As you may have read in our previous post we spent a week away in Norfolk, the clash was accidental (great minds and all that) but it led to a fantastic idea.

We both ordered the iPhone 7 plus model on release day last year, a few days later (it felt more like a year for us Apple fanboys) they arrived. Tell a lie one of them arrived followed by the other a day later, not quite sure how that happens when they are ordered together but hey at least they arrived in working order and didn’t explode (sorry Samsung).

Like most big Apple fans we were a little disappointed by the iPhone 7, we would go as far as to say that we lost more than we gained. Ok so yes it’s waterproof, has a new home button and a A10 fusion chip but we wanted a little more, where was the big cosmetic design change? It was basically the same as the iPhone 6s apart from the antenna bands have been moved and the headphone jack has been removed, all we can say is that the iPhone 8 best blow us away.

One of the better upgrades on the iPhone 7 and particularly the 7 plus was the camera, ok so it’s the same 12-megapixel sensor but they dropped the aperture to f/1.8 for those low light shots which is quite impressive. The 7 plus was also upgraded to 2 lenses, one standard lens and a telephoto for real zoom rather than digital zoom. This is the same lens that can be used in conjunction with Apples portrait app, which basically allows users to take stunningly sharp portrait photos with background blur. Anyway I could go on but you get the idea, Apples camera on the iPhone 7 is pretty damn impressive on paper but how does it fair in real life?

We felt our break away was the perfect time to put them to the test. The rules of the test were simple; the iPhone camera had to be used when we would normally reach for our trusty Canon DSLR’s, images could only be manipulated on the iPhone using the standard Photos editing tools (not a lot basically) and all photos had to be square. The images we took can be seen below.

When this was discussed upon returning to the studio we both concluded that we were really impressed with the iPhone 7 plus camera. Since having our first iPhones we have always been impressed with what the camera could achieve with such a small sensor, but I think the iPhone 7 plus sets a new benchmark. The new f/1.8 aperture was certainly put to the test with the sunset and sea life centre images and performed well. It was nice to have the ability to have a proper zoom as well, it gives the ability to make certain shots just that little bit tighter. The Portrait feature is fun to have a play around with but isn’t a reason to pay the extra for an 7 plus over a normal 7 in our opinion. With technology advancing so quickly we pose the question – will there ever be a time when a smartphone camera is all you need?

To see more of our iPhone photography follow us on Instagram @brioalex @brioelliott

Disclaimer: We are in no way professional photographers and are admittedly completely biased towards Apple. Therefore this test holds no real life applications, sorry. Hey, at least we’re honest. If you use any other smartphone we would love to hear your opinions on their camera spec and abilities, please comment bellow.

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