WHAT’S ALL THE iPhone 7 FUSS ABOUT? LET’S START WITH THE FASTEST MOBILE PROCESSOR EVER SOLD

BY TAYLOR AMATUZZO

It was June 29, 2007. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke agonized over whether to leave the basis interest rate at 5.25%, Hillary Clinton and upstart Barack Obama were competing for campaign fund supremacy, and Blue Jays slugger Frank Thomas became the 21st MLB player to hit 500 home runs. It was also the day a little product called the iPhone was released.

One billion worldwide unit sales later and with more than 100 million current U.S. users, Apple has released version number 7 of its smartphone (though actually there have been thirteen editions/revisions in all).

Available in 7 and 7 Plus versions and in an array of memory options, the newcomer to the roster offers all the expected capabilities and apps, but with extras that make this the first in a while to really stand out as a new device, rather than a modified predecessor.

For example, a new camera utilizes two lenses—a wide-angle and an optical zoom. And at 25% brighter and with a wide color gamut, its display is by far the brightest and most colorful one yet from Apple. Twice as fast as the last model, with the longest battery life ever offered in an iPhone, the 7 boasts the most powerful chipset to ever grace a smartphone of any kind (specifically, an A10 Fusion quad-core CPU with a six-core graphics processor). It also rocks a new stereo speaker system twice as loud as the iPhone 6’s, and syncs with new AirPods wireless headphones.

Splash and water resistant, the 7 comes in new black and jet black finishes, in addition to the silver, gold, and rose gold traditional options.

iPhone7, $649-plus
iPhone 7 Plus, $769-plus
apple.com