- [Michael] Plus, adjective, from the Latin plus,
meaning more; positive; a surplus or gain.
For three generations Apple has released a Plus version
of its iconic iPhone and this one
lives up to its name better than ever.
I'm Michael Fisher, and this is the new iPhone
you should buy, if you've got the hands for it.
(upbeat techno music)
Think of this video as a companion to my iPhone 7 review,
which I encourage you to watch,
as it covers a lot of stuff I won't be touching on here.
Like the new Taptic Engine, the water and dust resistance,
and the death of the headphone jack.
At its core, the 7 Plus is just a 7 on steroids.
But the thing is, the Plus' improvements
are in the most critical aspects of a smartphone experience.
Display, battery, and camera.
First, let's take the display,
which is almost an inch larger on the diagonal,
and also steps up the pixel density by 23%.
On the one hand, this shines a big, bright light
on one of my biggest complaints about the iPhone.
It doesn't let you run multiple apps side by side
like we see on the iPad or Android phones.
That said, some apps do include Split View,
which lets you be a little more productive,
and there's more functionality in landscape mode
on the keyboard,
ugly though it is.
Bigger is just better,
and it's kind of tedious to list all the ways that's true,
so let's all agree that it is.
More significant to me is battery life.
And while the iPhone 7 is fine in this department,
the Plus is very good.
You might have wondered why, a minute ago,
I didn't mention Apple's refusal
to go with a higher display resolution.
After all, this phone's principle competition
has a panel that's 30% sharper and much brighter.
Well, staying put at only full HD,
and packing in a bigger battery,
resulted in an iPhone that's very hard to run dry.
I spent most of my days listening
to at least an hour of radio streamed over Bluetooth,
with about two hours of wireless hotspots
serving a connected tablet or laptop,
and three to fours hours of the battery killing
social, email, and browsing cocktail.
Starting at a full charge around 8:00 a.m.,
this phone, routinely, lasts me through midnight.
In fact, for the past few days, I've been using
this device with the display timeout disabled.
I'll sometimes just put it down and forget about it,
so it just glows and wastes battery,
and it still lasts forever.
That's more than I can say for the iPhone 7,
or, almost any other smartphone.
The most significant bump for this year's Plus
is the one that holds the cameras.
Previous Pluses brought added features, but this year,
the guts inside the optics hump are doubled.
Two separate sensors, each with it's own lens.
The standard camera is the same as on the iPhone 7.
12 megapixels with OIS, a large aperture,
and a 28 millimeter lens.
The other camera is also 12 megapixels,
but trades aperture size for a 56 millimeter lens.
Apple calls it a telephoto camera,
but, whatever the terminology, it's really useful.
When you zoom in using most smartphones,
including the iPhone 7,
all you're doing is cropping the capture area.
Which makes the photo look like hot garbage.
With this new camera and lens, though, the 7 Plus
lets you go up to two X magnification
without cropping the image.
And you don't need to be shooting a concert
or a skyscraper to benefit from the convenience,
sometimes it's just easier to frame a shot
with zoom right in the viewfinder.
I'm not gonna say this camera's perfect.
As always, low light brings out lots of noise.
As I mentioned in the iPhone 7 review,
I still prefer the Galaxy S7 camera to this one.
But I used this device for a lot of shots
in my Chevy Volt review,
and for miscellaneous photos on other Mr. Mobile projects,
and I have yet to hear a single complaint.
And when the full depth-of-field effects come out of beta,
the Plus will have yet another arrow in it's camera quiver.
I don't generally run beta software,
but iMore has a great preview of this feature,
which I'll link in the description.
I'll shut up for a second,
so you can draw your own conclusions
based on some more sample footage.
(rowers shouting in background)
(water tinkling)
(motor humming)
(very distant traffic humming)
Finally, many of you have asked me about the dreaded hiss.
And, yep, I hear it.
Push the iPhone to its limit for awhile
with a graphics heavy game,
then take it into a sound booth and put it up to
a microphone with the gain maxed out,
and you hear this.
If you didn't hear anything, congratulations,
you probably won't be bothered by the hiss.
Which, by the way, is most probably a harmless
phenomenon called coil whine
that you sometimes also hear from wall chargers.
If it bugs you, you can try swapping it out
at an Apple Store, but just keep in mind
the company hasn't officially acknowledged the issue,
so your success may come down to
who takes your appointment at the Genius Bar.
Look, I get it, big phones aren't for everyone.
Personally, the iPhone 7 Minus
is almost the perfect size for me, because I like phones
I can easily use with one hand.
Comparatively, the Plus is a monster.
And, I think it's bigger than it needs to be.
Other companies can build svelter waterproof smartphones
with screens as big, or bigger,
so if design ambition is top of your list,
you do have options elsewhere.
But, if the top of your list is having the new iPhone,
and you want the absolute best iPhone,
well, the Plus is your pick.
I realize this is a predictable conclusion
because, after all, that's what the Plus was built to be,
but, hey, sometimes companies achieve what they set out to.
In my view, the iPhone 7 Plus is the iPhone
most likely to keep you happiest the longest,
even if it takes your wallet a little longer to recover.
For a deeper dive on the latest iPhone,
check out Mr. Mobile's iPhone 7 review.
And remember to subscribe on YouTube
for more mobile tech videos just like this one.
Until next time, thanks for watching.
And stay mobile, my friends.
(upbeat techno music)