The iPhone 7 might feature the same design as the iPhone 6, but it represents a substantial upgrade over it in almost every area. Not only does it offer a better display, the iPhone 7 is also significantly faster than the iPhone 6, offers better battery life, and a vastly improved camera.

There really is a lot that sets Apple’s latest 4.7-inch iPhone apart from its 2-year old sibling. Let’s find out what they are exactly.

Design

• At first glance, you might think that the iPhone 7 features the same design as the iPhone 6
  • This is despite Apple saying that the iPhone 7 comes with a brand new design
  • The biggest visual change is the antenna bands at the rear panel being moved to the top and bottom edges giving the phone a cleaner look
  • The iPhone 7 makes use of a stronger Series 7000 aluminum chassis to avoid any bendgate issues that plague the iPhone 6
• The camera cut-out on the rear of the iPhone 7 is also larger than the iPhone 6
  • This is because the handset comes with a larger camera sensor
• Apple has also removed the headphone jack from the bottom of the iPhone 7
  • Instead, it has introduced a secondary speaker grille
  • It is only for aesthetic purposes, though, and does not house a secondary speaker
  • The secondary speaker is located within the earpiece grille at the top
  • This new speaker is substantially louder than the mono speaker of the iPhone 6
• The iPhone 7 is slightly heavier than the iPhone 6 — 138g vs 129g.
• To make up for the lack of a new design, the iPhone 7 Plus features an IP67 certification
  • This makes the phone resistant to water just like the original Apple Watch
  • An IP67 rating denotes that the iPhone 7 can be submerged in water for up to 30mins in 1m depth without any issues
    • It is also dust-resistant thereby not allowing for any kind of dust ingress
  • The iPhone 6 lacks any kind of IP rating
• Apple will be offering the iPhone 7 in two brand new colors: Jet Black and Black
  • The Jet Black color has a glossy finish
  • It will be available only in 128GB and 256GB storage variants
  • The normal Black color has a matte finish
• The iPhone 6 is not available in Rose Gold color as well
• The iPhone 7 features a capacitive home button unlike the iPhone 6 which features a physical home button
  • The capacitive home button, however, is able to simulate the feeling of being pressed thanks to Taptic Engine
  • Apple had first debuted this technology on its MacBook lineup in 2015
• The iPhone 7 also features a second generation Touch ID sensor
  • This sensor is significantly faster than the Touch ID sensor found on the iPhone 6
• The dimensions of the iPhone 7 remain the same as the iPhone 6

Display

• Like the iPhone 6 Plus, the iPhone 7 also comes with a Retina HD 4.7-inch screen with a resolution of 1334 x 750
  • Both phones have a pixel density of 326 ppi
• The display on the iPhone 7 is 25% brighter than the iPhone 6s, which was already brighter than the display of the iPhone 6
  • It also offers a wider color gamut range
• The 5.5-inch Retina HD panel on the iPhone 6 lacks 3D Touch
  • Apple first debuted 3D Touch with the iPhone 6s in 2015
  • The feature is deeply integrated into iOS 10

Performance, RAM, and Storage

• The A10 Fusion chip inside the iPhone 7 Plus is significantly faster than the A9 chip found inside the iPhone 6
  • It is a quad-core chip featuring two low power and two high power cores
  • The A9 chip inside the iPhone 6s is only a dual-core chip
• Apple states that the A10 Fusion chip is 2x faster than the A8 chip inside the iPhone 6
• The GPU performance of the A10 Fusion chip is also a major step up over the iPhone 6’s A8 chip
  • It is up to 3x times faster than the A8 chip’s GPU
• The iPhone 7 comes with 3G LPDDR4 RAM
  • This is 2GB more than what is found on the iPhone 6
• With the iPhone 7, Apple has refreshed its storage tier completely
  • Unlike the iPhone 6, the base storage on the iPhone 7 Plus starts at 32GB
  • There is no 64GB model. Instead, Apple has replaced it with a 128GB variant
  • This is also the first time that Apple is offering an iPhone with 256GB of storage
• The iPhone 7 faster (450Mbps) LTE and Wi-Fi connectivity

Camera

• The camera on the iPhone 7 is a major upgrade over the iPhone 6
  • The iPhone 7 features a 12MP shooter with 6-element f/1.8 aperture lens
    • The iPhone 6, on the other hand, features a f/2.2 aperture
    • The wider aperture allows the iPhone 7 to absorb up to 50% more light
• It offers 5x digital zoom vs 3x on the iPhone 6
• The iPhone 7 can record videos in 4K resolution
  • The iPhone 6 is limited to recording videos in Full HD resolution at 60fps
• iPhone 7 comes with Quad-LED True Tone flash
  • In comparison, the iPhone 6 only features dual-LED True Tone flash
  • The Quad-LED flash is up to 50% brighter
• The A10 Fusion chip on the iPhone 7 features a smarter and improved ISP
• iPhone 6 cannot shoot Live Videos
  • iPhone 7 can take Live Photos and the experience is even better since it makes use of OIS
  • Apple will also be making Live Photos API available to developers
• The FaceTime HD camera on the iPhone 7 has also been upgraded
  • It now features a 7MP sensor, up from a mere 1.2MP sensor found on the iPhone 6
  • It is also capable of recording videos in Full HD resolution

Battery

• The iPhone 7 has the best battery life of any 4.7-inch iPhone Apple has ever launched
  • As per numbers from Apple, the iPhone 7 Plus will offer up to 2 hours of longer battery life on an average over the iPhone 6/6s

As you can see, the iPhone 7 represents a major upgrade over the iPhone 6 in every key department. Sure, your iPhone 6 might just be working fine, but if you do upgrade to the iPhone 7, the experience will be significantly better in every department.

So, do you think you will be updating to the iPhone 7 from your trusty old iPhone 6? Or will you stick to it for another year?