WHAT IS THE IPHONE 7?

WHAT IS THE IPHONE 7?

Features never before seen on an Apple phone, headphone controversy and a price hike... The iPhone 7 certainly hasn't slipped into the world with a whimper.

And yet when you look at it you’ll wonder what’s changed – it looks pretty much the same as an iPhone 6. Granted that design was good, but would any other company get away with a two-year-old look for a brand-new phone?

Get past this and the iPhone 7 delivers a unique experience among iPhones. The new features – water resistance, an incredible quad-core processor and, crucially, a 32GB starting storage capacity – are all very welcome. So is the excellent camera that’s had upgrades to actually make photos look better, rather than just a needless bump in megapixels.

But like the eponymous Batman villain, the iPhone 7 has two faces. The removal of the headphone jack feels unnecessary and restrictive, the handset costs more than the 6S did when it was released last year (in the UK at least), and the iPhone 7's battery life is a real problem.

If you want a small Apple phone you'd be better off opting for the iPhone SE. Alternatively, if size isn’t an issue, last year’s iPhone 6S Plus remains a great phone, has strong battery life and costs exactly the same as the iPhone 7.

There’s not much to talk about when it comes to the aesthetics of the iPhone 7. If you’ve used an iPhone 6 or 6S you’ll feel immediately at home.

For standing out from the iPhone crowd, the new Jet Black finish is really your only option. A Jet Black iPhone 7 looks like no other handset. It’s not like the plastic iPhone 5C – this is a phone made out of metal, but which is smooth to touch without being slippery. Yes, it attracts fingerprints, but who cares when it looks this good?

The second new colour on offer is simply called Black. This replaces the Space Grey of previous models and makes the iPhone 7 looks like a mean machine. The other colours available are Silver, Gold and Rose Gold.

The iPhone 7’s size and shape is almost identical to the previous models, however the antenna bands that formerly ran across the back now tastefully curve around the ends, and the camera nub is more rounded. These changes are small, but welcome. It does feel like competitors have overtaken Apple in some respects, though.

The iPhone 7 retains those chunky top and bottom areas of its bezel and this means it offers less screen space for its size than the HTC 10, LG G5 or Samsung Galaxy S7. The latter has very similar dimensions but comes with a 5.1-inch screen, compared to the 4.7-incher on the iPhone 7.

That’s all there is to discuss about the aesthetics. However, there’s plenty to talk about when it comes to design. Apple's made some fundamental changes to the iPhone 7 that will affect the way you use your phone for better and worse.

Let’s start with the missing headphone socket. For some people this is going to be a big issue, but it hasn’t been a problem for me.

There are a number of potential reasons why Apple's decided to remove the 3.5mm socket from the iPhone 7, but the company won’t outright tell us why.

Space seems to be the primary factor when you look at the internal design. The new Haptic engine is a lot chunkier and takes up some of the space, as does the louder speaker that's been crammed into the bottom. Apple has clearly decided improved features on the iPhone 7 are better than keeping a 50-year-old connection, particularly since wireless headphones have become increasingly popular over the past few years. In fact, Apple has launched its own wireless headphones, called AirPods. Shame you're going to need 'courage' to wear AirPods outside..