of the water. The sound on this 7 Plus is really good. And shocked at how loud it goes.

- Display = This is a weird one for me. I typically like AMOLED high res screens for their deep blacks and punchy colors. But the 7 Plus is very bright, and super good outdoors, and is surprisingly a very pretty display. But over the years of phones I've owned, for some reason I did prefer the HTC LCD displays, I liked the real world colors on them, and you can do white or light wallpapers without a battery hit. My Nexus 6P screen is way too dim outdoors, and almost too deep in colors. The 7 Plus looks very nice. And 1080p doesn't seem to be so much worse than 2k, I can barely tell a difference. And watching videos, wow the 7 Plus's colors look fantastic on videos, whereas my Nexus 6P people seem too reddish and not right.

- Accessories = I do like how there a million different types of cases to choose from, and screen protectors galore. With my Nexus 6P it was very limited.

- Home button = This things all the time, every time,. Wet finger, no problem, it works. I like just barely laying my finger on it to activate the screen so quickly.

- Water resistance = It's not a must have, but is a nice piece of mind. As I have lost one phone before due to dropping in the sink doing dishes a few years ago. It dropped in a full sink of water, and submerged to the bottom, was in there maybe a few seconds, and was wacky and goofy acting and never worked the same again.

- Jailbreak = I am on 10.1.1 and I will for sure be JB'ing this phone, once the stable release is out next month.


iPhone 7 Plus con's;

- iOS 10 is nice, but I still think stock Android 7.1.1 is far superior. THE NO BACK BUTTON IS A BIG DEAL. Swipe left to right is ok, but not the best for such a large phone, plus it's not available on everything. And then the menu buttons in iOS all seem to be way up on top in each app or system, again where a real back button would come in extremely useful.

- Notifications = Wow, does stock Android do this much better. Just too long of a laundry list to go into, but bottom line is, iOS is really behind in the Notifications area for a smartphone. Apple needs to really overhaul how iOS handles notifications system wide for everything.

- No notification light = I really miss not knowing if I had a missed call or text come through. On Android you have two great things, the LED notification light blinking blue for a missed phone call, or flashing white for a missed text. And then on top of it, your screen itself wakes up in intervals showing the notification with Ambient Display. With the iPhone it almost feels dead, and needs to be resurrected from the dead to check on it. Whereas Android feels more alive and breathing.

- Stock apps = Why am I stuck with Apple's apps as default ? I want the option to maybe use Chrome as default, and I like the Gboard keyboard a lot, but sometimes for passwords or replaying to a text from the lockscreen, the default Apple keyboard is only sued.

- Customization = Holy cow Apple, dude you can at least allow some base theme's in 2016 already, WTF ? The stock app icons are from what, iOS 7 ? Why can't we at least have the option for icon packs ? And also let us place app icons anywhere on the homescreen ? Maybe I'd like 2 app's to be down towards the bottom of the screen, and not forced to be in a row one after the other. Like wow, that is just unbelievable they don't allow even that most basic and simple of customization yet.
The homescreen looks like someone left the app drawer open. It's 2016, not 2007 anymore.


Ok, so now what ?

My list of pros and cons are up, and I have always stated over the years some of the most important features on a smartphone to me, have been;

#1 = Battery life
#2 = Display
#3 = Fast and smooth running OS, that I can tweak to my liking.

 

[widgeteer]

- Notifications = Wow, does stock Android do this much better. Just too long of a laundry list to go into, but bottom line is, iOS is really behind in the Notifications area for a smartphone. Apple needs to really overhaul how iOS handles notifications system wide for everything.

.

This this this this this 1000 times THIS. Apple needs to just go all the way and STEAL FROM ANDROID on this point. Notifications are much better than they used to be but compared to Android it drives me nuts. I think Apple does a better job at letting you interact with your notifications on the lockscreen, but the rest of it lags way behind. Specifically, if Android allowed me to respond to texts without having to unlock my phone, it would be perfect.

 

[Tig Bitties]

One other thing I am surprised at, all the Google apps on the App Store for the iPhone. I have them all installed now, and they work just as good, if not better on my 7 Plus, than they do Google's own 6P, which I find really strange. Google's apps on the iPhone are very polished and well supported it seems.

Even Duo the FaceTime like thing Google released earlier this year, it works perfect on the iPhone. I use it to call my Wife, and she has an Android phone. Duo works seamlessly and perfectly between the iPhone and her Note 5 with zero issues. I did not expect Duo to even be released on the iPhone.

Allo is on there too, but I don't use that.

 

[apolloa]

Ok now that I've owned this Silver iPhone 7 Plus 128GB for a week now, here's my review so far, compared to my most recent phone the Nexus 6P;

As you all know I'm a big stock Android guy, I root every phone I get the first day, and typically install ROM's within the first week to really get the full potential out of each phone, unlocking better battery life, smoother performance, and even more features and customization. Custom rom's and kernels can give you substantially better battery life than stock.

iPhone 7 Plus pro's;

- Battery life = Outstanding, really unbelievable so far. And the standby time is just off the charts great. I don't know how to tell the Screen On time for iPhone's ? I know it doesn't display the info the same as Android, but with my many years on Android, I have a very good feel for for battery life. My tweaked Nexus 6P would give me 5.5h Screen On time at best, that was the max, I would guess this 7 Plus is giving me 7.5h to 8h Screen On time, which would maybe comparable to the Exynos version of tweaked and ROM'd Galaxy S7 Edge's. Point being the 7 Plus battery life is a champion.

- Speakers = This was not expected. I wasn't even thinking of good sound with the 7 Plus beforehand, but holy cow, the speakers are very loud, and crisp clear. They blow my dual speakers from the 6P out of the water. The sound on this 7 Plus is really good. And shocked at how loud it goes.

- Display = This is a weird one for me. I typically like AMOLED high res screens for their deep blacks and punchy colors. But the 7 Plus is very bright, and super good outdoors, and is surprisingly a very pretty display. But over the years of phones I've owned, for some reason I did prefer the HTC LCD displays, I liked the real world colors on them, and you can do white or light wallpapers without a battery hit. My Nexus 6P screen is way too dim outdoors, and almost too deep in colors. The 7 Plus looks very nice. And 1080p doesn't seem to be so much worse than 2k, I can barely tell a difference. And watching videos, wow the 7 Plus's colors look fantastic on videos, whereas my Nexus 6P people seem too reddish and not right.

- Accessories = I do like how there a million different types of cases to choose from, and screen protectors galore. With my Nexus 6P it was very limited.

- Home button = This things all the time, every time,. Wet finger, no problem, it works. I like just barely laying my finger on it to activate the screen so quickly.

- Water resistance = It's not a must have, but is a nice piece of mind. As I have lost one phone before due to dropping in the sink doing dishes a few years ago. It dropped in a full sink of water, and submerged to the bottom, was in there maybe a few seconds, and was wacky and goofy acting and never worked the same again.

- Jailbreak = I am on 10.1.1 and I will for sure be JB'ing this phone, once the stable release is out next month.


iPhone 7 Plus con's;

- iOS 10 is nice, but I still think stock Android 7.1.1 is far superior. THE NO BACK BUTTON IS A BIG DEAL. Swipe left to right is ok, but not the best for such a large phone, plus it's not available on everything. And then the menu buttons in iOS all seem to be way up on top in each app or system, again where a real back button would come in extremely useful.

- Notifications = Wow, does stock Android do this much better. Just too long of a laundry list to go into, but bottom line is, iOS is really behind in the Notifications area for a smartphone. Apple needs to really overhaul how iOS handles notifications system wide for everything.

- No notification light = I really miss not knowing if I had a missed call or text come through. On Android you have two great things, the LED notification light blinking blue for a missed phone call, or flashing white for a missed text. And then on top of it, your screen itself wakes up in intervals showing the notification with Ambient Display. With the iPhone it almost feels dead, and needs to be resurrected from the dead to check on it. Whereas Android feels more alive and breathing.

- Stock apps = Why am I stuck with Apple's apps as default ? I want the option to maybe use Chrome as default, and I like the Gboard keyboard a lot, but sometimes for passwords or replaying to a text from the lockscreen, the default Apple keyboard is only sued.

- Customization = Holy cow Apple, dude you can at least allow some base theme's in 2016 already, WTF ? The stock app icons are from what, iOS 7 ? Why can't we at least have the option for icon packs ? And also let us place app icons anywhere on the homescreen ? Maybe I'd like 2 app's to be down towards the bottom of the screen, and not forced to be in a row one after the other. Like wow, that is just unbelievable they don't allow even that most basic and simple of customization yet.
The homescreen looks like someone left the app drawer open. It's 2016, not 2007 anymore.


Ok, so now what ?

My list of pros and cons are up, and I have always stated over the years some of the most important features on a smartphone to me, have been;

#1 = Battery life
#2 = Display
#3 = Fast and smooth running OS, that I can tweak to my liking.

So how's the camera.... oh and if you want you can set the camera flash to act as a notification light in iOS. Better then nothing.

 

[Tig Bitties]

So how's the camera.... oh and if you want you can set the camera flash to act as a notification light in iOS. Better then nothing.

Haven't used the camera enough to say. But it is very fast. No delay or waiting.

How's do I setup the flash for notifications ? And is that a big battery drainer ? And is it too bright and annoying ?

 

[apolloa]

Haven't used the camera enough to say. But it is very fast. No delay or waiting.

How's do I setup the flash for notifications ? And is that a big battery drainer ? And is it too bright and annoying ?

It is a bit bright, I've never used it but seen friends use it, it's under settings, general, accessibility, LED flash for alerts.
Let me know how the camera is.

 

[Tig Bitties]

One thing I can say, I am almost positively getting a Pixel XL 2 next Fall. As long as Google puts in a little bit larger battery, and it gets water resistance, and then the SD835 chipset is supposed to be much more efficient while also faster. I think that would be my near perfect phone.

But...if the iPhone 8 is truly the beast it rumored to be, I may stick with Apple. But I am more interested in iOS 11 then the actual phone hardware. I am sure the phone itself will be really cool, but for me iOS needs a major overhaul. Add icons packs or basic theming. Add software keys like Windows Phones have. Add a notification light like BlackBerry phones have.

There's no upcoming phone release I care about, until the iPhone 8 and Pixel 2 release late Summer / early Fall next year. Right now I have the iPhone 7 Plus, and Nexus 6P, so I'm good to go. IMO on Android it's only the Pixel and nothing else. Samsung sucks, yeah they make great hardware; amazing displays, and good cameras, but it still runs Touchwiz, which I see ZERO reason for anymore. Google has stock Android 7.1.1, and that's what Android is, not Touchwiz, not Sense, not LG UI. All of those are not needed today, Google has finally matured stock Android to be great. So I can care less about the Galaxy S8, or the LG G6, or HTC Eleven, unless they brought back the GPE program. But for me it's stock Android and nothing else. Or the iPhone maybe.

 

[Stooby Mcdoobie]

One other thing I am surprised at, all the Google apps on the App Store for the iPhone. I have them all installed now, and they work just as good, if not better on my 7 Plus, than they do Google's own 6P, which I find really strange. Google's apps on the iPhone are very polished and well supported it seems.

I was also surprised by this. I've even found that, while you can't technically change the default applications in iOS (one of the downsides I agree with you on), the google apps do a pretty good job of keeping you in their ecosystem. For example, links that I open inside gmail automatically open in chrome and documents open in their respective google docs app without the "open with..." prompt.

Only major drawback I've found so far, aside from not being able to control google play music via Siri (maybe apple will finally open up Siri to 3rd party apps in iOS 11), is the swipe left/right to move between messages is absent in the iOS version of the gmail app. It's something I'm still trying to get used to after a little over a month. Might have to give inbox another try.

 

[timeconsumer]

One thing I can say, I am almost positively getting a Pixel XL 2 next Fall. As long as Google puts in a little bit larger battery, and it gets water resistance, and then the SD835 chipset is supposed to be much more efficient while also faster. I think that would be my near perfect phone.

But...if the iPhone 8 is truly the beast it rumored to be, I may stick with Apple. But I am more interested in iOS 11 then the actual phone hardware. I am sure the phone itself will be really cool, but for me iOS needs a major overhaul. Add icons packs or basic theming. Add software keys like Windows Phones have. Add a notification light like BlackBerry phones have.

There's no upcoming phone release I care about, until the iPhone 8 and Pixel 2 release late Summer / early Fall next year. Right now I have the iPhone 7 Plus, and Nexus 6P, so I'm good to go. IMO on Android it's only the Pixel and nothing else. Samsung sucks, yeah they make great hardware; amazing displays, and good cameras, but it still runs Touchwiz, which I see ZERO reason for anymore. Google has stock Android 7.1.1, and that's what Android is, not Touchwiz, not Sense, not LG UI. All of those are not needed today, Google has finally matured stock Android to be great. So I can care less about the Galaxy S8, or the LG G6, or HTC Eleven, unless they brought back the GPE program. But for me it's stock Android and nothing else. Or the iPhone maybe.

I have been using iPhones since 2008. But due to iOS 10 as well as the lack of a headphone port, I picked up a Pixel. I don't like how Google handled the Nexus 6P to Pixel transition. From my understanding, the Pixel received 7.1.1 before the Nexus devices did. If Google does the same thing next year and gives faster upgrades to the latest device rather than across all of them at the same time (like Apple does it), I will likely switch back to Apple. However, I would like to see an improvement in iOS 11. The notifications are worse than in any other version of iOS. I could tolerate iOS 9 notifications because you could at least group the notifications, but in iOS 10 you can't and they just look ridiculous.

 

[scott craft]

iOS 10 is one of the reasons I switched back to Android. I just didn't care for it as much as iOS 9. I'll have to see how the next version is before deciding to switch back or not.

 

[C DM]

So how's the camera.... oh and if you want you can set the camera flash to act as a notification light in iOS. Better then nothing.

Haven't used the camera enough to say. But it is very fast. No delay or waiting.

How's do I setup the flash for notifications ? And is that a big battery drainer ? And is it too bright and annoying ?

Unfortunately that notification light isn't really the same. Aside from being somewhat bright and quick flashes, which can be a bit jarring and odd at times (like people thinking you are taking photos), the bigger downside is that it only works when a notification comes in, and not something that tells you about a missed notification later (which is essentially the main use of an actual notification LED on other phones like those running Android).

 

[mi7chy]

Seems like the switch is contingent on a stable jailbreak release. Have you considered the worst case scenario where it isn't released? Are you still going to keep the phone or recover the funds to put towards a future Galaxy or Pixel? Seems like a lot time and money invested to make an iPhone look like an Android and lock yourself out of getting iOS updates.

 

[Tig Bitties]

Seems like the switch is contingent on a stable jailbreak release. Have you considered the worst case scenario where it isn't released? Are you still going to keep the phone or recover the funds to put towards a future Galaxy or Pixel? Seems like a lot time and money invested to make an iPhone look like an Android and lock yourself out of getting iOS updates.

Right now I'm on 10.1.1 and locked the phone doing from forcing an update. Waiting for the Gamma JB released, supposedly due this week or next.

But... I've tweaked this phone as far as I could being on stock, watching all the videos and reading websites on how to find hidden features and tweaks allowed on stock. And I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised in a very good way how much I like this phone. The battery life still just blows my mind, so good. And overall I am beginning to get comfortable with iOS now. Plus I have every Google app installed and they all work so well. Even Duo for video chat to Android phones works perfectly.

Bottom line, there is no perfect smartphone. To me maybe a Pixel XL with a 4,000mAh battery + waterproofing would be close to perfect, but that doesn't exist yet. And the upcoming SD835 processor is supposed to be amazing, being a lot more efficient. At this point I'd rather just wait to see what the Pixel 2 XL offers in September

 

[msavic]

Good write ups, I had a Note 5 and noticed how it oversampled some images. I had a iPhone 7 twice, but it's camera didn't really impress me. So I went back to a 6S.
I take pictures of my dog and when we are out the iPhone can get confused and give a smudged blurry effect on his fur, I am wondering if the 7 Plus will be better with this? I won't get one till next year and wait for the new iPhone so it's cheaper. Unless a 5" iPhone is launched anyway.

See if this is any good at showing what I mean, this was taken with my 6S and as the light reflects of his fur the processing gets totally confused and smudges it:

Look behind his head and at his tail to see what I mean.

It's hard to say looking at these images but I believe your issue is more related to shutter speed than it is to the noise reduction processing implemented by the image signal processor.

Dogs are quite difficult subjects to capture correctly as they never really stay still and the fur itself presents issues with detail as well. I have tried to take pictures of Dogs with black fur and it was next to impossible to get a properly exposed in focus shot of the dog.

In your case, I would suggest downloading one of the many manual camera apps in the App Store and repeating the shot again. This time try to choose a quicker shutter speed, if you are outdoors, try a shutter speed of 1/250 to 1/2000 all depending on the light you have available. Essentially what this will do is capture the image quicker thus freezing motion but the quicker the image is taken, the darker the image will be if there is not enough light. If you are outside in the Sun, you shouldn't have any issues with dark images as there is an abundance of light.

Another thing I would do is enable RAW image capture if you are comfortable with processing the image yourself later on. Essentially this will give you an image file that contains all the data from the sensor but has no processing applied. This way, you can choose to apply noise reduction and sharpening according to your taste. This will allow you to preserve more detail in the dogs.

Give these couple things a try and see how it works out for you. It does seem like a lot of extra "work" to get the image but unfortunately it's something that is out of our control as Apple designed its image processor to favour a longer shutter speed with lower ISO and thus fast moving subject can be difficult to capture at times.

 

[tbayrgs]

Right now I'm on 10.1.1 and locked the phone doing from forcing an update. Waiting for the Gamma JB released, supposedly due this week or next.

But... I've tweaked this phone as far as I could being on stock, watching all the videos and reading websites on how to find hidden features and tweaks allowed on stock. And I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised in a very good way how much I like this phone. The battery life still just blows my mind, so good. And overall I am beginning to get comfortable with iOS now. Plus I have every Google app installed and they all work so well. Even Duo for video chat to Android phones works perfectly.

Bottom line, there is no perfect smartphone. To me maybe a Pixel XL with a 4,000mAh battery + waterproofing would be close to perfect, but that doesn't exist yet. And the upcoming SD835 processor is supposed to be amazing, being a lot more efficient. At this point I'd rather just wait to see what the Pixel 2 XL offers in September

Reading this post reiterates to me why this specific subforum is my general go to place to discuss smartphones (and most other tech, for that matter). For the same reason I don't regularly visit the iPhone forum here at MR, I also don't spend much time at locales like Android Central or XDA because in both places, they're generally filled with over exuberant zealots who cannot see past the end of their phone/platform of choice and will never engage is a logical, objective conversation without name calling, etc.

Anyone who's spend more than a brief moment reading through threads here knows that TB is a pretty staunch proponent of Android and not a big fan of iOS (to put it mildly ). But here he is, able to second guess whatever preconceived notions he may have had and recognize there may be a few () areas of merit in device in what isn't normally his cup of tea.

This forum is certainly far from perfect and we certainly see a share of the requisite 'fanboy' behavior on occasion but I don't see this level of balance perspective or conversation anywhere else. So to those who <cough>wander<cough> in wondering why any of us spend time is this forum on a Mac website discussing <gasp>...non Apple harware---this is at least why I come.

Sorry, just had to share that thought. Back to our regularly scheduled programming.

 

[apolloa]

It's hard to say looking at these images but I believe your issue is more related to shutter speed than it is to the noise reduction processing implemented by the image signal processor.

Dogs are quite difficult subjects to capture correctly as they never really stay still and the fur itself presents issues with detail as well. I have tried to take pictures of Dogs with black fur and it was next to impossible to get a properly exposed in focus shot of the dog.

In your case, I would suggest downloading one of the many manual camera apps in the App Store and repeating the shot again. This time try to choose a quicker shutter speed, if you are outdoors, try a shutter speed of 1/250 to 1/2000 all depending on the light you have available. Essentially what this will do is capture the image quicker thus freezing motion but the quicker the image is taken, the darker the image will be if there is not enough light. If you are outside in the Sun, you shouldn't have any issues with dark images as there is an abundance of light.

Another thing I would do is enable RAW image capture if you are comfortable with processing the image yourself later on. Essentially this will give you an image file that contains all the data from the sensor but has no processing applied. This way, you can choose to apply noise reduction and sharpening according to your taste. This will allow you to preserve more detail in the dogs.

Give these couple things a try and see how it works out for you. It does seem like a lot of extra "work" to get the image but unfortunately it's something that is out of our control as Apple designed its image processor to favour a longer shutter speed with lower ISO and thus fast moving subject can be difficult to capture at times.

Thanks for that info, I may try one of the other apps, I don't really edit my videos but may give some manual control a go. Will have a look into it.

 

[Tig Bitties]

tbayrgs, thanks for the kind reply I also only come to this specific section on MacRumors, I never visit the home page, and never go in the main iPhone threads, only here, and also the Jailbreak threads a bit to check the status on the upcoming stable JB release

Everyone here in the Alternatives sections is really cool, well most people are

Anyways...the older I've gotten, I tried to be more open minded, and not a fanboy of anything. So I have been pleasantry surprised by my liking of the iPhone 7 Plus, more than expected. I am also somewhat interested in Microsoft's plans to possibly release a 'Surface Pro Phone' this year. I am no Windows Phone fan, but the possibility of a Surface phone is very intriguing;

This phone really looks like a desktop computer shrunk down to the size of a 7 Plus or Note 7 phone;

 

[Septembersrain]

tbayrgs, thanks for the kind reply I also only come to this specific section on MacRumors, I never visit the home page, and never go in the main iPhone threads, only here, and also the Jailbreak threads a bit to check the status on the upcoming stable JB release

Everyone here in the Alternatives sections is really cool, well most people are

Anyways...the older I've gotten, I tried to be more open minded, and not a fanboy of anything. So I have been pleasantry surprised by my liking of the iPhone 7 Plus, more than expected. I am also somewhat interested in Microsoft's plans to possibly release a 'Surface Pro Phone' this year. I am no Windows Phone fan, but the possibility of a Surface phone is very intriguing;

This phone really looks like a desktop computer shrunk down to the size of a 7 Plus or Note 7 phone;

I'm really intrigued with that phone. Having a tiny Windows 10 device? Not sure how well it would work out but in theory it sounds pretty interesting. I wonder just how much like the tablet hybrid it would be.

Yeah, I used to be a "Fangirl" myself of Android. I wouldn't have ever dreamed a 5c would literally pique my interest enough that I took the wrath of XDA. Haha. Some people were really shocked but after a while they realized I'd kept my Note 3. So they stopped picking on me so much.

 

[msavic]

Thanks for that info, I may try one of the other apps, I don't really edit my videos but may give some manual control a go. Will have a look into it.

Your best bet would be to download Lightroom Mobile by Adobe as that will allow you to shoot with manual mode and also give you full raw editing capabilities right on your Phone.

 

[Tig Bitties]

Off topic, but hot dang these wallpapers looks great on the 7 Plus;

http://www.idownloadblog.com/2016/09/25/dark-wallpapers-iphone/