Apple iPhone 7 Plus review
The new Product (RED) version adds more colour - here are our thoughts
from £719
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24 March 2017 / 12:57GMT
by
Elissa Loi
Fact: things are better when they come in pairs.
The rozzers would have a hard time arresting anyone with a single handcuff. Good luck knitting that ugly Christmas jumper with only one needle. And as if a solitary KitKat finger could ever last your entire tea break.
The particular pair we’re interested in, though? The two cameras pointing out the back of the Apple iPhone 7 Plus.
What used to just be a plus-sized version of the vanilla iPhone has now fully stolen the spotlight from its smaller brother, thanks to some clever camera tech. Combine it with all the other tweaks and upgrades Apple has made for 2016, and you’re going to find yourself needing bigger pockets - because this is now the best iPhone out there.
Dual cameras are nothing new: Huawei’s got a secondary black-and-white sensor on the P9, LG went wide-angle for the G5, and HTC had depth-of-field fanciness in the One M8.
Apple’s approach for the iPhone 7 Plus? One sensor for close-up snaps, and another for zooming in on the action. It's a genius idea that has a genuine effect on the shots you take. This ain't no gimmick.
So how does it work? Well, hop into the camera app and you’ll find a new 1x icon at the bottom of the screen. Tap it and you’ll switch from the f/1.8 wide angle sensor to the f/2.8 telephoto, for 2x optical zoom. You can tap and hold, then drag up or down to digitally zoom in up to 10x. Optical image stabilisation goes a long way to keeping your shots steady, even when you’re zoomed in, so you’ll be able to pap unsuspecting wildlife without spooking them, or get closer to the action at a gig without having to brave the moshpit.
Bear in mind though that the optical zoom only works up to 2x, and that even Apple’s legendary image processing can’t rescue the detail that gets lost once you start dialling up the digital zoom. As you'd expect, results at 10x look a bit too fuzzy to print, especially when you’re in the middle of a crowd of EDM ravers, but it’s still handy to use as a set of mobile binoculars.
Zoom also works when filming video, but only at 2x optical and 6x digital magnifications. That's fine though, because whereas the pinch-to-zoom feature on last year’s iPhones could leave your footage looking shakier than something out of the Blair Witch Project, you'll now have two hands to steady the phone. That, combined with OIS, really smoothes out video recording.
It helps that iOS 10 lets you swipe the lockscreen to the left to jump straight into the camera app now, too. The sizable Plus was prone to toppling over with the old swipe up gesture, but you can now keep a firm grip on it when you’re getting ready to snap that perfect selfie.
