iPhone 7 Review Roundup: Apple's Smartphone Features Longer Battery Life, Offers Better Camera

The highly anticipated iPhone 7 has finally arrived and the reviews are in.

Steven Kovach at Business Insider said the phone’s appearance is very similar to previous models. He wrote: “It looks almost exactly like the iPhone 6s and the iPhone 6 before it, more like an iPhone 6ss than a brand-new generation of iPhone.”

Evan Kypreos from Trusted Reviews argued that despite Apple’s internal upgrades on the mobile device, Samsung still manages to have a better phone. He wrote: “The Samsung Galaxy S7 is almost the same size but comes with a bigger screen. A few years ago I never thought I’d say that Samsung would be out-designing Apple, but that’s exactly what’s happened.”

Although there is no headphone jack, customers can still plug headphones into their iPhone 7, they just need an adapter. Kovach said: “The iPhone 7 comes with new EarPods that are almost exactly the same except they plug into the Lightning port, which is found only on Apple devices. That essentially forces you to carry around two pairs of headphones if you want to be sure you can plug into anything you want.”

While the iPhone 7 offers an improved camera that captures more light, the iPhone 7 Plus features a second lens that allows two times the optical zoom creating the ideal photo. Lisa Eadicicco from Yahoo! Tech praised the feature: “Their upgraded cameras take in more light, while the larger Plus model features a second lens for zooming.”

Forbes writer Ewan Spence was content with Apple's choice of the “inclusion of optical image stabilization.” His review stated: “What it has done is improved the image quality by a similar amount to Samsung. Apple has kept pace with the industry standards of image quality and as a pocket point and shoot style camera the iPhone 7 succeeds in the mission.”

Samsung has already mastered water resistance with several of their phone models however, Apple is being applauded for finally creating a water resistant device. Customers must take precaution, however, with how long they expose their device to water. The iPhone 7 can be submerged in 3.3 feet of water for about 30 minutes.

Roger Fingas from Apple Insider had his doubts about the waterproof quality. “Apple has largely been silent about how it made the iPhone 7 water-resistant, except to say that it re-engineered the iPhone ‘from the inside out’ in many respects, also developing new seals and adhesives," he wrote.

Anick Jesdanun from Japan Today defended the phone's water resistance. He wrote: “The iPhone 7 is seriously water resistant; putting it under a faucet for a few minutes merely muffled the speakers and made the touch screen stop working until I dried it off.”

Despite the list of upgrades for the iPhone 7, many reviews have advised people with the iPhone 6s to hold on to their device rather than getting the newest version. But for everyone else, the upgrade might be worth it.