Poll: ** The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus Thread **

[Raymond Lin]

Just reading the "about the iPhone 7" and "about iPhone 7 plus" sections on apple's website, and their description of the 7 plus has reference to upcoming depth of field, whereas the standard 7 does not mention this.

edit: ps: I understand that a single camera on a phone can produce it on up close shots, but I was more referring to portraits from a way off.

The DoF effect in this is done is software and it needs 2 cameras.

My theory is that because it is done in software, the bokeh will look all the same, whereas in a real lens doing it optically. Bokeh changes depending on distance. things that are closer blurs less, it is to do with the focal pane. So something to the side of the object in the same distance will still be in focus. I wonder how this software will render that. Will it blur that out too?

 

[n111ck]

phone looked ok but they've increased the price by nearly £100, hardly a free upgrade from 16gb to 32gb.

That's down to the exchange rate though - everything on the apple site has gone up by around 10%.

Will be interesting to see if the recycle sites increase their rates given a brand new 6s plus is only £30 cheaper than the usual £100ish reduction.

 

[xb8browney]

I know cpw increased iphone trade-in prices on Tuesday.

 

[Supercow]

The DoF effect in this is done is software and it needs 2 cameras.

My theory is that because it is done in software, the bokeh will look all the same, whereas in a real lens doing it optically. Bokeh changes depending on distance. things that are closer blurs less, it is to do with the focal pane. So something to the side of the object in the same distance will still be in focus. I wonder how this software will render that. Will it blur that out too?

Thanks - think I'll table the 7 plus model and consider the standard 7 instead.

 

[thep02]

But you'll have paid 32x £xx for it instead of 20x.

By the time you've paid for 30 months you'll have handed back your 7+ and have a fully paid for 8+ or have handed that back and have use of a part paid for 9+.

 

[fez]

How expensive is data roaming in europe these days?

I'm looking at the three sim only 12 month deals and for £9/month you can get unlimited calls and texts and 4gb data. It doesn't allow you to use it free in europe or use it as a hotspot but I don't need those that much.

The equivalent contract with europe roaming and hotspot data is £21/month which is £144 more expensive over the year. I thought that they had reduced the cost of data/calls and texts across networks in the EU in the last few years anyway.

Edit: just looked on the three website and data to the countries I will go to is 3.9p/mb

So to make it not worth my while to go for the £9/month deal I would have to use 3.7gb data abroad. Thats quite a lot considering you tend to be on wifi 90% of the time abroad.

 

[n111ck]

There is no trade in value. You hand the phone back and sign a new 20 month agreement for a new phone, at full price with the £49 initial cost.

You'll only be out of pocket (the cost of the initial 11 months) if you upgrade and then decide not to the next time. I.e you'll have paid 32 x £xx for the iPhone 7s instead of just 20x. If you'd bought the iPhone 7 outright, you'd also have that to take off the 20x by selling otherwise.

It's a great plan if you always upgrade every year or always pay the full 20 months. Otherwise you're out of pocket sooner or later.

No you're not because if you don't upgrade you still have a phone at the end of the 20 months which you can sell. It's only because you have to take AppleCare that it's more expensive but then you might buy that anyway.

 

[n111ck]

It's basically removing the hassle of eBay or unscrupulous recycling sites.

 

[kona786]

Any word on fast charging?

 

[Raymond Lin]

How expensive is data roaming in europe these days?

I'm looking at the three sim only 12 month deals and for £9/month you can get unlimited calls and texts and 4gb data. It doesn't allow you to use it free in europe or use it as a hotspot but I don't need those that much.

The equivalent contract with europe roaming and hotspot data is £21/month which is £132 more expensive over the year. I thought that they had reduced the cost of data/calls and texts across networks in the EU in the last few years anyway.

Three on contract has most of europe as a part of Feel at Home package so Italy, France for example are free for calls, data, just like in the UK. That applies to the USA and Australia too.

 

[kona786]

Its not just iPhones, I generally don't understand why people would want to spend increasingly near £1000 on a mobile phone.

What can these brand new £600+ phones do that my Z2 which I bought for £80 second hand can't do? (5.2" 1080P screen, quad core 2.3GHz CPU, 3GB RAM, 20MP camera, Android 6.0, waterproof, mega battery life, etc)

The answer is not a lot. But if you have the means and like the shinies, sure, why not I guess.

Do you live off just bread and water and nothing else every day?

Of course not, because better things are worth having if you have the means to.

 

[Raymond Lin]

Thanks - think I'll table the 7 plus model and consider the standard 7 instead.

Also, I wonder how it renders objects close to the lens. With a real fast lens, fast as in wide aperture, the focal pane is so thin, anything outside of that will be out of focus. Imagine a imaginary piece of glass shifting forward and backwards perpendicular to the sensor. anything the glass cups through will be in focus, anything not will be blur, that includes things close to you as well as far away.

So I could shoot through a crowd of people and pick a face out and have 1 person in focus.

I mean the software can do this soft of effect I expect.



But this...I wonder how it will do.

 

[Silly Goose On The Loose]

Any word on fast charging?

Not included.

 

[Dazzy]

Have to give it to apple! It's genius from a business perspective losing the headphone socket. Extra money on airpods, wireless beats, licensing fees to manufacturers, selling adapters... they will make a killing.

No doubt people will be queuing up to buy but personally even as someone already with a pair of high end wireless headphones this would be a deal breaker for me. They could mitigate this better by using better bluetooth codecs (aptx etc) or a usb c as the connector but clearly not gonna be the case in Apple's proprietary everything world.

More generally I have both an iPhone 6 and an S7 edge and they both have their pros and cons but I find the iPhone so boring in comparison. The last couple of launches have been so meh, iOS is really overdue a makeover.

 

[kona786]

It will be. They've just doubled all of the storage.

Well that backfired, spectacularly!

 

[Supercow]

snip

I suspect touch to hold focus on the object on screen?

So in the case where the foreground object / subjects needs to be out of focus, and the background in focus, you will merely hold your finger on the face of your subject in the background?

 

[Deleted member 651465]

Wow, the hate is strong today. Let's clear a few things up...

This is the first time the price has gone up, since they launched the iPhone, isn't it? Either way, look at the price of the pound against the dollar and tell me you expected it to stay the same?

The headphones... This is marmite, but I use Beats Wireless 2 headphones for running (the type which hook over the ear) and I'm sure many others have similar wireless solutions.

Why is the fact that they've switched to their own wireless EarPods so bad? "Oh no... I might lose them". Give over. No one in their right mind would go running with them, also why not just get a better set of Bluetooth headphones? Ask yourself this... Did you use the bundled 3.5mm headphones before? There will be lightning headphones if you really want to go wired but wireless is the future

I'm not getting one but really, it's the same every time. Moaning over features that no one is forcing you to adopt. There's other phones on the market. If you really want a 3.5mm jack and don't want an adaptor the world is your oyster. Apple has always been one to cut the throat of older technologies to push innovation, this is no different.

 

[Raymond Lin]

I suspect touch to hold focus on the object on screen?

So in the case where the foreground object / subjects needs to be out of focus, and the background in focus, you will merely hold your finger on the face of your subject in the background?

That is only if the software is smart enough to work out which area at what distances.

With a small sensor, the DoF naturally is quite large, and by that, imagine a pane of glass is a few feet thick, as opposed to a real lens which would be about 3mm* thick for a DSLR lens at 1.8 aperture.

* distance between sensor to subject affects DoF thickness.

 

[thep02]

^ Agreed

 

[smilertoo]

I wonder if they'll add that no focus mode some cameras do now, it grabs all depth data and you can set focus length later.