Apple iPhone 7 review: Plans | Pricing | Specs

Apple’s iPhone 7 is sleek and attractive and powerful, except in the critical area of battery life.

WRITTEN BY

Alex Kidman

Posted: 23 September 2016

Apple loves to hype up its iPhone lines as the ultimate premium phones. In the premium space it’s under increasing pressure from devices manufactured by Samsung, such as the Galaxy S7 Edge, or Google with its Pixel/Pixel XL phones.

However, there’s little doubting that Australians love iPhones as a category, with each year’s release typically selling out of stock at retail and telco levels for months at a time after launch. We’ve already run the large and largely impressive iPhone 7 Plus through its paces, but it’s the more regular sized iPhone 7 that’s likely to catch most people’s attention due to the lower asking price and slightly more hand-friendly design.

Design

• Water resistance brings the iPhone 7 up to snuff with other premium smartphones
• Removing the headphone jack is far from "courageous"

• Read more on the iPhone 7 design

  

  Apple sells the iPhone as much as a fashion accessory as a phone, and the inclusion of Black and Jet Black iPhone models really helps them to stand out. As with the iPhone 7 Plus, the Black variants have proven to be much more popular than the Gold, Silver or Rose Gold variants, so if you’re keen you might face a wait to score one.

  Apple finally joined the water resistance crowd with the iPhone 7, which carries an IP67 rating for dust and water ingress. It is worth noting that the warranty Apple supplies doesn’t actually cover the iPhone for water ingress into the body of the phone, but at least in our testing for basic accidental drops into a sink or clean water bath it should be fine.

  The home button on the iPhone 7 isn’t a button at all, but instead a small vibrating motor that sits behind where the home button circle sits. This gives you the sensation of a tap, but also opens up other possibilities for force feedback events in other apps across the device.

  Unfortunately, you still can’t easily add microSD storage to an iPhone, and that’s definitely a pain point, but at least 2016’s iPhone models no longer come in a pathetically small 16GB minimum storage configuration. 32GB is the new baseline, all the way up to 256GB if you’re in need of maximum storage.

  The most contentious part of the iPhone’s redesign in this era has been Apple’s "courageous" decision to omit the headphone jack.

  Apple delayed the release of its Airpod solution to the headphone jack problem, and Bluetooth headphones have their own issues anyway, not the least of which is the fact that you probably already have a decent pair of headphones with a standard jack on them. Apple does supply a single Lightning-to-3.5mm adaptor in the box, but any iPhone 7 owner should probably plan on buying a few more of them to avoid not having to do without headphones at all.

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Camera

• Optical image stabilisation and a slick camera app make taking quality photos easier than ever
• Single lens set-up means no depth-of-field effects or other fancy features

• Read more on the iPhone 7 camera

  

  The baseline iPhone models have always played second fiddle to the Plus variants for as long as there have been Plus variant phones, and that’s still true for the iPhone 7.

  If you want the dual camera and depth-of-field portrait effect, you’ll need to look at Apple’s larger smartphone, but that doesn’t mean that the iPhone 7’s own camera is a slouch. It nabs optical image stabilisation from the larger iPhone family, alongside a 13MP front sensor that operates very well in most shooting locations.

  Apple’s camera app remains fast to launch and quick to focus, so for most practical situations, it will deliver very good images.

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Performance

• Strong performance increases over the iPhone 6
• A10 Fusion processor automatically adjusts power based on what you're doing

• Read more on the iPhone 7 performance

  The iPhone 7 shares the same A10 Fusion processor as the iPhone 7 Plus, and predictably it offers a significant boost in performance terms over its predecessor. Apple has the distinct advantage of being able to heavily optimise its operating systems to take advantage of the new hardware in new iOS devices, and in anecdotal use this certainly appears true.

  The iPhone 7 is fast and responsive across multiple applications in use, taking advantage of the effective "dual dual core" approach that the Fusion processor offers. Two lower power cores cover basic apps while two higher performance cores kick in for more demanding tasks.

  This is borne out in the iPhone 7’s benchmark scores, where it performs in the top tier of 2016 premium smartphones. Here’s how it compares against its contemporaries using Geekbench 4’s CPU test:

  Handset	Geekbench 4 CPU Single Core (higher is better)	Geekbench 4 CPU Multi Core (higher is better)
  Apple iPhone 7 Plus	3374	5649
  Apple iPhone 7	3452	5599
  Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge	1359	5333
  Samsung Galaxy S7	1378	4718
  Apple iPhone SE	2449	4171
  Apple iPhone 6s	2465	4052
  Google Pixel XL	1629	4051
  Motorola Moto Z	1477	3853
  Sony Xperia XZ	1636	3604
  Google Nexus 6P	1293	3594
  Motorola Moto X Force	1352	3581
  Motorola Moto Z Play	799	2648
  Sony Xperia X	1122	2626
  LG X Power	554	1482
  Motorola Moto G Play	522	1334

  That exceptional (for its era) performance carries across in 3DMark’s Ice Storm Unlimited test:

  Handset	3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited Result
  Apple iPhone 7 Plus	37956
  Apple iPhone 7	37717
  LG G5	29597
  Apple iPhone SE	29276
  Samsung Galaxy S7	28903
  Samsung Note7	28646
  Google Pixel XL	28458
  Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge	28402
  Apple iPhone 6s	28171
  HTC 10	27392
  Sony Xperia XZ	26279
  Sony Xperia X Performance	26125
  Motorola Moto Z	25629
  Google Nexus 6P	24703

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Battery life

• Continues the Apple trend of disappointing battery life
• Greatly outmatched by other smartphones in the premium space

• Read more on the iPhone 7 battery life

  iPhone owners are all too familiar with that sinking feeling that often comes about in the afternoon as their phones shift from a healthy green power bar to a more alarming red one. We noted with the iPhone 7 Plus that it appeared Apple had beaten this particular demon down, but the iPhone 7’s battery performance left us wanting a lot more from what’s meant to be a premium phone.

  Yes, it’s "better" than the iPhone 6s, but falling short of that phone would have involved some kind of permanent tether to the wall. Not a hard target to beat, and while the iPhone 7 did beat it, for the premium price that the iPhone 7 commands it should be able to compete with the best-in-class Android options. Put simply, it doesn’t, either in anecdotal testing or more formal battery benchmarks.

  Here’s how the iPhone 7 compares using Geekbench 3’s older battery test:

  Handset	Geekbench 3 Battery Test Duration	Geekbench 3 Battery Score
  Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge	11:55:00	7150
  Huawei Mate 8	11:14:40	6659
  Apple iPhone 7 Plus	11:11:20	6713
  Samsung Galaxy Note7	11:02:20	6623
  Sony Xperia X	10:40:40	6406
  Samsung Galaxy S7	10:01:20	6013
  Samsung Galaxy Note 5	9:18:00	5580
  Google Pixel XL	9:14:20	5543
  Huawei P9	8:26:30	4948
  Sony Xperia XZ	8:24:20	5042
  Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+	8:24:10	5041
  Apple iPhone 7	7:50:10	4701
  Apple iPhone 6S Plus	7:48:10	4681
  LG G5	7:36:10	4561
  iPhone 6s Smart Battery Case	7:21:10	4407
  HTC 10	6:54:30	4145
  Apple iPhone SE	4:27:10	2671
  Apple iPhone 6s	3:52:10	2321

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Verdict

• As refined and stylish as ever
• Lacklustre battery life remains frustrating

• Read our full iPhone 7 verdict

  

  The iPhone 7 continues a relatively steady design path for the iPhone family, and that’s an approach that’s likely to appeal to its hardcore existing crowd for the most part. If you don’t like having a larger phone in your pocket or purse but want something stylish and powerful it’s an exceptionally good choice, but be sure to invest in a spare charger or external battery to go with it.

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Pricing and availability

Apple iPhone 7

A sleek and capable addition to the iPhone family

With the iPhone 7, Apple once again combines style and performance in a single, simple package.

Buy Now

• Apple sells the iPhone 7 outright for $849 with 32GB of onboard storage, or $999 with 128GB of storage.
• You can also purchase the iPhone 7 on contract from Telstra, Vodafone and Optus.