iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are now on sale, and Apple will be hoping that they’ll be able to halt and even reverse falling demand for its smartphone lineup. The new models have better cameras, faster processors, stereo speakers, and water-resistant designs.
But are those improvements enough? Without sharper displays and features like wireless charging — which are now commonplace on rival smartphones — does the iPhone 7 series deliver enough to fend off increased competition from its rivals?
Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight as we battle it out over whether Apple’s latest devices can compete with the rest.
Killian Bell: Apple’s new iPhone lineup delivers everything we expected from this year’s refresh — and a little bit more. Features like stereo speakers and water-resistance are nice surprises that not many fans expected to see from iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. But I can’t help but feel Apple still has some catching up to do.
I’m not your typical iPhone fan. I’m not blindly loyal to the Apple brand, and I don’t use iOS exclusively. Therefore, I’m familiar with the competition, and I’m more than happy to use Android if it means I get a better smartphone that delivers a greater user experience. Believe it or not, there are a lot of smartphone users like me.
And for us, I’m not sure the iPhone 7 series does enough to compete with some of its rivals — particularly the likes of the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy Note 7. It’s still missing exciting features like wireless charging, and although Apple has made some improvements to its Retina HD displays, they’re still nowhere near as sharp as Samsung’s Quad HD panels.
I’m not exactly surprised that we didn’t get wireless charging, sharper displays, or iris scanners. But I am a little concerned that the iPhone 7 won’t be enough to stop falling iPhone demand as the gap between rival smartphones gets wider.
I presume you disagree?
Photo: Apple
Luke Dormehl: Well, I definitely think the iPhone 7 is missing some of the Note 7’s hottest new features. That whole “exploding battery” feature is one that Apple really should have copied from Samsung to stay a part of the smartphone conversation.
I’m well aware that you’re not a typical iPhone fan. The fact that you spend many of these Friday Night Fights praising the ground Android devices walk on kind of told me that already. But, explosions aside, does the iPhone 7 match up to the latest wonders wafting over from the Android side of the tracks?
I’d say there’s no competition, frankly. Yes, Samsung’s top phones have superior displays to the iPhone. The OLED displays are gorgeous, and I have no doubt that it’s going to be a big selling point when it arrives next year for the iPhone 8 (or 7s, depending on what they call it.) With that said, Apple has increased the screen brightness of the iPhone 7 by 25 percent, while the display is beautifully calibrated to support a wide color gamut. Put it this way: no-one’s going to be complaining about the iPhone’s display.
We won’t know who wins the processor war until we see them go head-to-head, but the iPhone 7 is likely to be blindingly fast. In fact, the A10 is reportedly 240x faster than the original iPhone chip.
But that’s where the advantages end. The iPhone’s dual-lens camera setup looks astonishingly gorgeous, and when you add in the back-end machine learning software Apple’s created to help give your photos an added shine, I don’t see how Samsung can compete.
Of course, the biggest advantage the iPhone has is its software. Unlike Samsung’s Galaxy, which runs the Android operating system, the iPhone 7 runs the far more intuitive, far more secure iOS 10.
I can’t help noticing that our conversations about Android vs. iOS always come down to you defending Android handsets for their gimmicks (I mean, wireless charging is nice to have, but I certainly wouldn’t give up iOS for it), while giving the least possible praise to whatever Apple’s released. I just think you’re 100 percent wrong in this case.
Oh, and did I mention the fact that a Samsung Galaxy Note 7 reportedly just blew up a family’s car? Because the iPhone 7 probably isn’t going to do that.
Killian: I disagree about the whole display thing. I think people who are considering switching from a Galaxy S6 or a Galaxy Note 5 — or any other Android with a Quad HD display — will complain about the iPhone 7’s screen, because it’s nowhere near as sharp. Yes, it’s brighter this year, but the Galaxy Note 7 reaches the same 1,000 nits.
As for software, that’s all subjective. iOS is better for you because you’re used to it, but Android is the preferred choice for hundreds of millions of others.
According to the latest figures from IDC, Google’s platform currently accounts for 85.7 percent of the smartphone market, while Apple’s accounts for just 14.2 percent. If users were that concerned about Android’s security, I doubt it would be quite so popular. What’s more, recent studies have revealed that Android is now much more stable than iOS.
The A10 Fusion chip will be one of the iPhone 7’s few advantages. Apple’s chips always look disappointing on paper, but when combined with iOS in real-world tests, they’re great at matching and even beating competing chips with more cores and faster clock speeds.
I think iPhone 7 Plus’ dual-lens camera could be a big advantage for some, too — one that’s well worth the sacrifice of wireless charging, an iris scanner, expandable storage, and more. But until the device goes on sale next week and we find out what that camera’s really like in users’ hands (not Apple’s), we don’t know for certain.
You can keep mocking the Galaxy Note 7’s battery flaw because it’s clearly the only joke you have, but the tech press is calling Samsung’s latest phablet the best smartphone you can buy right now. That will still be the case when it goes on sale again without that flaw.
And there have been reports of exploding iPhones before, don’t forget. And bending ones. And ones with dodgy antennas that can’t make calls. And ones with faulty touchscreens that stop working after a while.
Photo: Apple
Luke: I know we joke about in Friday Night Fights, but, honestly, it’s pretty shameful to compare a smartphone which exploded and set a family’s jeep on fire with an iPhone that bends when you exert undue pressure on it. It’s crazy when you look at the tech press and, because of Apple’s superior presence, there are tenfold more articles talking about how it got rid of the headphone jack than Samsung putting out a phone which literally ignites.
And unlike many of those iPhones you referred to, we’re not talking about a dodgy third-party charger being used, or the phone itself going through some kind of extreme stress. I don’t want to darken the mood too much, but there’s a point at which defending Samsung just turns into blind Apple-bashing with no sense of perspective.
So what are the advantages you acknowledge that the iPhone 7 has? Superior processor, better camera setup, and software which appeals to a greater number of purchasers with the means to choose what smartphone they own. Because, let’s face it, the majority of those 85.7 percent of the smartphone market aren’t buying Android devices because they don’t like what Apple’s offering; it’s because they can’t afford it. If you actually look within the U.S. at the top-selling smartphone in a place where most people can afford to pick and choose with their phones, what do you find? That the iPhone 6s (and soon to be the 7, I suspect) is the top-selling handset.
Given that fact, what catching up has Apple got to do exactly? Because from where I sit it looks like it’s doing pretty darn well.
Killian: Ugh. Get over it, Luke. Samsung is addressing the problem and everyone’s happy. The reason there are more articles about Apple’s decision to remove the headphone jack from iPhone 7 is because the Note 7 story is old news now, and everyone’s over it. You just can’t let it go.
I’m not bashing Apple here; I’m just trying to balance things out a bit. You seem to believe Apple is perfect, and that every product it puts out is perfect. But that’s not quite the case. It has its own mishaps, too — and there have been plenty of them throughout the years.
The potential advantages (we don’t know for certain yet) of the iPhone 7 could be its A10 Fusion processor. That’s probably it. Yes, Apple has made improvements to its camera, but it’s probably only going to catch up to Samsung’s, which already has the f/1.8 aperture the iPhone 7 has. Samsung’s cameras have been way ahead for a couple of years now.
The potential advantages of the iPhone 7 Plus could be its A10 Fusion chip and its camera — if that secondary sensor delivers on Apple’s promises.
I’m not counting iOS as an advantage because, again, millions of people prefer Android. They’re not forced into using it; they prefer it. High-end smartphones like the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy Note 7 wouldn’t sell so well if the “majority” only used Android because it’s cheaper.
If Apple was doing that well iPhone sales wouldn’t be falling. The device is getting boring now, and it’s not catching up quickly enough. I’ve already mentioned a few of the things it lacks, but there are others. Apple seems to have a massive focus on gaming these days, but where’s the iPhone’s virtual reality platform? Samsung has one. LG has one. Android has one. Where’s Apple’s?
Luke: When it comes to VR, I’d suggest Apple’s doing the same thing it did with portable music players and the same thing it did with tablets: waiting until the moment’s right. Right now, VR is an interesting gimmick, but we’re pretty far from it being a mass-market technology, and it’s certainly not yet a game changer. Whether it will be is a debate for another day, but I don’t think it’s something Apple needs to be concerned about right now.
But I don’t think we’re going to agree on this, so let’s turn it over to readers. Do you feel disappointed by this year’s iPhone refresh? Did Samsung outdo Apple months before the iPhone 7 was unveiled on stage by Tim Cook? Let us know your thoughts and opinions below. And have a great weekend.
Friday Night Fights is a series of weekly death matches between two no-mercy brawlers who will fight to the death — or at least agree to disagree — about which is better: Apple or Google, iOS or Android?
