– [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).
