Living With an iPhone 7 Plus

For the past several weeks, I've been using an iPhone 7 Plus, and have found it to be a wonderful smartphone. Compared to the iPhone 6s Plus, the biggest changes are the improved camera, a changed home button, and of course, the lack of a traditional analog headphone jack. I got used to the home button and the headphone changes fairly easily, and find that my day-to-day experience really hasn't changed much—it's a fast, powerful, phone that is arguably the best on the market today.

From a design perspective, the 7 Plus really doesn't look all that different from the 6s Plus, or for that matter, the 6 Plus. Visually, the big difference is a wider opening for the rear cameras and no phone jack. From a distance, you can't really tell them apart.

It still measures the same 6.23 by 3.07 by 0.29 inches—quite reasonable for a phone with a 5.5-inch display—though Apple has shaved a bit off the weight. Unlike some of my colleagues, I like the big size—I find it fits in my pocket (just barely—6-inch phones typically don't) and I find the bigger screen is simply better for reading or Web browsing. But I know that's a personal preference.

The 5.5-inch IPS display continues to have a 1920-by-1080 resolution (401 pixels per inch), which I find to be terrific, though not quite top of the market. In other ways, the screen is better, with greater brightness giving it a higher contrast ratio and a wide color gamut providing the most accurate color of any display on the market. (DisplayMate has more details on this) All I can tell you is, it looks great.

The processor has improved, with Apple talking about how its A10 Fusion chip now has two high-power cores and two high-efficiency/low-power cores (two fast and two slow), similar to lots of the processors on Android phones. It also includes a six-core GPU, which Apple says is 50 percent faster than last year's A9. Benchmark results look very good, and it did feel a bit faster in actual use than the previous model, but not enough so that I'd call it a significant change.

It weighs 6.63 ounces, a slight improvement from the 6.77 ounces of the previous model, though you won't notice the difference. It has a 2900 mAh battery, and Apple claims it lasts up to an hour longer than the previous model. PCMag's tests also show a significant improvement in battery life, but in the real world, I can't say I noticed it. It still gets me through a full day of normal use without a problem, but I have to charge it every night.

One relatively minor change in this year's model is that Apple chose to go with a home button that uses "taptic" feedback (effectively vibrations) rather than a button that physically depresses. Even though I've used virtual similar buttons extensively on Android phones, it took a bit of getting used to on an iPhone. It doesn't feel the same, but once you become accustomed to the new home button, it works great. I find Apple's fingerprint recognition to be a bit better than on any other phone I've used.

Perhaps the thing that has gotten the most attention on the iPhone 7 is how Apple removed the analog headphone jack. That has taken a bit of getting used to. The phones come with earbuds that connection to the Lightning port, and also with a cable to connect the lightning port to a traditional headphone jack so you can use your existing wired headphones. Those both work fine. Still, it's a pain to carry around another dongle; and you can't use it when you're using the Lightning port to charge the phone. Apple's own AirPods wireless earbuds haven't shipped yet, but there are many alternatives on the market. I was happy with the Plantronics BackBeat Go 3 earphones, which sounded quite good (though of course, wireless headphones are another thing that needs to be charged). One tradeoff for the lack of an analog port is the addition of stereo speakers, which sounded pretty good.

Grand Central iphone 7+

The biggest change on the 7 Plus—and indeed, other than the size, the one thing that really makes it different from the smaller iPhone 7—is the additional of a second rear-facing camera. The phone uses two 12-megapixel cameras with an aperture of f/1.8, with one normal camera and one described as a 2x optical "telephoto" lens. Compared with the previous generation, which had an aperture of f/2.2, the new lens lets in more light, which generally makes for better photos, particularly in low light. The second lens may not technically be a telephoto but it does have let you focus closer on items though with a smaller field of view.

Grand Central iphone 7+ zoom

You get to the second lens by pinch-and-zooming on the screen or hitting the zoom circle in the camera app, and in general, it worked pretty well, letting me getting somewhat closer pictures. But it's still only a 2x lens so it hasn't replaced my need for a Superzoom digital camera, where you can use a 10 to 30x telephoto lens. It also offers 4k video recording at 30 frames per second or 1080p capture at 60 frames per second, and optical image stabilization for video capture; as well as a 7-megapixel front-facing camera.

Overall, the pictures looked great. I thought daylight photos were the clearest I've seen yet, with the best color. Low-light pictures also are definitely improved over the iPhone 6s Plus, though a bit noisier than the low-light photos I got using the Google Pixel.

Grand Central night iphone 7+

One interesting new feature, still officially in "beta" but on the phone with the recent versions of iOS is called "portrait mode" which uses the two rear-facing cameras together to create the blurred background or depth effect (known as "bokeh") you see with many DSLRs. I've seen other phones try similar features with mixed results, but I thought it worked pretty well, if not quite up to the standards of top-end cameras.

Another new feature for this year's model is water resistance, to the IP67 standard, which is certainly appreciated. In some ways, it's lacking a few of the features that I've appreciated on Android phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S7, such as an always-on display, wireless charging, and of course, a micro-SD slot for additional storage.

On the software side, I've found iOS 10.1.1 to have its pros and cons. Force touch worked well on the device, and I appreciated the new options in the camera app. On the other hand, I'm not thrilled with threading in the mail app, and have had a number of friends ask me how to turn it off (which isn't hard). I've noticed a few more crashes with iOS 10 than I had with iOS 9.

Siri is getting better over time, but it's still inconsistent. Sometimes it gives great answers, but I still find it often sends me to Web pages instead of just answering my questions. Apple Maps has improved and usually works quite well. But recently while heading from New York to New Jersey, it told me to make a U-turn in the middle of the George Washington Bridge. I still prefer Google Maps or Waze; of course, you can run these as well, though they aren't integrated with Siri.

In general, I find Apple's software to be somewhat better integrated than Android, but the differences have become slimmer over time. Of course, iOS works pretty much the same, no matter which recent iPhone you're running, assuming you upgraded to the new version. One big difference is that Apple charges more for cloud backups, which is particularly an issue for storing photographs, and I generally find iCloud to be better integrated, but less featured than Google's equivalents. The iPhone 7 Plus is available in jet black (which remains effectively unavailable), matte black, silver, gold, and rose gold, and in 32, 128, and 256 GB of memory.

Overall, I have a few quibbles, such as the lack of the analog port, and a few crashes. But in general, I've found it to be a great phone with a very fast processor, wonderful display, and a terrific camera—in many ways, it's the best smartphone I've yet used.

Here's PCMag's full review.