I just got my new iPhone 7 and after a couple of hours of fiddling with it I’m pretty pleased. Though I can’t really tell you if it’s a good upgrade versus a 6 or a Samsung or whatever because I’m upgrading from a fricking iPhone 4 so everything on this is like high space magic in comparison.
The 3.5mm audio adapter is decent enough. My main concern was whether lateral force on the adapter from being crammed in my pockets would wear on the plug too much over time, but as luck would have it it slightly sticks out from the pockets on my pants so there’s not much pressure on it, and the ports fit pretty snugly so nothing’s going to come loose easily. Just unplugging the 3.5mm jack and leaving the Lightning part in is still sensed and stops playing music, as I’d hoped. i haven’t bothered to try the included Lightning earbuds since Apple’s earbuds have never fit me very well.
I know there are all sorts of fancypants camera metrics and comparisons out there, but all I can tell is that it’s a big improvement over the old one. Before heading to the store to get the new SIM I tried to take a picture of the back of the box in case I needed the IMEI or whatever, and I just could not get a decent, focused, non-shaking photo with the 4. Going back and trying again with the 7, it was a perfect pic first time. Yay for optical stabilization!
The home button is eh, whatever, I’m not too attached to it feeling any particular way. I’m still getting used to force touch in other places though. I’m pinching and zooming and suddenly force touch kicks in and I don’t know what triggered it or what it’s supposed to mean!
iTunes still sucks. After restoring my old data to the new phone, it kept asking if I wanted to set it up as a new phone or restore a backup again. Counter-intuitively, you want to ‘set up as a new phone’ even though it’s already got all your stuff on it now.
Oh yeah, and the grip on it is weird, with the rounded edges. I prefer (or am at least used to) the solid grip I’d have on the flat metal edges of the 4, which I had never dropped in all the time I had it, but the 7 feels a lot more slippery and I’ve almost dropped it twice already. But then I put the case on it and it doesn’t matter anymore. :P