iPhone 7 vs iPhone 6: What's the difference? (2024)

Do you have an iPhone 6? Then Appel you need.

iPhone 6 owners are specifically the ones Apple expects to buypolarizing iPhone 7. Why? Because most iPhone 6S owners are still tied to 18-month contracts, and the iPhone 6 is selling in record numbers. Are the differences between the iPhone 7 and iPhone 6 significant enough to earn your hard-earned cash, or are there too many compromises? Let's see…

Please note: If you decide to upgrade, you will need to enter my detailsiPhone 7 vs iPhone 7 Plus reviewhelps you choose between the new models.

Design and size - similar, but only on the outside

Two of the biggest controversies about the iPhone 7 stem from its design. The first is that it looks almost identical for the third year in a row. This can be seen in the specifications:

• iPhone 7 - 138,3 x 67,1 x 7,1 mm (5,44 x 2,64 x 0,28 tommer) en 138 g (4,87 oz)
• iPhone 6 - 138,1 x 67 x 6,9 mm (5,44 x 2,64 x 0,27 tommer) en 129 g (4,55 oz)

The good news is that the iPhone 7's design improvements aren't just superficial. It's stronger than the iPhone 6 (which is prone to bending) thanks to the use of Series 7000 aluminum, it's waterproof and can survive completely underwater for 30 minutes, and the home button has now been fixed (disguised by clever use of haptic feedback) , which eliminates a notorious failure point.

There's also a hidden gem: the iPhone 7 has an amplified earpiece that enables loud external stereo sound for the first time.

But the second controversy is harder to justify: Apple has confirmed thismy exclusive story from 2014removing the ubiquitous 3.5mm headphone jack, iPhone 7 owners will have to use the Lightning port for both charging and wired Lightning headphones.

Wireless headphone fans won't mind this, but owners of premium wired headphones will need to bring a 3.5mm to Lightning adapter, which could be a deal breaker. This compromise was made worse by Apple keeping the 3.5mm headphone jack on its new MacBook Pro laptops and not adding a Lightning port.

Showing - An old dog learns new tricks

Just like the exterior, a quick glance at the iPhone 7's display specs won't do much to make iPhone 6 owners reach for their wallets:

• iPhone 6 – 4.7-inch IPS LCD display with LED backlight, 1334 x 750 pixels (326 ppi), 65.6% screen-to-body ratio
• iPhone 7 – 4.7" IPS LCD with LED backlight, 1334 x 750 pixels (326 ppi), 65.6% screen-to-body ratio. 3D Touch

But then again, there's more here than meets the eye. For starters, Apple has increased the maximum brightness of the iPhone 7 by 25% compared to the iPhone 6S (which was already brighter than the iPhone 6) and added support for a Wide (P3) color gamut so that colors are extremely accurate. You won't get OLED blackness levels, but this is the best LCD screen it's ever looked.

The iPhone 7 also offers 3D Touch, just like the iPhone 6S. 3D Touch's ability to detect different levels of pressure, activate 'peek and pop' shortcuts (particularly on icons and for viewing emails and links) is nice, but hasn't really taken off yet. So owners love it, but just as many forget it's even there.

Read more - iPhone 7 vs iPhone 6S: What's the difference?

Performance - Major speed improvements

But perhaps the best reason to upgrade from the iPhone 6 to the iPhone 7 is speed:

• iPhone 6 - Apple A8: Dual Core CPU, Quad core GPU, 1 GB RAM
• iPhone 7 - Apple A10 Fusion: Quad Core CPU, Six Core GPU, 2 GB RAM

Simply put, the iPhone 7 is currently the fastest smartphone in the world. It's a benchmark beast and its real-world performance obliterates the competition with only Google's excellencePixel en Pixel XLsmartphones that prove to be worthy competition.

How does this compare to the iPhone 6? Let's put it this way: the iPhone 6S's CPU and GPU are 70% and 90% faster, respectively, than the iPhone 6, and the iPhone 7 delivers an additional 40% CPU and 50% GPU boost over the iPhone 6S. Plus, iPhone 7's extra RAM means apps stay in memory longer, so you don't have to reload as much when you're multitasking.

All in all, the iPhone 7 is a lightning-fast phone.

The iPhone 7 also comes with the second generation of Apple's Touch ID fingerprint sensor (see also in the iPhone 6S). Touch ID on the iPhone 6 was never slow, but the iPhone 7 sensor is lightning fast and extremely accurate. Touch ID and Google's Nexus Imprint are currently clear leaders in their class.

Finally, the iPhone 7 makes a big leap in the speed of its modem. It can now reach 450 Mbit, compared to 150 Mbit on the iPhone 6 (it reaches a top speed of 300 Mbit on the iPhone 6S). How often you'll experience a 4G network fast enough to take advantage of it is an entirely different question.

Cameras - A solid but not exceptional upgrade

The problem with the iPhone 6 is that it still takes extremely good photos and videos. For many it is even perfectgood enough. So is the iPhone 7 worth the upgrade for its optics? To be honest, that wouldn't be my main reason.

On paper the specs look good:

• iPhone 6 – Back: 8 megapixel sensor, f2.4 aperture, Focus Pixels, EIS, Dual LED flash, 4K video recording. Front: 1.2 MP front camera, f2.4 aperture, 720p video recording
• iPhone 7 - Back: 12 megapixel wide-angle sensor, f/1.8 aperture, focus pixel, optical image stabilization, quad-LED (dual tone) flash, 4K video recording. Front: 7MP sensor, f/2.2 aperture, 1080p recording

But in reality, I found the iPhone 7's camera disappointing. It's slightly sharper and more accurate in sunny conditions, and low-light shooting is improved thanks to the wider aperture, but it's not a revolutionary leap forward considering the difference between two generations.

Instead, the biggest jump comes from the 7MP front camera. This isn't a flagship, but the iPhone 6 has a famously awful 1.2MP front shooter, and it was a shame. That aside, the iPhone 6 had an all-consuming smartphone camera at the time of its release, but now Apple has fallen behind Samsung and Google (especially in itsFirst attempt).

So yes, the iPhone 7 has a very good camera and you'll enjoy it on its own, but it won't change your photography from the iPhone 6.

Battery life and charging - The stagnation continues

While the iPhone Plus series continues to receive well-deserved praise for its exceptional battery life, the iPhone 7 has made virtually no progress over the past two years.

For starters, the battery capacity has changed little (iPhone 6 - 1810 mAh, iPhone 7 - 1960 mAh) and you'll still struggle to get a full day out of it with anything but light use. But the additional own goal is Apple's continued refusal to offer fast charging from the box to owners.

Little-known fact: Like the iPhone 6, iPhone 7 owners can charge faster by using an iPad charger, but this route still falls far short of the super-fast charging times offered by Android rivals. This is especially evident during short periods of 'charging', with competitors delivering 5-7 hours of use from just 15 minutes of charging. iPhones can't come close to this, and Apple really needs to address this (and arguably support wireless charging) in 2017.

Read more - iPhone 7 Plus vs iPhone 6S Plus: What's the difference?

Storage and price - a big step forward

Where the iPhone 7 becomes exciting again, however, is Apple's decision to double the storage capacity across the entire range:

• iPhone 7 - 32 GB ($649), 128 GB ($749), 256 GB ($849)

The good news for US buyers is that this comes at a small premium compared to the original retail price of the smaller capacity iPhone 6 (although the price increases elsewhere in the world are considerably higher), and could be a dealbreaker for many.

The joker in the package here is of course the iPhone 6S. Apple has also doubled its base and mid-range capacity (but dropped the top model) and now sells it for $100 less. Therefore, a 128GB iPhone 6S can be purchased for the same price as a 32GB iPhone 7, and you get to keep the headphone jack.

For some, this will be a surprisingly powerful option.

In short

Even Apple's biggest fans will admit that the iPhone 7 isn't what they imagined two years after Apple's record-breaking iPhone 6. The design, screen (especially resolution), camera and battery life/charging have stagnated, and the headphone jack has been removed, making life frustrating for anyone unwilling to go wireless.

But look at the iPhone 7heralso improved in every way: the chassis is much stronger and water resistant, the screen is brighter and more color accurate, the camera is better and the battery life - actually no, the battery life is still not good enough.

So should you upgrade to iPhone 7 from iPhone 6?

My personal opinion is no. Unless you have a badly damaged iPhone 6, it remains an excellent phone, and it's worth noting that Apple will tooradically upgrade the iPhone in 2017on the occasion of the line's 10th anniversary. As such, iPhone 7 upgraders will probably be happy now, but not in ten months. As they say, patience is a virtue.

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