##Apple## iphone 7plus specifications

The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus launch this September represented a departure from tradition for Apple - and in many ways, a risk. Instead of the usual tick-tock cycle where each ’S’ release is followed by a brand-new design, the new iPhone models look pretty similar to their counterparts from the previous two years, and sport nearly identical dimensions...

There are more changes than there are in a typical ‘S’ cycle, but if you have a Rose Gold iPhone 6s or a Silver iPhone 6 Plus, for example, the differences may not be apparent at first glance. In a world in which a device’s reception is driven by its looks, it was no surprise that the initial reaction to iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus was lukewarm....

Phone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus design

As we mentioned earlier, the new iPhone models can easily be mistaken for their predecessors at first glance. The most visible change is that two of the antenna lines that marred the otherwise beautiful design of the previous iPhone models have been removed. The ones that remain are flush with the top and bottom edges, making them a lot less prominent than before; in fact, on the Black and Jet Black variants they are all but invisible...

This year, we received a Black iPhone 7 Plus and a Jet Black iPhone 7 as our review units. We spent our initial days alternating between using the two as our primary phones, before we ultimately settled on the iPhone 7....

This was down to two reasons. First, the Jet Black finish itself. As we stated in our Sony Xperia XZ review, the Jet Black finish gives the best in-hand feel we’ve experienced with a mobile device. The finish has just the right balance between grip and smoothness. In comparison, the Black finish on our iPhone 7 Plus felt a bit too boring. Of course as someone who’s looking to buy a new phone, you can get the Jet Black finish in both iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, so this won’t be a factor for you....

Second, as we will discuss through the course of the review, the differences in performance and features between the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus isn’t the same as between iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, so apart from the slightly cramped typing experience (we were using the iPhone 6s Plus as our primary device before), we didn’t feel like we were ‘settling’ for the smaller iPhone. Now we admit part of the appeal of the iPhone 7 could be our nostalgia for smaller phones in a world where every other new release seems to be pushing the envelope on how big a phone can get...

fingerprints are not the only thing it attracts - as Apple itself points out on its website, the new finish is more scratch-prone than others. Since we love the finish so much, and have never been fans of cases, we used the iPhone 7 without any protection for the duration of our testing, and for most of this time we couldn’t see what the fuss was about. Despite using it as our primary device for over two months, we didn’t notice any scratches on our Jet Black iPhone 7 - until we saw our unit under a particular light and then dozens of tiny scratches at the back suddenly became visible!

iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus display

Have you ever ordered something online only to find that the colours don’t quite match what you saw on your screen when it arrives? Don’t blame the store, blame the limitations of technology...