iPhone 7 reviews are out:
John Gruber, Daring Fireball:
Even if you want to judge these new iPhones based solely on their industrial design, the new black finishes alone would make me want to buy one. But what matters is what happens when you turn them on and use them. And in every single regard, from performance to battery life to camera image quality to haptic feedback to water resistance to sound quality from the speakers,[3] the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are impressive year-over-year improvements over the 6S/6S Plus, and stunning improvements over the two- and three-year old iPhone 6 and 5S — which are the models most people considering the new iPhones will be upgrading from.
Jim Dalrymple, The Loop:
What I want from Apple is to build devices that solve complex problems with simple solutions. I want them to make things more efficient for me as a user without going through any pain from using their products. That's exactly what they provided with the iPhone 7 and AirPods.
Matthew Panzarino, TechCrunch:
The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are the best iPhones ever. And they are probably the best portable cameras ever made. The combination of wide gamut capture with wide gamut P3 display means that you have quite literally never seen images like this from a smartphone camera before. And that's not to mention the massive front camera upgrade. The phones are fast, capable and functional, with nice upgrades to speaker audio, water resistance and a more durable home button.But, they don't have a headphone jack, and that is going to trip some people up.
Nilay Patel, The Verge:
The entire time I was using the iPhone 7, I felt like I had a prototype of next year's rumored drastic iPhone redesign disguised as an iPhone 6. All those bold bets on the future are legitimately exciting, but here in the present using the iPhone 7 in a case feels a lot like using a iPhone 6S with a weirder home button and more adapters.
Chris Velazco, Engadget:
If you can get over the all-too-familiar design and the no-headphone-jack thing, then the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are serious contenders for best smartphones, period. Note that I used the word "best," not "most innovative" -- neither of these devices is groundbreaking. We've seen many of these features (or features like them) pop up in rival phones already. That headphone jack thing aside, most of the choices made in the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus feel like safe ones. There's nothing wrong with that, but no matter how good the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are (answer: very, very good), Apple already has us all wondering what next year's iPhone is going to be like.
Andrew Cunningham, Ars Technica:
If you understand things best when they're phrased as tired idioms: the missing headphone jack is a fly in the iPhone 7's ointment. Plenty of people will be happy to scoop out the fly and use the rest of the probably-fine ointment. It's good ointment! There's just a fly in it. And the transition from wired to wireless is going to be more painful now than it will be a year or two down the line when more accessories and devices have adapted to follow Apple's lead. Waterproofing and better battery life have been common iPhone feature requests for years and the camera and speed improvements are nothing to sneeze at, but you'll need to buy into Apple's vision of the future if you want to get them.
Geoffrey Fowler, The Wall Street Journal
Is it worth upgrading your two-year-old (or older) iPhone? Yes. Will many of us want to sell the 7 next year when Apple introduces Mr. Ive's 10th-anniversary edition iPhone X Deluxe OLED in ceramic poppy red? For Apple's sake, I hope so.
David Pierce, Wired:
So, no, the iPhone 7 won't blow your mind with its design or features. It's still a fantastic phone. And philosophically, it feels like Apple is throwing open a door. The iPhone 7 might not be a revolution, but it might be the catalyst for lots of them. Your phone will be better in a few months, and even better a few months after that. And wouldn't that be exciting?
Ed Baig, USA Today:
Whether a water-resistant phone coupled with an excellent camera will drive you to the store remains to be seen. This is a strong handset for sure. But if you can hold out, there's already talk that the truly dramatic leap forward for iPhone comes next year when this seminal smartphone celebrates its tenth anniversary.
Lisa Eadicicco, Time:
The iPhone 7 may be evidence that gone are the days when a new smartphone could truly wow the world. After all, there's only so much functionality you can pack in these devices before you enter the realm of the superfluous. Apple's rivals are experimenting features that represent brilliant feats of engineering, like eye scanners that let you unlock your phone by looking at it, curved screens, and virtual reality support.But perhaps what Apple realizes is that what most people want from their phones is simpler than all that: Long battery life, durability, and a great camera. There's certainly room for improvement — quick-charging would be nice — but the iPhone 7 delivers on these vital points. It doesn't "wow" like so many Apple products have. But then again, maybe it doesn't need to. It's not a huge upgrade, but it helps Apple's smartphone remain one of the best around.
