By David MacDonald
A QUESTION OF SPEED As soon as you make the leap from the iPhone 6 to the 6S or 7, you’ve left the world of 1GB of RAM behind forever. Both the iPhone 6S and iPhone 7 have 2GBs of RAM. Both have a Six Core GPU. The iPhone 6S has an Apple A9 Chipset: Dual-core CPU. The iPhone 7 has an Apple A10 Fusion chipset: Quad-core CPU. If you’re on a 4G network that regularly peaks above 150Mbit and hovers there, upgrading to the iPhone 6S or iPhone 7 may be worth your while. ARE YOU INTO SELFIES, GRANDMA? If you’ve been around this debate already, you’ve probably heard the camera complaints – or rationales. While the rear cameras on all three models feature 4K video recording, only the iPhone 6S and iPhone 7 do so with a 12 megapixel sensor, the 6S with the help of a dual-LED flash and the 7 with a quad-LED dual-tone flash. The rear camera of the iPhone 6 features an 8 megapixel sensor with dual-LED flash. Here’s one way to look at it: Their shared screen resolution means that all three iPhones are equal when it comes to displaying megapixels, but their ability to capture megapixels with their rear camera is a different story. So if you’re going for less The Blair Witch Project and more Slumdog Millionaire, you want the iPhone 6S or better. The front camera of the iPhone 6 might not inspire a lot of its owners to spring for a selfie stick. It’s a Spartan 1.2 megapixels and records video at 720 pixels. The front camera of the iPhone 6S is an industry competitor at 5 megapixels, but still records video in what’s beginning to feel like an antiquated 720 pixels. The iPhone 7 is a step above. Its front camera is equipped with a 7 megapixel sensor and records at what feels like the standard: 1080 pixels. So, if you’re a dynamic selfie-snapper, consider the 6S and 7 a wish come true. But if your selfies are short, sweet, and stable, keep your iPhone 6 – I’m talking to you, grandma! THE NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK MIGHT TAKE SOME GETTING USED TO If you’re looking for a place to plug in your headphones on your iPhone 7, you’ll need an adapter. The headphone jack is no more, and wireless is Apple’s answer. Sort of. You can still listen to music on the iPhone 7 all wired-up, but you’ll need to use the Lightning port. It’s kind of an everything port now. Looking ahead, it’s believed that the ‘All glass’ iPhone 8 slated for a 2017 release will feature an edge-to- edge OLED display, wireless charging, and a faster A11 processor.
T HE DEBATE I t has the making of a Straight Outta Comicon nerd-off. It has that A New Hope versus The Empire Strikes Back versus The Return of the Jedi feel. With this one, you know there’s going to be equal representation amongst your friends and that the argument could last well through the winter – and Winter is Coming. There’s going to be some hard truths spoken, and we might even learn a thing or two about our… iPhones. I’m talking of course about the iPhone 6 versus iPhone 6S versus iPhone 7 debate. EVERYTHING IS RELATIVE Have you ever noticed that even when the least tech-savvy person in your life talks about their iPhone, they suddenly become Sheldon Cooper? I’ll give you a for instance. I recently had to say the words, “Not everyone needs a 256GB phone,” to my grandmother. Yeah, that’s right. People need to stand up more in these situations. She takes minimal pictures on her phone. She Skypes. She Facebooks. She Emails. She plays Cribbage (and usually wins). And she reads the news. A lot of news. Her iPhone 6 is in pristine condition, sitting in its Teacup Yorkie case as always. But one trip to the Apple Store to get a new charger for her 16GB iPhone 6 and she’s an expert on the iPhone 7. While she’s a great listener, my grandmother’s not an impulse buyer, so she usually has to convince herself through what she calls “rationalizing.” I call it “justifying,” but apparently I’m wrong. I also think her sister, my great-aunt, is peer-pressuring her into getting the iPhone 7, but I digress. To really set the stage, my grandmother frankly informed me that the iPhone 6 is no longer available to purchase new, as if that made hers obsolete. I was about to lecture her on technological obsolescence, but then I remembered she’s the person who you give your DVD to from your Blu-ray-DVD combo pack. She then threw the great-grandchild card across the table, telling me in her own to-the-point way that the enhanced battery life and dual external stereo speakers of the iPhone 7 would allow my son to listen to more of his favourite music by the pool when he visited. I told her, with a grin, that when he’s by the pool, he should concentrate on swimming. THE BRIGHT SIDE The only thing that has my eye drawn to the iPhone 6S or iPhone 7 for my grandmother’s sake is the brighter screen and increased resolution available in these two models. The impressive 4.7-inch LED-backlit IPS LCD display universal to all three models is at its brightest in the iPhone 7. iPhone 6S is 25% dimmer – or maybe you’re a 25% less bright kind of person, like my grandmother – while the iPhone 6 is, comparatively, the dimmest or “least bright.” In any case, it’s 1334x750 pixels of high definition potential.
Like I said, it’s all relative.
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FEBRUARY 2017 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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