Two and a half adapters
All upcoming iPhones won't have the familiar round headphone jack, and you'll have to live with that. In any case, if you plan to continue using smartphones of the American company.
Apple is known for its drive to aggressively dump what it thinks is outdated and rapidly innovate - and that's what it is loved for and why it is believed. If the guys from Cupertino decided that the laptop should not have a DVD drive, then this is necessary and it will be better for us. This usually happens. You are either with us or not, everything is simple. That is why, by the way, ill-wishers call Apple a "sect".
Ditching the headphone jack is the case: a radical step that has stirred up not only ordinary users, but the entire industry as a whole. I would very much like to look into the head offices of large electronics manufacturers and see what, excuse me, "movement" is going on there now.
“Not so simple” is the perfect phrase to describe all the changes that await us in the next couple of years.
Let's start with the main thing: the digital connector is cool. It will expand the functionality of the headphones, connect external audio processors to your smartphone, improve sound quality and do other useful and not-so-great things. You can really do just fine without the 3.5mm jack. In theory.
But in practice, everyone has essentially the same complaint about such a change: to connect your favorite "ears" you will need to carry an adapter with you. But the problem is not that the adapter is another thing from the category of "useful thing that is so easy to lose." It is much deeper than it seems.
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The iPhone is the world's most popular smartphone, which automatically means the world's most popular audio player. Offhand, 90% of all headphones are equipped with a 3.5 mm plug, and now manufacturers will be forced to "transplant" their most popular models to Lightning connectors. Or create new ones. On the one hand, this is great: the consumer does not care about production difficulties, and the ability to plug some Sennheiser into his new iPhone without any adapters and enjoy all the delights of digital sound seems very attractive.
The catch is that Lightning is a connector only found on Apple mobile devices. In the world of Android and Windows Ultrabooks, Type-C is now reigning supreme, another great digital jack that can of course also be used as a headphone input.
Some Chinese companies ditched the 3.5mm input even before the iPhone 7 unveiled (though I still think this was done based on leaks about future iPhones). And if the trend is picked up by other companies, it will be a complete mess.
Imagine this situation: two years have passed, round mini-jack connectors in the mobile world have finally died, and your main phone is, say, an iPhone 8s. You bought yourself new headphones with a Lightning connector and saved yourself the hassle of an adapter every time you want to listen to music on your phone. But in order to connect them, say, to a computer at work, you need an adapter, but not the one that comes with the smartphone, but the opposite one. Then you want to watch a movie on a new Android tablet with a Type-C connector - if you please get an adapter, another one. Another.
Of course, I raised all the difficulties to the absolute, just for clarity. But given the tendency with which manufacturers usually follow the trends set by Apple, the situation does not seem so unrealistic.
This problem can indeed be solved by wireless communication, about which Philip Schiller spoke so inspiringly. The irony is that AirPods will definitely not do this: they, of course, look great, but according to Western journalists, the same sound as in EarPods is quite mediocre. But as a role model, they are very much even nothing.
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In general, it seems that Apple itself does not fully know why it removed the headphone jack. Remember how they presented their innovative "chips", a fingerprint scanner, 3D Touch. Dozens of demonstrations on how to use all of this, how all this will change our lives. And you believed, even if you understood, that somewhere there must be a catch. Here … Well yes, we removed the headphone jack because it is outdated, it took some courage on our part, here's the new $ 169 wired EarPods and wireless Air Pods, enjoy. And so that you don't feel unhappy, we put a small adapter in the box. Thanks, Apple(no kidding, the included adapter is a great idea), but then what are the advantages of not using the traditional port? I understand that in this way the company is pushing the industry forward, but from the point of view of an ordinary user, this decision is still meaningless.
To summarize: there is nothing wrong with giving up the headphone jack, but for the good of the world, get ready to carry around an adapter or charger for your wireless headset for a couple of years. How to treat such news, let everyone decide for himself.
Two cameras
But this is definitely something for which you can think about buying an iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. Cameras in Apple smartphones have always been a miracle as good, and "sevens", apparently, will not be an exception. Particularly interesting in this regard is the large version - two 12-megapixel modules are installed there at once. Firstly, now the smartphone has an optical zoom - you can enlarge the image on the screen without losing quality.
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Second, and more importantly, the iPhone 7 Plus will be able to shoot portrait shots with beautiful bokeh (background blur behind the subject). According to Apple, a special processor installed in a smartphone uses algorithms to detect a person's face and body contours, and then, keeping the object in focus, “blur” the environment behind it. But in fact, you don't need to know how it all works, just look at the pictures from the presentation - they look terribly good.
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As for the usual "seven", it will not receive such functionality. But since Apple has tightened up the basic camera parameters (for example, the aperture is now 1.8, so expect some cool photos in the dark), it will still shoot better than the 6S. The smaller version also features optical image stabilization.
Old new design
Another largely controversial point is design. For the third year in a row, Apple has not deviated from the design principles of the iPhone 6. In fact, the iPhone 7 is a slightly modified "six": antennas, for example, now go along the edge of the device, and do not stick out "stripes" on the back cover. However, if you believe the journalists who got acquainted with the new smartphones in the demo zone, the “seven” is felt somewhat differently. This is especially true for the two new black versions of the iPhone: matte and glossy. The latter is especially interesting: firstly, such a color scheme is available only when purchasing 128 or 256 GB models. Secondly, this is something really new in the iPhone lineup - the smartphone shines in the sun, as if smeared with oil. In general, he is terribly beautiful, but, apparently, not entirely practical. Applealready now warns that it is quite easy to scratch.
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In general, the design of the iPhone 6 looks great and acceptable even now. It has only one drawback: giant frames around the display. The 5.5-inch 7 Plus, for example, is larger than the 5.7-inch Galaxy Note 7. However, many consumers do not see the problem of large frames point-blank.
The iPhone 7 will also be waterproof. There are no downsides to this feature, so let's just enjoy it.>
