KPH tech blog

They’re here. The next versions of the iPhone have been released. Quite frankly, the internet and media went berserk, as per usual with Apple’s device launches, but not everyone is happy with the new phones. Here’s my thoughts on the main talking points on the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus:

No Headphone Port – it’s about time! I’m a huge fan of the headphone port, but I think this innovation should’ve happened long ago. Probably as far back as 2012. Why? Wireless technologies.

Apart from the improvements in mobile data speeds with 4G/LTE technology, and the ability to connect to your phone to your modem/router with Wi-Fi, the innovation and usage of wireless technology in smartphones has stalled somewhat. We’ve had Bluetooth for ages now, but what have we actually used it for and when? Bluetooth has made it easier to transfer data between 2 devices, and Bluetooth headsets have made phone calls easier, especially when driving (although it’s not recommended, for obvious reasons). Apart from occasionally hooking my phone up to a Bluetooth speaker, the wireless technology is pretty useless.

The same goes for NFC, or Near Field Communications. I’ve had three ‘smart’ devices in my life – all of them have had Bluetooth, but only 2 of them have had NFC technology. But I’ve never actually used NFC to warrant having it on my phone, and often have it switched off to conserve battery power. Despite my phones having that future-proofing lapel, and that Android Pay and Apple Pay are starting to make ground here in the UK, a phone without NFC wouldn’t be that bad.

All of that said, the fact that the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus don’t have a headphone jack isn’t a problem. We already have the wireless technology ready and waiting to be used properly. Apple’s new ear buds, nicknamed the ‘AirPods’ are finally making use of wireless technologies, and Apple are supplying a Lightning to 3.5mm adapter with the new phones to make the transition easier for people with expensive headphones. But removing the headphone port is definitely a step in the right direction, especially given that we could be wearing flexible phones on our wrists in the same way people are now sporting Apple Watches.

Dual, Rear Cameras – I feel like saying ‘been there, done that, seen that before’ with this one. Huawei P9, anyone? LG G5? Two will always be better than one, especially with phone camera lenses. The main reason is size – we demand thinner and lighter devices, but with the same specs sheets. The dual rear 12MP setup on the Huawei P9 tries to solve the problem of taking photos in low light conditions.

According to Android Authority, the P9’s dual camera setup is divided so that one is an RGB lens specifically for colour reproduction, while the second lens captures black and white detail. Basically, the idea is that the phone is able to deliver better ‘light sensitivity’ –

The monochrome sensor promises a 200% increase over regular sensors and a 50% bump in contrast. There are three different focus modes on board too: laser focus, depth focus and contrast focus as well as a dedicated depth measurement chip. This means that both lenses can focus individually (along with the laser focus) and the P9’s improved ISP will automatically choose the best result.

On the rear of the LG G5, you’ll find a 16MP sensor paired with a 8MP sensor, with an aperture of f/2.4, Optical Image Stabilisation (which is non existent on Huawei’s P9) and laser autofocus. According to Android Authority, the larger lens on the right, the 16MP sensor, comes with OIS and a f/1.8 aperture, whereas the smaller 8MP lens, with f/2.4 aperture, comes with a wide-angle 135° field of view.

All of that sounds promising from a smartphone camera, and coupled with the LG Cam Plus, one of LG’s modular ‘Friends’ which can be attached to the bottom of the phone and comes with an additional 1,200mAh battery pack as well as physical camera shutter and zoom controls, the G5 is a pretty good contender in my opinion for smartphone camera of the year (if such an award exists?).

What all of these specs mean is that, between the P9 and the G5, many of Apple’s main rivals in the tech world are making big leaps forward with camera technology. Yes, Apple have now responded by including a dual sensor setup on the larger iPhone 7 Plus, but my only concern is this – will it be able to compete?

Details about the cameras of the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are still sketchy given that they’ve only just been released, and are reduced only to specs at the moment, but it will be interesting to see the contrasts in picture quality between the 7 and 7 Plus.

CNET reported that the 7 gets a larger aperture and OIS, but that the 7 Plus “gets a second, 56mm telephoto lens on the back that works like a built-in zoom feature,” before going on to compare this dual sensor facility with devices like the LG V20 (which might not become available to us in the UK), the Huawei P9 and Honor 8 – which is basically a P9 without the Leica branding on its dual rear sensors. How the iPhone 7 Plus’s dual lens setup matches up alongside the P9 and the G5 is something that I, and the rest of the tech world, will have to wait for. But I’m sure it’ll be close.

Water Resistance – First of all, it’s clear water that it’s resistant from. But when are you ever likely to drop your phone into a glass of clear water? It’s more than likely that there’ll be something else in the water, like soap or salt.

Samsung’s advert for the S7 Edge craftily has the protagonist washing up dishes in a sink of clear water. My gripe with this, is that the last time I washed dishes in the sink, it was soapy water.

The more likely situation is that if you’re going to drop your phone in water, it’ll either be soapy water in the kitchen or bathroom, or salty sea water down at the beach.

If you read the small print under the water resistance tag (IP67 or IP68), you’ll likely find that the phone is only resistant or proof from clear water – if you dropped your phone in the sea, it quite possibly wouldn’t work because it’s saltwater you’ve dropped it in, not clear water as advertised.

‘AirPods’ – I’m sorry, but wireless headphones that only last 5 hours? At over £150? And that’s, “revolutionary?” No, I’m sorry, but it just isn’t. Not if you consider cheaper options that boast a better battery life, that is.

What about the technology and the fact that they’re wireless? Not revolutionary, but evolutionary. The technology, as I’ve previously mentioned, has been here for a while now, it’s just that nobody’s really used Bluetooth or NFC for anything useful other than sending data between 2 devices. We’ve had wireless, noise-cancelling headphones for years in the form of on-ear and over-ear headphones. We’ve also had wireless headsets for a while now, making that all-important phone call easier to make while driving (not that you should be making or receiving calls when driving anyway).

iPhone 7 Plus – Remember that dual camera? It is only appearing on the larger phone, to many people’s surprise, which should separate it from the iPhone 7, its smaller sibling. They are still both flagship models of course, especially when compared to the lesser iPhone SE. But the difference between them is greater than that of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, and the 6S and 6S Plus. The 6 Plus and 6S Plus weren’t that different from their smaller counterparts, apart from the bigger screen sizes.

I’ve heard that Apple are trying to target the people who hog social media with their iPhone snaps, and it wouldn’t surprise me if that were true. I’ve seen a lot of photos on Instagram from photographers claiming to have captured their shots on a DSLR before editing on an app like VSCO–or skipping the DSLR part altogether and simply taking and editing the photos on their iPhones because the camera quality is superb.

I’ve also seen a ‘language’ of photography growing on sites like Instagram around the iPhone. A lot of photos taken with an iPhone have a certain style to them – I see images of urban landscapes, sometimes dirty or luxurious, but no compensation is given for shadows or darkness. This may be in the editing rather than the stock photo, but it gives a certain matte black finish to iPhone photos – a sort of retrospective, realistic memory filter.

More and more photographers, amateur and professional, are exploring and sometimes even exploiting the iPhone camera’s capabilities. No wonder Apple want ‘in.’

For a lot of people, including myself, it’s unlikely that you’ll always be carrying your DSLR with you, but more likely that you’ll have your phone on you at all times. Why should the quality of snaps from your quick snapper be any different from your standalone camera?

Fast Charging – I feel like this is a-given nowadays, seeing how many phones come with fast charging built-in. It means charge times are reduced, sometimes even halved – my HTC Desire EYE can charge from 0 to 100% in just over an hour with Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 2.0, but with the supplied default HTC adapter it takes over 2 hours to get to 100%. What this means is, I can enjoy my media in a quicker time. But what I find remarkable is that still, to this day, Apple has not invented it’s own version of Fast Charging. I feel like it’s an unacceptable trait that still affects many new smartphones. It shouldn’t be. Until advances can be made with battery technology, give us fast charging! We deserve it for buying and using the devices you designed for us!

Solid Home Button – I’ve had an Android phone as my daily driver for the past 2 years. Before that, my first smartphone on contract was a Nokia Lumia 820, with Windows Phone 8.1. Whereas the Lumia had sort-of physical buttons, similar to my HTC Wildfire (which I bought a while ago but never really used), my current phone has no physical buttons for interacting with menus.

My HTC Desire EYE has 3 or 4 customisable on-screen menu or navigation buttons with haptic feedback. The only device I’ve owned with a clickable Home button, that could be considered as ‘smart,’ was my 4th Gen iPod Touch.

I appreciate, therefore, that a Home button that is now more like a 3D Touch panel and not clickable, is something that will take time to get used to for a lot of people. But it’s not a bad thing. Many fingerprint sensors on Android variants do not click down, they are static buttons.

One of the things I used to dislike about the iPhone, was that clickable Home button. Compared to an Android or Windows Phone variant, that horrible clicker was something that resembled a device of poorer quality than the iPhone, and yet there it always was. There’s nothing more cheap, in my opinion, than the horrible click of a plastic-feeling button on a premium phone. Maybe ow I might consider an iPhone 7 – well, that is in a few years time  when the iPhone 9 comes out and I can actually afford an iPhone 7, the same way I can now afford the iPhone 6S or cheaper SE.

Conclusion – I’m not much of an iPhone guy, but like everyone else, I’m a tech geek. I still get excited at the launch of a new product, even though I know that I’m probably not going to buy it.

Fun fact: I’m probably one of the few people in the UK who actually stayed up into the wee-small hours of the morning to watch the live stream of the unveiling of the new PlayStation 4 console back when we were all still using Xbox 360’s and PS3’s and considered the PS4, and the Xbox One, as ‘new’ and ‘next-gen.’

I prefer Android to iOS, and I know that Apple have gradually improved the quality of their own camera sensors and software over the years, while I and millions of others have probably been sucked-in by fancy phone specs and a high number of camera megapixels – which are really just numbers on a piece of paper.

But something I do know is that I can pick a really good device out that’s half, if not, three times cheaper than an iPhone. My current daily driver, a HTC Desire EYE sporting a 13MP rear sensor and a 13MP front sensor, both with a Dual LED flash (which helps with low-light group selfies in a night club), isn’t the best phone on the market. I know that. I’ve sometimes come away amazed by the image quality, and sometimes I’ve been disappointed – it varies, and don’t get me started on the quality of slow-motion video (TL;DR it pixilates – badly!).

But my Desire EYE acts as a credible benchmark that I feel every phone advertised as a flagship must be able to beat. In my opinion, if the flagship model can’t beat my phone, it isn’t worth the extra cash. That’s not to say that I wouldn’t buy an iPhone, but there are other factors at play with that decision, which I’ll talk about in a separate blog.

I’m a tech geek, plain and simple. I live and breathe mobile technology, more so than my parents and grandparents before me. Which is why, when thinking and writing about the new iPhone 7, it’s sad to think that I’m not as excited about it as I am about my next phone.

I guess that’s because I’ve already prepared myself for the bad news, the news that the new iPhone is just too premium for my wallet. To be honest, I’m more excited about the prospect of owning an iPhone SE or 6S than owning the new 7 or 7 Plus, should I decide to go for an iPhone as my next device.

I’m not even sure how I’ll get on with 3D Touch, seeing as the last iOS that I used was iOS 6 on my iTouch – I’ve used a similar feature on my Android phone, but it’s not ‘3D’ by any means.

But what I do know is that, sometime in the future, when all the hype about the missing headphone port has died down and people have accepted it or jumped ship, I’ll know that we really are one step further into the future. And who knows, maybe the iPhone 7 might just become the best iPhone yet?

Chris K.