The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus Review: Iterating on a Flagship
by Joshua Ho & Brandon Chester on October 10, 2016 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Apple
- Mobile
- iOS
- iOS 10
- iPhone 7
- iPhone 7 Plus
Video Performance
While still images probably constitute a significant portion of what a smartphone camera is used for, video performance still remains important as anything moving or with a notable sound requires video or something that is but quite isn’t a video. In order to test video performance, we use direct comparison with two devices recording simultaneously on the same rig.
| iPhone 7 Video Encode Settings | ||||
| Video | Audio | |||
| 1080p30 | 16 Mbps H.264 High Profile | 86 Kbps, 44.1 KHz AAC | ||
| 1080p60 | 25 Mbps H.264 High Profile | 86 Kbps, 44.1 KHz AAC | ||
| 4kP30 | 48 Mbps H.264 High Profile | 86 Kbps, 44.1 KHz AAC | ||
| 1080p120 | 38 Mbps H.264 High Profile | 86 Kbps, 44.1 KHz AAC | ||
| 720p240 | 38 Mbps H.264 High Profile | 86 Kbps, 44.1 KHz AAC | ||
Before we get into the actual results I want to discuss the video encode settings. It's kind of interesting to see how the iPhone only records mono audio, which I suspect is a function of not having enough microphones to do noise cancellation and useful stereo recording. It's also interesting to see how Apple can actually encode AVC High Profile for all video – including 4kP30 at 48 Mbps – which is more than I can say for a number of high-end flagships this year. This suggests that the encode blocks are capable of keeping up without any strange problems.
| 1080p30 Video |
Looking at 1080p30 video I'm just profoundly disappointed by how high-end Android devices perform in comparison. The state of affairs here is so depressing there's really no reason to compare 1080p60, 4K, or slow motion capture because it's clear to me that something is just fundamentally broken (or consistently misconfigured) with Snapdragon 820's encode blocks. Even casual examination reveals massive macroblocking any time the sky comes into view, which is something we've consistently seen with the HTC 10, Galaxy S7, LG G5, and OnePlus 3. Other than this, the LG G5 and Galaxy S7 both have extremely oversaturated color rendition which just doesn't represent reality. The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus clearly have better output than any other Android device. The iPhone 7 Plus and iPhone 7 with the 28mm focal length camera perform quite similarly to the iPhone 6s Plus other than some improvements in dynamic range and noise reduction, so I'd refer back to the iPhone 6s review for those interested in learning about how the iPhone 7 stacks up because the state of the art in Android has not progressed since then.
| OIS Video |
In the interest of trying for completeness anyways, I also tested image stabilization performance. Relative to the Galaxy S7 we continue to see how the lack of software stabilization to go with the hardware stabilization leads to really shaky and jerky footage when recording while walking. The iPhone 7 still shows large motions, but it's much smoother and also handles wind noise better. The HTC 10 is much more competitive with the iPhone 7 here but I would say that Apple's software stabilization appears to be slightly better and the lack of PDAF on the HTC 10 camera is definitely noticeable in the focus transition testing but it's important to keep in mind that the HTC 10 has no software stabilization if you enable 4K video. The LG G5 has basically all of the same traits as the Galaxy S7 in this test and needs improvement in all of the same areas as a result. If you're upgrading from either the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, or 6s you're going to also see a major improvement as the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus both have OIS which works with the software stabilization to maximize the reduction in hand shake when capturing video.
I also went ahead and tested the iPhone 7 Plus with some quick footage to see what difference it provides when capturing video, and it's fairly obvious that the secondary camera lacks OIS but also dramatically increases captured detail which makes it useful for static shots where you can avoid inducing hand shake but its utility rapidly decreases in low light or high hand shake conditions.
Overall, the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus remain the best phones on the market for video capture. Strange issues with Snapdragon 820 video encode blocks mean that all Snapdragon 820 devices are just barely passable for video capture. Considering how OEMs have had almost a decade to get this right, it is truly incredible that phones costing 600 US dollars still have these obvious problems, and that Apple remains among the few to get it right.
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zodiacfml - Thursday, October 13, 2016 - link
Yep. The Google Pixel(s) is claimed to shoot HDR almost instantaneously which is useful to me. I don't use it if I will need flash photography on my Nexus 5. HDR is a must in most cases. White Balance is hard to fault after the HDR process.techconc - Thursday, October 13, 2016 - link
Well said. I suppose if people simply use their phones for texting, they wouldn't understand why more power is needed. I'm looking at what the iPhone 7 plus is doing with showing real time previews of fake bokeh on images in portrait mode. It's absolutely amazing what they are accomplishing on a phone these days.For that matter, try playing a game like World of Tanks Blitz on the Nexus 5X. Trust me, iPhone owners like users like them. It helps them pad their stats with more kills, etc. Honest, this "why do we need more performance" argument is pretty comical.
zodiacfml - Thursday, October 13, 2016 - link
You have a point there and I still use a Nexus 5 everyday. It is plenty fast 95% of the time and only lags during app updates which I don't mind. It is perfectly usable while doing its tasks of downloading and installing updates.I'm itching for new hardware though as the Nexus 5 could use an AMOLED display, larger battery, and external storage. A new SoC can help though with better battery life at idle or average tasks.
Yeah, I guess you are right about the 820. The 820 is impressive if found on devices around the price range of the One Plus 3. Androids with costs near an iPhone 7 is not good value.
omeryounos - Wednesday, October 12, 2016 - link
@Anadtech, really clever review. You guys totally omitted Galaxy S7 Edge (with Exynos 8890) from system performance & battery test to showcase Apple's greatest innovation ever. Especially your comments in Battery life section stating that look how much better it is from Galaxy S7 (Exynos) & omit any results from Galaxy S7 Edge (Exynos), knowingly that it will beat both iPhone 7 & Plus hands down in all battery test by hours. We (the readers) expect more balanced reviews from this site especially when it is coming weeks later than most mobile sites.BenSkywalker - Wednesday, October 12, 2016 - link
I'm curious why you didn't dive far more into Apple's utterly staggering breakthrough in LCD technology-"However, I think AMOLED's color shifting off angle puts it at a disadvantage"
Out of the hundreds of in depth instrumented tests I have witnessed and comparing hundreds of displays never have I seen a single LCD that was capable of besting *any* OLED in off angle performance- actually given the physics involved and how the displays are built, this is widely considered impossible. Given how extremely simple this is to test, I'm a bit confused as to why you haven't documented this industry changing technology and exactly what level of off angle performance improvement it shows over every other LCD ever made.
I saw the comments about off angle OLED colors being an issue in the laptop review posted a short while ago, figured you must have had a defective unit(the *only* explanation)- now you are saying this iPhone7 display bests all AMOLEDs at off angle color accuracy- really hoping you can post your measured results with exactly what degree of variation you are seeing.
Displaymate must have tested something wrong, they are still showing the iPhone7 with a catastrophic 55% drop off for brightness with some color shifting too at a mere thirty degrees, two of the photos on the front page of your review I think are also mislabeled, they say they are iPhone7 but they are showing abhorrent off angle viewing- they must be of some other, non Apple, phone.
JoshHo - Wednesday, October 12, 2016 - link
I think it goes without saying that LCD will have greater off-angle contrast reduction than AMOLED, but for color accuracy you can look at the dE2000 formula and see that changes in hue are more significant than changes in luminance in human perception of color. You can also see DisplayMate's results to see that the iPhone 7 has about a third of the color shift of the Note7's display with changes in viewing angle which is due in part to the subpixel arrangement:http://www.displaymate.com/iPhone7_ShootOut_1.htm
http://www.displaymate.com/Galaxy_Note7_ShootOut_1...
If you have any other questions or concerns please feel free to contact me by email as I don't have the time to sift through hundreds of comments searching for responses. My email is josh@anandtech.com.
philehidiot - Wednesday, October 12, 2016 - link
What I would like to see is a more in depth look at the sound quality. Not through the speakers but through headphones. The reason for this is that I attached a pair of monitoring headphones to my HTC M9 and found the top end to be incredibly harsh and distorted but when plugging those same headphones into my tablet (Kindle Fire 7 HDx) the sound was far better and there was no distortion. I would guess Apple would have better sound than the competition but a paragraph on wired headphone performance would be good and might well push more manufacturers to improve in this area. Interestingly, the Dolby "enhancements" make cheap headphones sound a load better but make decent monitoring headphones sound far worse - I assume this is because the compression applied to bring the sound into the limited dynamic range of the cheaper headphones actually helps but on the more expensive ones which can reproduce the full dynamic range of the recording it just effectively narrows it. Someone please correct me if I'm talking bollocks.UtilityMax - Wednesday, October 12, 2016 - link
For me, the iPhones do not exist, because I own a large media collection and I can't upload any of it to the iPhone without going through slow and buggy iTunes. On top of that, the iPhones do not exist for me after the 7 release after they deleted headphone jack. I own several audiophile grade but still very affordable headphone, and not of them can be used with it. I'd have to replace each one of them with a different set that costs something 2-3 times more and the benefits of doing that are pretty much dubious.So yes, in my world view, I would take a Moto G over the iPhone any day.
blackcrayon - Wednesday, October 12, 2016 - link
Sounds like you don't understand iPhones or iOS if you think you *HAVE* to use iTunes to put media on it... Hell, you don't even seem to know that they come with a headphone jack adapter for all of your "audiophile grade" headphones...UtilityMax - Wednesday, October 12, 2016 - link
I understand the iOS and issues very well. There are ways to bypass iTunes, then they still suck big time. As for the headphone jack, you can keep the headphone adapter to yourself. I am not carrying it, when it is about million times more convenient not to have to use it.