Introducing iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus

The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are smartphones designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. They were announced on September 7, 2016, at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco by Apple CEO Tim Cook, and released on September 16, 2016, succeeding the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus as the current flagship devices in the iPhone series. Apple also launched the devices in 30 additional countries on September 23, 2016, and will launch in India on October 7, another 6 countries on October 14, and in South Korea on October 21.

The iPhone 7's overall design is similar to that of the iPhone 6S, but with new color options, added water and dust resistance, a new capacitive home key, and most notably, the removal of the device's 3.5 mm headphone jack (an adapter for attaching wired headphones via the Lightning port, as well as earphones that connect via Lightning, are included with the phone).

The devices' internal hardware also received upgrades, including a heterogeneous quad-core system-on-chip with improved system and graphics performance, upgraded cameras (including 12 megapixel rear-facing cameras with optical image stabilization on both models, and an additional telephoto lens on the iPhone 7 Plus model to provide enhanced zoom capabilities).

Specifications

The iPhone 7's exterior is similar in shape and size to iPhone 6 and iPhone 6S, though with a "mirrored" finish option. Alongside the existing silver, gold, and rose gold colors, the device is offered in new black and "jet black" colors. The "jet black" color is a darker shade with a high-gloss finish; it is created through a multi-step process, beginning with an anodization phase to make the surface of the casing a porous aluminum oxide, and then using a machine to "wipe" the casing through a powdered compound, absorbed by aluminum oxide. The process is concluded with an "ultra-fine particle bath" for additional finishing; the entire process takes less than an hour. iPhone 7 is also water- and dust-resistant.

iPhone 7's home button uses a capacitive mechanism for input rather than a physical push-button, as on previous models. Physical feedback is provided via the Taptic Engine vibrator, and the button is also pressure-sensitive. The "3D Touch" system from 6S was retained to provide pressure-sensitive touchscreen input.

iPhone 7 itself does not feature a 3.5 mm headphone jack; it was replaced by a second speaker grille that contains not a speaker but the phone's new Taptic Engine vibration feedback system. A Lightning-to-3.5-mm connector adapter, as well as in-ear headphones that use the Lightning connector, are bundled with the device. The Lightning adapter is also sold independently. iPhone 7 uses the Apple A10 Fusion 64-bit system-on-chip, which consists of two low-power cores and two high-power cores (only two cores are used at any point in time) The A10 chip also features a hexa-core graphics chip capable of "console-level gaming". As with prior models, iPhone 7 is available in two sizes: one with a 4.7-inch screen, and a "Plus" variant with a 5.5-inch screen. The displays have identical sizes and resolutions to 6 and 6S, but with an increased color gamut and brightness. Both device variants also contain a new iteration of Apple's motion coprocessor, the M10.[19] Unlike previous iPhone models, internal storage options for iPhone 7 begin at 32 GB instead of 16 GB. iPhone 7 Plus has 3 GB of RAM, more than any other iPhone to date, the smaller, 4.7-inch iPhone 7 has 2 GB.

The iPhone 7 includes a 12-megapixel rear-facing camera with a quad-LED "True Tone" flash; its aperture was widened to f/1.8, and the standard-size phone model adds optical image stabilization – a feature that was previously exclusive to Plus models. The iPhone 7 Plus includes a second 12-megapixel telephoto lens, which can be used to achieve 2× optical zoom, and up to 10× digital zoom. The front-facing camera on both versions was upgraded to a 7-megapixel sensor.

Software

iPhone 7 ships with iOS 10 pre-installed. The iPhone 7 Plus will feature a portrait mode in the iOS 10.1 software update. This will be capable of producing a bokeh effect using depth of field analysis.

Accessories

A Lightning-to-3.5-mm adapter is sold by Apple as an accessory as well as being included with the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. Apple also unveiled several Bluetooth wireless headphones ostensibly intended for use with iPhone 7, including AirPods wireless in-ear headphones, and three new Beats headphone products. All four products utilize an in-house wireless chip known as Apple W1, which is designed to provide low-power Bluetooth operation and integration with iOS and macOS products (though they are still compatible with other Bluetooth-supported devices).

Reception

Reception to the iPhone 7 was mixed. Forbes noted that rival smartphones, such as the Samsung Galaxy S7, had increased battery life and added water resistance over its predecessor while retaining the headphone jack, and that the iPhone 7's camera photo quality was improved but still lagging behind some phones already on the market, including the Galaxy S7 and Nexus 6P. Forbes also praised how Apple was able to extract improved brightness and accurate color reproduction from its LCD display panel, while noting that it was old technology which was also well behind rivals who had already moved to sharper 1080p or even 2K screens. The iPhone 7's exterior, which reuses the aging design of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6S, was criticized since its thick bezels made it less ergonomic to hold, in particular the "iPhone 7 Plus is simply far too big for a smartphone with a 5.5-inch display. The 5.5-inch Galaxy S7 Edge is a fraction of the size".

Nilay Patel of The Verge described the devices as being "full of aggressive breaks from convention" despite their design continuity with previous models (going as far as dubbing them "a prototype of next year's rumored drastic iPhone redesign disguised as an iPhone 6"), citing the headphone jack removal (which he felt was an attempt to encourage the use of wireless headphones), heterogeneous CPU, and home button redesign. The display quality was considered an improvement over previous models, albeit "not as insane" as the quad HD displays on competing phones. The Taptic Engine was considered the "first really valuable new UI concept I've seen on phones in years" (as opposed to the "gimmick" of 3D Touch), Petel felt that the cameras of the devices were a "step" above the 6S in terms of performance, and praised the dual-lens camera on the 7 Plus for enhancing the phone's camera functionality. However, he panned the iOS software for not containing enough editing features that made use of them. In regards to the enhanced Bluetooth audio support provided by devices containing the W1 chip, he argued that Apple "took away an established open standard in favor of new technologies, but instead of making the experience of using those new technologies better across the board, it made every third-party wireless audio product a second-class citizen of the Apple ecosystem." Giving the iPhone 7 a 9 out of 10, he concluded that the devices were "legitimately among the most interesting, opinionated, powerful phones Apple has ever shipped, and the most confident expressions of the company's vision in a long time. iOS 10 is excellent, the cameras are better, and the performance is phenomenal. And the batteries last longer."

The German computer magazine c't compared the audio interface of the iPhone 6 and iPad with the Lightning connector of the iPhone 7. The dynamic was 4.5 dB(A) lower, and that got only a "sufficient" rating.

Removal of headphone jack

Criticism of the iPhone 7 centered around the removal of the headphone jack, including the hypothetical inability to use wired headphones with the included adapter and charge the device simultaneously note and the inconvenience of having to carry around an adapter for what is purely a mobile device, diminishing its utility.

Forbes noted that wireless audio technology was immature at the moment, with Bluetooth audio quality being inferior while Lightning audio reliability was still in question. The removal of the headphone jack meant "you’re being pushed into an era where you will have to pay more for decent headphones due to their need for an integrated DAC and/or Lightning licensing", and pointed out that "the only company to profit from this situation is Apple, who will now be charging licensing fees to millions of headphone companies".

In particular, Apple's vice president Phillip Schiller, who announced the change, was mocked extensively online for stating that removing the headphone jack took 'courage'. An online petition created by the consumer group SumOfUs that accuses Apple of planned obsolescence and causing substantial electronic waste by removing the headphone jack reached over 300,000 signatures.

Hissing noise

Some users have been reporting a strange hissing noise from the phones. The noise, which is unknown how common or widespread, happens while the device is under heavy usage. Cnet reports it as "faint buzzes and hums coming from the backside". The Daily Telegraph speculates that the iPhone 7's new A10 Fusion processor is the source of the sound, linking to tweets that compare the phone's hissing sound to "hearing the fans spin up loudly whenever your Mac’s CPU gets used to its actual potential."

Sales

Apple has deliberately withheld pre-order sales numbers, citing that these are "no longer a representative metric for our investors and customers". Without releasing specific numbers, T-Mobile US stated that the iPhone 7 had broken the carrier's all-time record for first-day pre-order sales. The following weekend, T-Mobile US stated that iPhone 7 was its biggest iPhone launch ever, being "up nearly 4x compared to the next most popular iPhone".

On September 15, 2016, one day before the iPhone 7 went on sale, Apple announced that due to high demand, they have sold out of all Jet Black iPhone 7's, and all colors of the iPhone 7 Plus (the first time that the Plus model outsold its smaller sibling), and that those models won't be available in Apple Stores for walk-in customers on launch day. This may be because Apple opened up more reserve slots for customers in the iPhone Upgrade Program after those customers complained about the system used to reserve the phones had the slots filled up quickly after pre-orders opened, and customers couldn't get the phone they wanted. These issues also caused a class action lawsuit to be filed against Apple because of the way they handled the system.

Contributing to high initial US sales of the iPhone 7 were trade-in deals from all four major U.S. wireless carriers. After carrier T-Mobile announced that consumers could obtain an entry-level iPhone 7 32 GB model at no cost upon trade-in of an iPhone 6 or 6S, AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and Sprint followed suit. Under the deals, the monthly installment plan cost of the iPhone 7 is negated by a monthly credit on consumers' bill, but consumers who cancel their service with the carrier or pay off the phone prior to the installment contract completion will not receive credits for the remaining months. Commentators noted that these deals constituted a return to the two-year cell phone service contracts that had been in decline in the years prior.

In the wake of these deals, Verizon announced they had seen an increase in sales over the release of the previous year's iPhone 6S, AT&T said that sales had exceeded its expectations, and T-Mobile and Sprint announced "huge increases in sales" and a demand roughly four times higher for the 7 than the 6S.