
The iPhones 7 - alexbilbie
http://daringfireball.net/2016/09/the_iphones_7
======
ClassyJacket
>I think the real performance story with the A10 Fusion is not what it scores
on benchmarks, nor how fast it feels in use, but what it does for battery life
with its truly innovative dual two-core design. When high performance is
called for, the A10 Fusion uses two performance optimized cores. When it’s
not, is uses two energy-efficiency-optimized cores. To my knowledge there has
never been a system like this in a phone.

Well, that's just wrong. Android phones had this years ago. The near
ubiquitous Snapdragon 810 uses a Big.Little architecture.

~~~
brudgers
Technically, it's not wrong because the statement is prefaced with 'To my
knowledge'. Whether the author's knowledge is more extensive in the domain of
the history of Apple's iPhone color offerings than the domain of mobile
processor technologies implemented withing the industry does not alter the
technical correctness of the statement.

~~~
JustSomeNobody
Oh, come on! It would take 2 minutes for him to verify his statement.

~~~
brudgers
Technically, the author already verified their statement by examining the
extent of their knowledge. Personally, I would not be surprised if the author
chose their words with an eye toward ensuing social media interactions and the
nature of the blog's readership.

It is not a technique about which I believe I am unaware or have not employed
on the interwebs to dampen the apparent appeal of argumentative replies, and I
suspect that I am probably not mistaken about that belief. YMMV, but I feel it
is probably sometimes advantageous to write in such a way.

------
redial
First, I am not Gruber.

Second, the hate he gets on every comments thread is very fun and entertaining
to read, but I think it is often misplaced, and always ad-hominem.

Yes, one third of the 'review' is about the finish, and yes one third of the
review is about home button usage patterns from Asia, but personally, that is
why I read them, that is why they are _unique_ , because they are not
_cultural_ reviews from The Verge, or _technical_ reviews from Ars Technica,
or _node process_ reviews from Anandtech, which I also read. That is also why
I don't read Engadget's review, or Gizmodo's one (are they still online?);
their reviews are a subset of the others.

This is clearly a case of niche focus, he writes stuff others won't. And I'm
glad I get to read his writing because, and this is the important part, _I get
to make my own mind_ , I don't have to agree with him.

~~~
jgruber
Thanks man. That's exactly what I try to do.

------
scandox
Why am I incapable of either discerning or caring about any of this? I can't
help but be impressed by his incredible attention to detail and his
understanding of the design choices and their ramifications ... but I still
feel like I'm reading about the mating habits of some alien species.
Interesting yes. But also bizarre and faintly ridiculous.

~~~
skywhopper
People have different tastes and obsessions. I enjoy Gruber's writing about
Apple products, but his extreme obsession on other topics baffles me. YMMV. I
think it's a good thing that there are lots of different types of people on
the world. There's extreme value in that diversity.

~~~
scandox
The thing is I totally agree with you. Intellectually speaking I try to
respect the diversity. But viscerally I react with complete bafflement.

------
mulletbum
This reminds me of people who I dealt with in retail.

People would buy beautiful laptops, with glossy finishes, interesting detail.
Yet, people would never pull the original plastic off the surrounding covers
or back cover. They would bring in their computers to be worked on and have
this hideous, dirt crusted, half pulled up, sheet of plastic flapping in the
breeze on their computer. I would ask them why they did this and they always
said the same thing: "Because I don't want to scratch the laptop."

I would then go through my speal about how, if their entire purpose for
keeping the plastic on was to keep it looking pristine, why did they put up
with it looking like shit for years. By the time they get sick of dealing with
said plastic, they will pull it off only to realize that the dirt and grime
that has accumulated under that plastic causes tiny scratches in the surface
of their laptop.

In summary: Laptops with plastic on them looked like shit to begin with, once
removed the laptop still looked like shit from leaving the original plastic
on. Take the plastic off, enjoy how beautiful your laptop is and try to take
care of it to the best of your ability. Nothing lasts forever.

~~~
gumby
Laptops are still in the "big investment" category. (I put that in quotes
because many, even the majority, of non-apple laptops cost less than a phone).

When my wife replaced her 1st gen macbook air she brought it to the shop to
have the data transferred. She's a painter and it was covered with drips and
smears of paint and had various nicks and other blemishes -- it was plainly a
working tool. All the staff at the Palo Alto Apple store came to take a look
at it because they were not used to seeing a machine not treated with kid
gloves.

~~~
redial
Do you happen by any chance to have a photo of said laptop?

~~~
gumby
I doubt it -- it was a long time ago, and why would she take a picture of her
laptop? (I am sure it is in the corner or background of various photos though
-- these things are ubiquitous).

------
grecy
I find it fascinating that a review of an extremely complex piece of
technology devotes 1,500 words to the _color_ of the _back_ of the thing. What
a world.

~~~
Malic
Agreed. The over-fascination with a feature of a product that is only apparent
_when you aren 't actually using the product_ is optimizing for an edge-case.

~~~
cwyers
What percentage of these phones are going in a case as soon as they're bought?

~~~
Unklejoe
A large percentage. However, a surprisingly high number of my friends are
rocking their phones without a case lately. It makes me nervous considering
how fragile they are, but I think there's some appeal to going caseless,
though I'm not sure what it is.

Perhaps it's easier to slide into your pocket?

Or maybe it's more about letting everyone know that you have the latest phone?
Who knows.

~~~
OberstKrueger
For myself, I go caseless because, 1) I like the feel of a solid metal device
in my hand over plastic or rubber, and 2) it's thinner without a case, and
easier to handle.

I have a leather wallet case that the phone slides into easily for when its in
my pocket, as I wouldn't want it to get damaged being jostled around, but it's
quick to take out when I want to use it.

~~~
Udo_Schmitz
Do you have a link for your case?

~~~
OberstKrueger
[http://kavaj.com/iphone-6-plus-cases-black/](http://kavaj.com/iphone-6-plus-
cases-black/)

I use the Miami that's at the top of that page. It was 20-someodd US dollars
on Amazon, and has held up well for the year I've had it.

------
davidf18
I iPhone 6s+ owner here with iPhone 7+ on order. I wish some of the reviewers
would cover the voice quality when using the iPhone as _a phone._ The iPhone
6s(+) added another microphone for noise cancellation and also it uses H.265
for FaceTime Video compression over cell networks (2x H.264 compression) and
one is able to use VoLTE (I'm on Verizon). But I'm always looking for better
cell phone quality.

I actually received a phone call while just to about to get on a NYC subway, 1
story below ground and the person couldn't wait until I took my subway trip,
so we chatted for awhile while several subways passed both uptown and downtown
(they come every 3 - 5 minutes in each direction). She claimed she could here
me speaking just fine even when the subway is arriving :-)

But sometimes, people have trouble hearing me on the iPhone and on the Apple
$80 in-hear microphone.

I'm curious if there are any upgrade to the iPhone 7 that improves the voice
quality and I wish at least one reviewer would test this out.

Also, as an aside, I'm disappointed that the iPhone 7 doesn't cover band 66
(AWS-3) spectrum. I guess there aren't any modem chips out yet (at least not
from Qualcomm which is what the Verizon and Sprint CDMA phones use).

Still in dense markets like NYC, even though Verizon has far more spectrum
than AT&T, I expect that in the next year or two the existing spectrum will be
filling up.

I've been using the iPhone leather case since the 5s (when it first came out)
and I've only had one screen break.

~~~
sarvinc
Sounds like you should be doing this. I'd read it :)

------
janvdberg
I love the part about AssistiveTouch. I was just in China last week and also
noticed this and couldn't explain it. I thought it had something to do with
Chinese writing/characters. But this makes more sense: "why don’t they click
the home button? Because of a widespread misconception that the home button
will wear out, thus reducing the resale value of the iPhone."

~~~
jbmorgado
> _widespread misconception that the home button will wear out_

I don't know if Apple finally fixed that in the iPhone 6, but it was
everything but a misconception, I had the problem in my iPhone 3G and iPhone
4s my girlfriend in her 5s. Many friends in different versions of the iPhone.

The _home button_ did break after some use.

~~~
Macha
Happened to my younger brother on two generations of iPod touch also.

------
saturdaysaint
Say what you want about Gruber's breathless/obsessive style, but as an
upgrading iOS user, I found two bits very useful that weren't in the other 2
reviews I read:

-Jet black is the grippiest iPhone finish ever -no OIS on the telephoto lens, making it much less useful than the default lens for night photos and video

~~~
thatswrong0
> -Jet black is the grippiest iPhone finish ever

The only reason I use a case on my iPhone is because without one, when I'm
holding it, I feel like I am constantly on the verge of a rapid unplanned
jettison. The thing is so slick and thin that I can't grip it very well.

I'm a-ok with micro-abrasions and treat my phone well, so maybe I'll spring
for the jet black version.

------
xiaoma
The jet black ones look fantastic to me as well and I had worried a bit about
durability since I've dropped, scraped and generally abused every phone I've
had and I don't like cases.

I may be a bit unusual in this, but I actually want a _smaller_ screen. Like
everyone else, I want the phone to be thinner and lighter too, but I miss the
days of being able to take my phone with my in my pocket when I go out
running. a 4" screen at current iPhone thicknesses would be amazing. I'm not
going to watch movies or write long HN comments on a phone. I just need
something _small_ that works for checking email, texting and playing me music.

Also on the topic of size, as my screen resolution keeps increasing over the
years it feels like John is writing in smaller and smaller text! By changing
literally nothing, he's been offering a worse and worse UX.

~~~
jandrese
If you want a smaller screen take a gander at the iPhone SE. My biggest
disappointment with the keynote is that they didn't update the SE's internals
with the new A10, expanded memory, and storage. It's kind of annoying that the
company assumes if you want a smaller screen you must be on a tight budget and
willing to accept compromises. This holds true for most Android phones too,
smaller screen == poverty option.

~~~
MrJagil
I think it might update on another schedule. It was introduced in March:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_SE](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_SE)

------
apiguy
I think it's really strange that the headphone jack wasn't mentioned at all in
the review. In the one instance he refers to it he says "where the
whatchamacalit jack used to be".

~~~
anexprogrammer
He made an entire blog post 110% or more on side about the courage to remove
the headphone socket, and how it would make the world a markedly better place
and cure world hunger. Of course it's hardly the first time he's had a
ridiculously pro-Apple position.

Came up on HN the day of the event I think.

------
bane
> Second, both black finishes exemplify Apple’s obsession and mastery with
> materials engineering.

But first, the Jet Black one is going to scuff and nick like hell. But because
of feelings Gruber thinks it's both better and a demonstration of materials
mastery and engineering.

Thanks Gruber, 12 paragraphs defining why a poor materials choice that
requires a case (which counters the thinness of the phone which was the
justification for why the headphone jack is gone) is a demonstration of
mastery.

Here's the tl;dr of any Gruber review of an Apple product, he loves it. All
the issues are examples of courage, and all the real problems don't get talked
about ("where the whatchamacallit jack used to go"). He'll point out a token
"problem" but, just like in this example, he then goes on at length about why
it's actually some bold solution to a problem that's not actually a problem
but is really about how dumb some users are (so dumb that the thing they're
doing wrong even gets an entire paragraph of a footnote about how Apple is
even helping them through the hopeless superstitious morass of their lives).

Even points that might be interesting to read about (the camera) can't be
trusted because he's such a compromised reviewer.

A much better, and still favorable, review is the other one on the front page
today by the Verge. There's issues with that review as well, but at least the
information in the review is well balanced and considered and not thousands of
words of apologia and user blaming.

~~~
aljones
Why does it require a case? Its a matter of taste, which obviously makes it
not required.

~~~
ethagknight
It requires a case because Apple must have designed it assuming everyone uses
a case anyway. I've used every iPhone I've ever owned without a case, every
version from 2-6. I'm always careful with them. I've never broken a screen
until iPhone 6, which I've replaced and broken yet again, because it's so slim
and the rounded edges are slippery. It's the first iPhone I've really
disliked, design-wise. You have to use a case to avoid dropping it. Most
egregious though: the thing will not lie flat on a surface thanks to the
camera lens protrusion. And since the lens sticks out, I'm much more likely to
grab it by the lens when pulling it out of my pocket (everything else is so
slick) so my photos are smudge-blurred (along with countless photos I receive
from my parents phones) unless I take time to wipe the lens on my shirt.

I just ordered a 7 and will begrudgingly order a case along with it. I felt
like the 5 was the pinnacle for exterior design, and I considered buying the
new 5 SE version of that, but I really need/want the latest internals given
the amount these devices cost.

Edit: cleaned up some writing in the last paragraph

~~~
Intermernet
View from the other side:

I'm empathetic. I upgraded a Samsung S5 to an S7 and I'm mostly extremely
happy. The phone is astounding, the weight, speed and battery life are
brilliant.

Unfortunately, they've done something to the design and finish. It's _much_
more slippery than the S5. I _never_ dropped my S5, and in the 2 months I've
had my S7 I've fumbled and dropped it multiple times. No damage yet, but I
feel like it's a matter of time. I usually use phones without a case, but I
feel like I should buy one for this phone!

EDIT: The S5 has "rubberized" textured back panel and grooved edges. The S7
has a mirror-smooth back panel and shine edges. I feel that they've sacrificed
function for form here.

------
draw_down
> I wouldn’t be surprised if the news stories and pundit hot takes about jet
> black iPhone scratches and scuffs outnumber those about the Samsung Galaxy
> Note 7 literally exploding and hurting people.

Haha, probably so.

------
bryanlarsen
The Note 7 recall resulted in a $20B market cap drop for Samsung, about 15%.
I'd bet good money at poor odds that 'scuffgate' will not have anywhere close
to the same impact.

~~~
Steko
He's specifically talking about pundit hot takes though. Would you take _that_
bet?

------
izietto
tl;dr please?? It's too much to read for me!

~~~
izietto
Why downvotes :(

