iPhone 7 Plus is picture perfect

YOU’D NEED an actual (and expensive) camera in your hands to improve on the quality of the portraits you get with the enhanced iSight camera in the iPhone 7 Plus. It’s now a dual-lens array with 2x optical zoom and a great depth-of-field effect.
The 12-megapixel camera gets shots of excellent quality – especially the dreamy portraits with nicely blurred backgrounds. The 10x digital zoom is pretty impressive too.
Apple’s camera improvements on both the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus include a larger f/1.8 aperture (up from f/2.2 previously) and Quad-LED True Tone flash (it was Dual-LED before).
The larger aperture, better flash and optical image stabilisation (OIS) means the latest iPhones can be counted on for great photos and videos in any lighting situation. Apple brags about a “six-element lens” handling low light so well and “wide colour capture” to boost vibrancy in the images.
The OIS effectively reduces the blur you get with a shaky hand or a moving subject. A sensor helps the lens counteract any movement and exposure continues up to three times longer than on the iPhone 6s.

Meanwhile that f/1.8 aperture pulls up to 50 per cent more light onto the image sensor than the 6s manages and four smart LEDS generate 50 per cent brighter flash than the 6s. The flash adjusts to the scene’s colour “temperature”, resulting in sharper, brighter photos.

The dual-lens set-up is what I like most about the iPhone 7 Plus. With this, you can quickly change from wide-angle and telephoto shooting using just one hand.
The control is the zoom icon at the bottom of the screen, just above the shutter button. The first setting is “1x” icon for zooming up to two times. Press with your thumb and slide up or down the zoom values from “3x” to “10x”. Switch between optical and digital zoom by tapping the zoom button – the value toggles between 1x and 2x.
To get the background blur, you use the depth-of-field function. But you first need to upgrade the phone’s iOS to 10.2.1. Then the camera app will provide the Portrait mode option. Currently at the Beta development stage, this mode makes use of the dual lens and software to create that blue, which really makes your central subject stand out.
What happens is that one shot is taken in normal depth of field with the background sharp and another shot is produced in shallow depth of field with the blur. Compare the two and choose the one you like or keep them both.
Both 4K video and slow-motion clips in 1080p and 720p HD resolution are now possible with the main camera.
The front-facing “FaceTime” camera has been improved too with higher resolution at seven megapixels and advanced software allowing for wide colour capture and automatic image stabilisation.

You notice right away how terrific the display is for viewing your photos and videos. It’s a 5.5-inch Retina HD display with a wide colour gamut that produces cinema-standard colour.
With 3D Touch, the phone senses how much pressure you typically apply to the display screen, and iOS 10 makes it even more deeply integrated in everything you do. Handling Messages, Calendar, Mail and other apps feels much more responsive.
The iPhone 7 Plus boasts a new unibody design that looks especially attractive on the high-gloss jet-black version. The phone’s now water-resistant and protected against spills, splashes and dust. I tried out the black model with the aluminium enclosure that’s gone through a nine-step polishing and anodising process.
The Home button looks different. It’s now an advanced solid-state button that feels durable and responsive. Just how responsive it is can even be adjusted via a Taptic Engine that offers three options of “haptic feedback” levels – that important touch-sensitive factor.
One thing that’s gone from the 7 Plus is the 3.5mm stereo jack, since this model comes with better stereo speakers and there are now Bluetooth AirPods for use with the phone.
These speakers deliver twice the volume you got from the iPhone 6s and a broader dynamic range, so you’ll enjoying the sound more and probably sharing more music.
You still get Apple EarPods, the wired stereo headset, as well as a lightning connector with a 3.5mm headphone jack for them. I used the Lightning-to-3.5mm-jack adapter to use my Sony MDR-1ABT headphones and the music I played sounded great.
Overall the phone performs very well. It has an A10 Fusion chip that’s faster and more efficient than the processors found in earlier iPhones.
It’s got two high-performance cores – 40 per cent faster than the A9 in an iPhone 6s and twice as fast as the A8 in an iPhone 6 – and two high-efficiency cores. That can run on a fifth the power used by the high-performance cores.
The A10 Fusion also happens to make the Plus a cool gadget for playing graphics-intensive games. Its GPU is more powerful and much faster than anything previously shipped with an iPhone and will use far less power. I was playing games like Zombie Gunship and Oz Kingdom smoothly and they looked beautiful.
Data connection is very fast with the LTE Advanced connection mode. On TrueMove H’s LTE network the connection speed was truly impressive in backing up photos online and installing apps. The Ookla Speedtest app measured downloads at 102.5Mbps and uploads at 31.79Mbps.
You get a better battery – the longest-lasting battery in any iPhone, in fact, with two extra hours of life than the 6s and an hour more than the 6s Plus.
The iOS 10 meanwhile brings a massive update to Messages and goregeously redesigned apps with powerful new features for Photos, Maps and Music. A new app is called Home, which allows for simple and secure management of all your home automation products.
The price of an iPhone 7 Plus starts at Bt31,500.

Key Specs
- Network: FDD-Lte, TD-Lte, UMTS/HSPA+, GSM
- Operating system: iOS 10
- Chip: A10 Fusion 64-bit chip with M10 motion coprocessor
- Display: 5.5-inch Retina HD with 1920x1080 pixels, 401ppi, 1300:1 contrast ratio
- Durability: Splash, water and dust-resistant (rated IP67)
- Storage: 32 to 256GB
- Main camera: 12MP f/1.8 |wide-angle lens, f/2.8 2x optical zoom, 4K video recording at 30fps
- Front camera: 7MP FaceTime HD camera f/2.2 lens
- Wireless connectivity: 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi with MIMO, Bluetooth 4.2, NFC
- Sensors: Touch ID fingerprint sensor, barometer, three-axis gyro, accelerometer, proximity, |ambient light
- Battery: Up to 13 hours on LTE
- Dimensions: 158.2x77.9x7.3mm
- Weight: 188g