Phones Nexus nerd picked up an iPhone 7 Plus

[Djilkosh]

IPhone 7 from different angle



How story begins

After many many years of using Android system, I went to iOS. As every leap in any life sphere, it's hard. It needs to get used to new environment. Going to every phase of android system from early days (Donut 1.6) and through KitKat till Marshmallow, I saw progress. Although Android was not perfect as iOS was, they improved every year. On 5.1 version you finally get that smooth feel of 60fps and after many years of development you get that pleasure when you saw that progress. For that time iOS was upgrading their system and implementing stuff for bigger reach and user friendly options (ahem ahem file sharing, etc.)

4" is really small for some mobile handy use, for me of course. I watch YouTube videos, viewfinder is bigger for shooting photos and taking videos, more screen estate, bigger keyboard... Finally they made iPhone that is bigger than 4" and that was iPhone 6. Then I had think let me see where it is going then I may think about moving on iOS.

After all those years I stepped up and bought iPhone 7.


Design and quality production

Apple make every year a good phone. They were always great build, sturdy (ahem ahem yeah I'm looking on yyou curvy 6) and with nice design. Design is great to me, even if I am not aluminum liking guy, because all phones is going to get their plastic / silicone "suit". I tried to slightly bend phone, not even any sound of cracking. Phone just got water proof or should I be more explicit... Water resistant. It is stupid, because let me explain by example. I get call, rain begins to fall, as phone is water resistant I should be comfortable to talk on the rain, right? Well what if my phone gets malfunction? What if indicators get red? How to explain that I was talking on the rain and that were raindrops and not that I was swimming with phone? How would they know if that was only rain and not swimming? Don't know...


Display

I was on 1080p android device when I switched to iPhone 7 which is 720p (ye ye, I know 750p) and I don't have feeling that is iPhone screen is pixelated or anything else. I have never been pixel watcher, nonetheless everybody would say from numbers that I am switching to worse display. It is almost 100ppi difference. But I don't see any difference, display is good, nice saturation, viewing angles...


Sound

I am a guy who like listening to music everyday and I appreciate good sound. Apple always had this. I don't need custom music player or tuning equaliser, sound is excellent. I have 3 years old Sennheiser cx150 and I'm thinking of buying Sennheiser 5.00i (where "i" stands for iPhone version)

Man those dual speakers... I was just whoa. Great crisp and clear sound. Great thing is that they finally have louder speakers and earphone is good when you are having call conversation.


Battery

Battery on the iPhone was never a good in autonomy versus other android flagships. It was always about 20-30% worse. Well after plus version came things changed, but I have smaller version so I'll focus on that. On working days battery I can get through whole day and just before sleep, battery is about 30%. But when I don't work and I use intense my phone on weekends I need to charge twice.

Where I'm disappointed is that Apple still uses 1A chargers. That's awful. Two hours of charging for phone with 1960mah battery is just pain in the a**.


Camera

IPhone is improving every year in camera department particularly in low light shooting. I know that sensors are small and I don't shoot photos in low light or many at night, but from what I see, photos are good. Daylight photos are great. Great camera for point and shoot. Video footage is one of the best and maybe the best in 2016.

Only minus is camera options. Why in 2017 we don't have choice for RAW shooting in stock camera? Why we don't have options for jpeg compression level. Sometimes when you crop photos you'll see that compression and photo is unusable if you are going to post process it in lightroom on PC. Yeah I know you can buy some apps that have RAW photo capturing, but why I have to pay something that android have for how long? Manual shooting in stock camera...? Why not?


Performance and day to day use

The phone is blazing fast. Every task that I order is done in seconds. Of course there is A10 fusion chip that is responsible for that speed. There is some critic for software. There is stutter sometimes and I hope they will fix this in iOS 10.3 or maybe in 11. I don't have always 60fps and I'm not only one that see this. I think from what I get asking people who are using iOS for long time that this stutter is "feature" that OS got from iOS 8 and till now they didn't make anything.

There are also couple of things that are awful done and I'm trying not to be harsh.

Grouping apps notifications.

Example I get 6 WhatsApp messages, 10 emails, 4 viber messages, 3 iMessage. When you wake up phone to see if you have notifications you get garbage. IT IS DISASTER. GARBAGE. If you are using Android or maybe have used you now how clean look there is grouping one line per app notifications.

Opening link apps in Safari

Apple, why on earth you are doing this? If I get on viber message from my gf look what I found on instagram and she sent me a link, why would you Apple think that I don't wanna use or open instagram app and instead that I want to open instagram in Safari? That same stand for YouTube links. Why would I want to open YouTube in Safari and not in YouTube app? This must to change to change default apps.

SwiftKey

You all probably heard or maybe use/used SwiftKey keyboard on Android. Well this app exists on iOS but... On Android it is full keyboard with all the goodies. On iOS there is only prediction. Why I don't have symbols on long press on any leather? Why I don't have number row where are letters (qwertyuiop)? Or maybe one more row for numbers? It would be nice to have comma on left replacing emoji key and emoji to be on enter/return key.


Last words

After all this is complete product, of course for people who wants more open "environment" they will choose Android phone, but for other people iPhone is just plain, simple and great.

Android and iOS are just like two brothers. In some cases one brother is better at some things and other brother is better in the other things. You choose what would you use and where would you be more comfortable.

 

[bufffilm]

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.

The pros and cons echo what I'd probably say if I were coming from Android -> iOS.

I would still like oled from Apple and it probably won't come to the smaller 4.7" screen until 2018. If the 7s gets a 1080p screen, that will be satisfactory.

The cons for Apple are there, but largely minor for me. I think the iPhone still delivers the overall better package, but everyone differs.

Certainly, there are plenty of choices and price points and if MS jumps back in the fray (as rumor strongly suggests), we'll have even more choices.

 

[raqball]

I went a different route. I am converting from an iPhone to a Google Pixel that arrived yesterday..

 

[nviz22]

I went a different route. I am converting from an iPhone to a Google Pixel that arrived yesterday..

Price aside, it's the best non-SD card phone out on the Android market. From the form factor, screen quality (XL assumed), Google Assistant, Pixel UI, camera (screen flair issue ignored), and the latest and greatest, it's a nice device. If I had to choose between an iPhone 7+ or Pixel XL, I would go Pixel XL.

However, the 7+ is a solid phone, just overpriced. I went with that over Google because of payment plan options.

 

[Zaft]

Price aside, it's the best non-SD card phone out on the Android market. From the form factor, screen quality (XL assumed), Google Assistant, Pixel UI, camera (screen flair issue ignored), and the latest and greatest, it's a nice device. If I had to choose between an iPhone 7+ or Pixel XL, I would go Pixel XL.

However, the 7+ is a solid phone, just overpriced. I went with that over Google because of payment plan options.

The Pixel has no OIS correct in either model?

 

[bufffilm]

The Pixel has no OIS correct in either model?

Correct.

 

[nviz22]

The Pixel has no OIS correct in either model?

It doesn't? Damn. But it's still highly rated on DxOMark which is a good plus.

 

[raqball]

The Pixel has no OIS correct in either model?

From what I've read it uses some sort of gyroscope voodoo and accomplishes the same effect.. I have not tried it yet, but the reviews look promising..

 

[Tig Bitties]

Ok back to report on this thread of mine.

I have had the iPhone 7 Plus for over a month now, and here are my impressions after long term use;

Pros;

- Battery life = AMAZING BEST EVER, out of almost 20 flagship phones I've owned the past ten years. This 7 Plus is jaw droppingly great on battery.
- Screen is super bright and great for outdoor use, which is not typical for a smartphone.
- Speakers are shockingly very loud and also very clear.
- OS is super smooth, like hot butter, no hiccups, no lag, always smooth.
- Lift to wake is nice
- Fingerprint scanner is near perfect

Con's;

- Notifications just suck balls, wow really bad implementation from Apple. Terrible. Compared to Android Nougat 7.1 there's no excuse for Apple to have such piss poor Notification in iOS 10
- No back button and no software keys is still hard to get used to.
- Widgets are ok, but really wish I could put a widget on my main homescreen, and wish there was a Google Calendar Widget, exact same version as on Android
- No customization is just sad. I'd love to have icon packs and a dark theme option at the least.
- iMessage is good, but not some killer awesome text app I heard about. It's ok. I don't like how it works compared to Google Messenger. Sending messages to a group, it's far easier and faster on Google Messenger to chose a previously sent thread, etc...


Bottom line there is no perfect smartphone, that's a white unicorn that doesn't exist. But I do like this iPhone 7 Plus, more than expected. But I also do not love it either. If the Google Pixel XL was available at T-Mobile I would 99% have gotten that instead. But I also wanted a change and try something different. At this point I'd rather wait for a Pixel 2 with the SD835 + 6GB RAM + Waterproof, then just get a Pixel XL right now.

 

[KillaMac]

I went to the LG V20.

 

[apolloa]

Ok back to report on this thread of mine.

I have had the iPhone 7 Plus for over a month now, and here are my impressions after long term use;

Pros;

- Battery life = AMAZING BEST EVER, out of almost 20 flagship phones I've owned the past ten years. This 7 Plus is jaw droppingly great on battery.
- Screen is super bright and great for outdoor use, which is not typical for a smartphone.
- Speakers are shockingly very loud and also very clear.
- OS is super smooth, like hot butter, no hiccups, no lag, always smooth.
- Lift to wake is nice
- Fingerprint scanner is near perfect

Con's;

- Notifications just suck balls, wow really bad implementation from Apple. Terrible. Compared to Android Nougat 7.1 there's no excuse for Apple to have such piss poor Notification in iOS 10
- No back button and no software keys is still hard to get used to.
- Widgets are ok, but really wish I could put a widget on my main homescreen, and wish there was a Google Calendar Widget, exact same version as on Android
- No customization is just sad. I'd love to have icon packs and a dark theme option at the least.
- iMessage is good, but not some killer awesome text app I heard about. It's ok. I don't like how it works compared to Google Messenger. Sending messages to a group, it's far easier and faster on Google Messenger to chose a previously sent thread, etc...


Bottom line there is no perfect smartphone, that's a white unicorn that doesn't exist. But I do like this iPhone 7 Plus, more than expected. But I also do not love it either. If the Google Pixel XL was available at T-Mobile I would 99% have gotten that instead. But I also wanted a change and try something different. At this point I'd rather wait for a Pixel 2 with the SD835 + 6GB RAM + Waterproof, then just get a Pixel XL right now.

Left to right swipe on the screen replaces the back button, it seems to work in most cases too. Try it, I use it all the time and actually find it easier to do then the Android back button.

 

[timeconsumer]

Ok back to report on this thread of mine.

I have had the iPhone 7 Plus for over a month now, and here are my impressions after long term use;

Pros;

- Battery life = AMAZING BEST EVER, out of almost 20 flagship phones I've owned the past ten years. This 7 Plus is jaw droppingly great on battery.
- Screen is super bright and great for outdoor use, which is not typical for a smartphone.
- Speakers are shockingly very loud and also very clear.
- OS is super smooth, like hot butter, no hiccups, no lag, always smooth.
- Lift to wake is nice
- Fingerprint scanner is near perfect

Con's;

- Notifications just suck balls, wow really bad implementation from Apple. Terrible. Compared to Android Nougat 7.1 there's no excuse for Apple to have such piss poor Notification in iOS 10
- No back button and no software keys is still hard to get used to.
- Widgets are ok, but really wish I could put a widget on my main homescreen, and wish there was a Google Calendar Widget, exact same version as on Android
- No customization is just sad. I'd love to have icon packs and a dark theme option at the least.
- iMessage is good, but not some killer awesome text app I heard about. It's ok. I don't like how it works compared to Google Messenger. Sending messages to a group, it's far easier and faster on Google Messenger to chose a previously sent thread, etc...


Bottom line there is no perfect smartphone, that's a white unicorn that doesn't exist. But I do like this iPhone 7 Plus, more than expected. But I also do not love it either. If the Google Pixel XL was available at T-Mobile I would 99% have gotten that instead. But I also wanted a change and try something different. At this point I'd rather wait for a Pixel 2 with the SD835 + 6GB RAM + Waterproof, then just get a Pixel XL right now.

Nice review after a month of use. I prefer to see reviews after at least 30 days of use because when the honeymoon of having a new shiny device wears off is when it really shows and I believe the reviewer has a better time conveying his or her thoughts on it.

Completely agree on the notifications bit. But as @apolloa said, the swipe to go back/forward in iOS is convenient at times and sometimes easier than the dedicated button on Android. It's really quite annoying to be browsing something in Chrome on the Pixel and then have to use to the back button, then want to go forward again, you have to select the menu then press forward, whereas on iOS in Safari (possible other browsers as well) you can just swipe to go back/forward, great implementation from Apple here. But in other apps the dedicated back button on Android is better.

But as you said, there is no perfect smartphone. It's just finding the best option for you and living within the limitations of the device. As far as the Pixel, I'm enjoying mine but I've had hardware issues on both of mine so far so I'd probably recommend waiting until the Pixel 2 as it should be a huge improvement. I'm curious if Google will choose HTC again for this, they really need a dedicated hardware company and not move between multiple vendors each time similarly to their previous nexus line.