Gadgetory

you know the drill new phone is released everyone scrambles to unbox it then review it and after a couple weeks we all move on to the next new exciting gadget though how a phone ages is as important as that initial out of the box experience so let's do something about that nearly ten months ago Apple took the wraps off the current generation of iPhones and the consumer response has been somewhat mixed there's no questioning that this is one of the best selling phones of all time but in a climate where people are holding on to phones longer and the emotional high of buying a new phone is waning investors demand growth while the premium market is plateauing this generation of iPhone served is something of a disruptor to the traditional iPhone release schedule we've come to understand how has this handset held up against more exciting evolution from Android competition it's time to take a second look at our iPhone 7 after the buzz there's always a little disclosure which has to happen when talking about iPhones I rarely use one as a daily driver coming back to the smaller iPhone 7 I've been using this phone mostly to track iOS beta progress which we'll talk about a little later in this video for my current production schedule Android allows me to get more of my work done even up to editing and rendering videos my most consistent uses for iOS recording with my sennheiser clip Mike and facetiming with family on iPhones and iPads still for those short stretches I do leave the house with this phone I genuinely miss having smaller phones in my pocket a g6 or si can feel small for the amount of screen they deliver but neither truly approach the diminutive stature of the iPhone 7 I'd happily trade a little extra girth for more battery but aside from an iPhone se there really isn't a better premium one thumb experience available on the market today circling back to FaceTime I found myself in the odd position where though I use Android personally and that's unlikely to change anytime soon I've been recommending Apple more to others mobile hardware has become impressively powerful so increasingly software support is critical as we interact with future services even a $200 phone is incredibly capable but in Android land I've been bothered by the lack of support facing most phones after the first year it's really not okay to look at a market where we spend hundreds of dollars on products which are ill well after 18 months especially looking at consumer trends where we're all holding on to phones longer than in the days of ironclad two-year contracts I personally flip phones aggressively so I'm willing to put up with the compromises involved but when helping other people spend their money aiding in a purchasing recommendation this point has become a more important note to underscore when I give advice and one service which shows off my current Google frustration perfectly is communication apps I worked hard to get people using hangouts only to see oh wishy-washy Google shift strategies on me when my grandmother easily picks up a tablet to FaceTime that's an actual solution I can recommend without having to walk someone through finding a third-party app that is valuable maybe the biggest sin of the iPhone 7 is that we didn't really get in I phone 7 we kind of got an iPhone 6s - I'll sure they changed the camera housing enough to make us all have to go out and buy new cases sure we got new versions of black as color options but those aren't really enough to make us feel like we got a proper new phone Apple has successfully migrated this logo from geeky tech brand to lifestyle fashion brand so we should grade them accordingly this iPhone did a poor job in eliciting the emotional response of getting a new number iPhone if we were judging a fashion line jewelry or purses this would not have been heralded as boundary-pushing fashion-forward Haute Couture it's a fine device bringing many significant improvements to things like speaker tech and lifestyle durability but that's not really sexy - the new form factor the new screen the new design that will be sexy Apple as a victim of their own success produced something here which felt derivative but the biggest gripe over my time using this phone has been the headphone dongle which I lost and I haven't been motivated to spend money on replacing it I absolutely abhor the terrible seal and noise reduction of the Apple earpods ein so I've not bothered with the air pot my iPhone 7 used recently with a pair of LG tone Bluetooth earbuds I'm sad on a personal level as this logo once represented class-leading consumer audio and now I have an iPhone which I can't use with my favorite headphones this didn't feel like progress when the phone was new and it still doesn't feel like progress today what does feel like progress though is using the iOS 11 beta I don't know that I've ever been as excited for an iPhone update as I have been using this software we'll be taking a more detailed approach to iOS 11 in a separate video but quickly discussing some highlights I personally enjoyed coming from Android and using things like widgets the new layout for the control center is definitely busy in a way we would consider uncharacteristic for Apple but converting this into a one panel solution instead of swiping for media controls is a quality of life improvement I support Apple has largely lagged behind Google in areas like file management iOS 10 helped improve support for third-party cloud apps and iOS 11 continues that with a hub for file management it's still not nearly as seamless as what we can do on Android moving around media but this is a terrific step in the right direction lastly I'm actually rooting for Apple over Google looking at the future of video creation and distribution this iPhone 7 can now shoot 4k video using h.265 compression that's a geeky speak way to say we can capture the same video quality in roughly half the file size we're talking about expensive premium phones we should be looking at the top-tier quality settings for photos and videos the main issues voiced with UHD video it takes up more space on the phone and that affects data plan usage when sharing those files we can solve those problems with better compression and our phones are more than powerful enough to use that new compression by comparison minute of 4k video from an iphone using h.265 produces a smaller file than one minute of 1080p video from an LG G 6 shooting h.264 why aren't we all using this well Google doesn't want to pay the licensing fees which are expensive so instead they're creating a competing video codec which probably won't be ready for primetime until well into 2018 I've been working with h.265 video since 2014 and we're still waiting for Google to figure out a solution here Apple is the only company with enough leverage to force this issue iOS 11 joins ZTE and Huawei in using this space-saving video codec for now instead of native support we're looking at on device transcoding when uploading to YouTube unfortunately those uploads are currently only HD but still this is handled more seamlessly for the consumer than the fixes users need to implement on Android but I've rambled on enough let's wrap this up 10 months later where does that leave us with the iPhone 7 I just can't make the switch for every little thing I like about iOS and every gripe I currently have with Google there are still a few key areas that keep me using Android I know folks might be wanting more benchmarking in this after the buzz but the main takeaway from me using this phone it's forced me to examine my mobile philosophy compare my wants against my needs I want a smaller premium phone but I need to be able to get my work done reviewing Apple gadgets continues to drive my internal conflict over what I want for the future of mobile technology at the same time as I'm unimpressed with this design and bothered by the headphone situation I'm also elated by upcoming improvements to file management and video compression so would I buy an iPhone 7 today no no I really wouldn't the competition is currently more exciting and we all know a big hardware changes on the horizon arriving with the next iPhone we should also get some good deals on current handsets the only time an iPhone ever really gets a price cut there's just too much to gain by eating for the next iPhone to be released my iPhone 7 doesn't get to see much real-world action I'm still more inclined to walk out the door with the se but revisiting this phone has made me really anxious to see where i OS might go next I just hope Apple doesn't completely walk away from folks who still care about using their phones with only one thumb as always thanks so much for watching be sure to subscribe and hit that Bell icon for more reviews like these and help us out with some sharing on your favorite social networks for pocket now I'm Juan Carlos bag now so I'm gadget guy on Twitter and Instagram and I will catch you all on the next review