I’m sticking with my 6S Plus this year, but I was talking with a friend of mine yesterday about his pending iPhone 7 Plus. We were discussing the features he was most looking forward to, and what he thought of the change in the home button from a physical to a haptic control. My friend was looking forward to the changes, but expressed something that surprised me: that the iPhone 7 isn’t new enough because it doesn’t have a dramatically different physical design.

I have trouble with this aspect because, to me, the iPhone has always been about what it enables me to do. I do like the physical design and I do still find myself drawn to the pure white front and curves on the 6S Plus, but I still see the similarly-shaped iPhone 7 — especially the 7 Plus — as a new device.

The internals have changed enough that there should be significant differences in where and how you can use this new iPhone.

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The removal of the 3.5mm jack comes as no major surprise due to all of the advanced leaks, but it’s still a fact that will take a while for even the most die-hard Apple fans to digest. The ubiquity of the 3.5mm headphone jack has been something we’ve all come expect in electronic devices, but it’s also at odds with consumer expectations that devices should get thinner, lighter, and faster every year. Every once in a while something has to give to make space for major new features, and this time it was the headphone jack’s turn.

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The iPhone wasn’t the device to get me interested in photography. I’d always had a passing interest in being able to take pictures wherever I was, and I purchased the Sony Ericsson K750i for exactly that reason. It had a 2 Megapixel camera with auto-focus, and it was really freeing to be able to whip out a camera without dealing with any extra bulk.

The iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5S, and the 6S Plus served me well, and carried on in the tradition of the K750i. They were my everyday cameras and I snapped shots simply to preserve memories, and also to try and take some beautiful pictures. Every iPhone upgrade made strides towards higher overall image quality, and better low-light performance. Alongside the speed improvements, imaging was the biggest reasons I’d shell out for a new iPhone every two years.

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I’ve spent a good nine months with the iPhone 6S Plus. I didn’t go for Apple’s larger phone when they released the first iteration. I liked having an iPhone that was large enough to read on, but small enough to remain pocketable with any pair of pants. But battery life issues (caused by my Apple Watch) and curiosity eventually overcame me. I had to see what the fuss was all about and see for myself whether the larger screen really was a game changer.

Da Bigger Screen

It’s usually Apple’s powerful marketing campaigns that convince me that I really should try their shiny new thing. But in the case of the iPhone 6S Plus, it was actually my friends that were the biggest influence. I have a lot of non-techie friends at work who don’t normally care about which device they keep in their pockets, but the larger phone really made a difference to them. They used the 1920 X 1080 screen for quick references during presentations, viewed storyboards, and even wrote articles on the thing.

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