Apple has finally taken the wraps of its flagship devices- iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 plus and will go on sale in India from 7th October 2016 via 3000 retail stores across the country. The iPhone 7 prices start in India at Rs. 60,000 for the base 32GB variant but there is no information regarding iPhone 7 plus pricing. The duos will be available on 16th September in first group of countries including USA, UK, UAE, Singapore etc. The flagship is a major upgrade over its predecessor in terms of camera, RAM and processor.
Apple iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus:
Design and Color-
Apple has been offering design upgrades to its last 3 gen devices iPhone 4, 5 and 6 while their s trims follow the same design cues. However the 7th generation isn’t radically different from the last one but there are certain elements of differentiation. Listening to voice of its loyalists and to offer clutter free design, Apple has moved the antenna bands to the top and bottom end of the panel.
Apart from conventional range of color options i.e. Gold, Rose Gold and Silver, the 7 Duos are also available in brand new Black and jet black hues. The last one comes with glossy shine at rear which is prone to scratches, smudges and might be slippery. After long held demand of iPhone users, new Smartphones finally gets IP67 certification making it water and dust resistance.
Price and Display:
The S series of the previous version weren’t successful as standard 6 series due to hefty price tag. Similarly, the iPhone 7 32GB model starts at Rs. 60,000 while its plus variant is expected to cost at Rs. 70,000 for the base 32GB version. The iPhone Plus 256GB might cost you back around Rs. 1 lakh.
Apple continue with 4.7 inch HD display on iPhone 7 and 5.5 HD display on iPhone 7 plus, upgrade to OLED panels is expected to come in the new series. The iPhone 7 comes with a 4.7 inch 3D touch display with 1334*750 pixels of display resolution 326ppi of pixel density and 1400:1 contrast ratio. It has a new home button which is now solid and force sensitive against the push responsive on the iPhone 6 and 6 plus. The home button also has integrated fingerprint sensor.
Processor and RAM:
Under the hood of 7 is Quad core A10 Fusion 64-bit processor with six core GPU, M10 co-processor clocked at 2.4 GHz and clubbed with 2GB of RAM while the bigger sibling is linked with 3GB of RAM. Company claims that new devices offer up to 50 percent better graphic performance and up to 40% better performance. It runs on IOS 10 out of the box while other Smartphones will receive the update from today onwards.
Apple has removed a decade old 3.5mm audio jack and replaced with ear pods with lighting connector. Apple will separately sell Air pods for $29 (approx 2000 INR) and lighting to 3.5mm audio jack for $9.
Camera:
The new iPhone series sports a 12 MP rear camera with bigger 6 element f/1.8 aperture for better low light imaging and Quad LED with true tone flash. The primary camera can record 4K video at 30 fps, Slo‑mo 1080p at 120 fps and 720p at 240 fps. Up front is a 7MP Snapper for Selfies and video calling supporting Retina flash, f/2.2 aperture and capable of 1080p video recording.
The iPhone 7 plus has dual rear camera set up which might not be new to the Indian market but will certainly put smile of Apple aficionados. The camera also supports digital zoom up to 10X. Both the premium devices supports range of handful features such as OIS, six element lens, Panorama up to 63 MP, Hybrid IR filter, autofocus with focus pixels, tap to focus, Live photos with stabilization, Auto HDR, noise reduction, auto image stabilization, timer mode, exposure control, photo geo tagging and much more. The speakers on both are stereo ones-one at top and another at bottom claimed to be twice as loud as previous gen models.
Connectivity and battery:
In terms of connectivity, both offers 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/ac with MIMO, digital compass, GPS with GLONASS, bluetooth 4.2, NFC etc. Apple generally doesn’t disclose some particular information specially RAM and battery but this year company didn’t waste any time revealing it. Reportedly, iPhone 7 comes with 1916mah battery a upgrade over 1750mah of 6s and rated to deliver up to 10 days of standby time and up to 14 hours on Wi-Fi.
While 7 plus features a 2900mah battery as compared to 2750mah on 6s plus claimed to deliver up to 15 hours of Wi-Fi usage and up to 16 days of standby time.
After heavy criticism Apple has ditched the 16GB variant and launch new series with 32GB as base model along with 128GB and 256GB versions. Besides new iPhones, Apple also revealed Apple watch series 2, IOS 10 and Watch OS 3.
