5 Reasons I Upgraded to iPhone 7 — And the One Thing I Still Can't Forgive Apple For

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I held out longer than most. While everyone around me was pre-ordering on day one, I kept my iPhone 6S and told myself I'd wait for "something worth upgrading to." Then I spent an afternoon with the iPhone 7 at an Apple Store, and two things happened: I immediately understood why people were excited, and I immediately understood why people were furious. Here's the full breakdown.

Reason #1: The Camera Is a Genuine Generational Leap

I take a lot of photos. The jump from the iPhone 6S camera to the iPhone 7 camera is not incremental — it's significant. The f/1.8 aperture lets in dramatically more light, which means low-light shots that were noisy and blurry on the 6S are sharp and usable on the 7. Optical Image Stabilization came to the standard model (it was only on the Plus before). Portrait Mode on the 7 Plus changed how phone photos look entirely.

Photography alone justified the upgrade for me. If you care about mobile photography, this was the year to move.

Reason #2: Water Resistance (IP67) Finally

I've dropped phones in sinks, had them caught in rain, spilled drinks near them. The iPhone 7's IP67 water resistance rating means it survives submersion up to 1 meter for 30 minutes. I tested this in the first week — not intentionally. I knocked it into a full sink. Pulled it out, dried it off, worked perfectly. That moment alone made the upgrade worth it.

Reason #3: The A10 Fusion Chip Speed

The iPhone 7's A10 Fusion chip was so far ahead of everything else in 2016 that it was still competitive with Android flagships two years later. Apps opened faster, games ran smoother, and the general snappiness of the phone was noticeably better than the 6S in everyday use. Apple's chip advantage was becoming obvious by this point in the product line.

Reason #4: Stereo Speakers

The iPhone 7 introduced stereo speakers — one on the bottom, one at the top earpiece. For watching videos in bed without headphones, this was a bigger quality-of-life improvement than I expected. The sound staging opened up noticeably. It sounds like a small thing until you go back to mono and realize how flat it sounds.

Reason #5: The Home Button Redesign

The iPhone 7's home button isn't a physical button anymore — it's a haptic feedback pad that simulates a click. When I first heard this I was skeptical. When I used it I immediately preferred it. It's faster to register, doesn't wear out mechanically, and can be customized for different haptic intensities. One of those changes that sounds worse than it is.

The One Thing I Still Can't Forgive: The Headphone Jack

Apple removed the 3.5mm headphone jack from the iPhone 7. This was controversial in 2016 and I'll be honest — I still think it was the wrong call. I own good wired headphones. The included Lightning adapter is easy to lose. Charging and listening simultaneously requires a dongle or a special cable. None of this is catastrophic, but it's friction that didn't need to exist.

Apple called it "courage." I called it inconvenient. Three years of carrying a headphone dongle in my pocket validated that frustration daily. The camera and water resistance are worth it. The headphone jack removal is not a feature — it's a trade-off Apple made and passed the pain to users.

Bottom Line

The iPhone 7 was a meaningful upgrade from the 6S — not a revolutionary one, but a genuinely better phone in the ways that matter most for daily use. Camera, water resistance, chip speed, and stereo audio all moved forward. The headphone jack removal is the price of admission, and you'll either get used to it or it'll annoy you forever. For me, it was worth it. Barely.

What's your experience? Drop a comment below! 👇 Did you upgrade to the iPhone 7? Did the headphone jack removal push you toward Android? I want to hear both sides!

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