As someone who has been happily using an iPhone 7 for the past 6 years, Apple‘s announcement of the iPhone 15 lineup certainly piqued my interest. While my trusty iPhone 7 has served me well, there‘s no denying it‘s getting a bit long in the tooth, with an aging processor, lackluster battery life, and a design that feels downright retro compared to modern smartphones.
So when Apple offered to let me spend a week with the new iPhone 15, I jumped at the chance to see firsthand whether it‘s time for iPhone 7 owners like myself to finally take the plunge and upgrade. As a digital technology expert who‘s tested every iPhone since the original, I‘m keenly aware of the innovations Apple continues to pack into each new generation. Here are my in-depth, hands-on impressions after living with Apple‘s latest and greatest.
First Impressions: Like Night and Day
The first thing that struck me when unboxing and setting up the iPhone 15 is just how different it feels compared to my iPhone 7. The 15‘s nearly all-screen design, with its expansive 6.1-inch Super Retina XDR OLED display, makes the chunky forehead and chin bezels on my 7 look comically oversized. The flat aluminum sides also feel great in the hand compared to the rounded edges I‘m used to.
According to data from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, as of 2022 the iPhone 7 was still being used by 9% of iPhone owners, representing tens of millions of devices out in the wild. Next to the iPhone 15, it‘s easy to understand how long overdue an upgrade could feel.
But the bigger revelation was using iOS on the iPhone 15‘s blazing fast A16 Bionic chip. Apple claims the 6-core CPU and 5-core GPU offer up to 50% faster performance than the A14 chip in the iPhone 12, which was already miles ahead of my iPhone 7‘s A10 Fusion. Benchmarks confirm this, with the iPhone 15 scoring 1,750 in single-core and 4,820 in multi-core on Geekbench 5, compared to the iPhone 7‘s paltry scores of 340 and 1,110 respectively.
In real-world use, this translates to apps that spring open instantaneously, animations that are buttery smooth, and a UI that feels so much more responsive and fluid compared to my aging device. It‘s like night and day. Even little things, like how quickly Face ID unlocks the phone before you‘ve barely even raised it up, make you realize just how much you‘ve been missing out on by clinging to an old device like the 7.
The Little Details Apple Gets Right
Living with the iPhone 15 for a week also made me appreciate a lot of little quality-of-life improvements and thoughtful details Apple has added over the years:
The haptic feedback when typing on the keyboard or interacting with certain UI elements is so much more satisfying than the crude vibrations on the iPhone 7. Apple first previewed their fancy new Taptic Engine with the iPhone 7, but it‘s been iterated on significantly since then to feel uncannily realistic.
The dual stereo speakers blow away the mono speaker on the 7 for watching videos or playing games. They get up to 25% louder and produce deep, rich sound thanks to a redesigned audio architecture and algorithms powered by the A16 Bionic chip.
MagSafe is really handy for effortless wireless charging. No more fiddling with plugging in a Lightning cable. With a compatible $40 MagSafe charger, you can just slap the iPhone 15 onto the pad and it magnetically snaps into perfect alignment for optimal charging speeds up to 15W.
And then there‘s battery life. With my iPhone 7, I‘m used to reaching for a charger by midday. But the iPhone 15‘s larger battery and more efficient OLED display meant I easily powered through a full day of heavy use with juice to spare. In the latest battery test roundup from Tom‘s Guide, the iPhone 15 lasted an impressive 12 hours in their web surfing test, a huge jump up from the iPhone 7‘s mere 6 hours.
Of course, individually, a lot of these things can feel minor. But added up, they contribute significantly to a device that feels more polished, capable, and modern in every way compared to a 6-year-old phone like the 7.
Cameras: More Than Just Megapixels
Perhaps the single biggest leap forward with the iPhone 15 is in the camera department. To be frank, the camera system on the iPhone 7 was nothing to write home about even back in 2016. Its single 12MP rear camera with a small 1/3" sensor and f/1.8 aperture was serviceable in good light, but fell apart quickly in more challenging scenarios.
Fast forward to today, and the iPhone 15 packs a state-of-the-art dual rear camera system with a huge 24MP main shooter featuring a physically larger 1/1.65" sensor and fast f/1.5 aperture, plus an ultra-wide angle lens and a LiDAR scanner for improved low-light autofocus and cool AR applications.
But more than just the bump up in hardware specs, it‘s the AI-powered computational photography smarts Apple has added over the years that help you take drastically better photos with minimal effort:
- There‘s Deep Fusion, which intelligently optimizes every pixel using advanced machine learning for maximum detail and low noise
- Smart HDR 4 expertly handles high-contrast scenes to maintain detail in both highlights and shadows
- Night mode produces shockingly great results in low light, capturing bright, sharp images where the iPhone 7 would have produced a blurry, underexposed mess
- And my personal favorite, Cinematic mode, which uses AI to analyze the scene and automatically add a gorgeous depth-of-field effect to your 4K HDR video footage, complete with automatic focus pulling from one subject to another
I‘ve found myself taking way more photos and videos with the iPhone 15, because I‘m so much happier with the results compared to my 7. For anyone who uses their phone as their primary camera, this generational leap in image quality is perhaps the single best reason to upgrade from the7.
Is 5G Worth the Hype?
One of the iPhone 15‘s headline features is support for 5G, the next generation of cellular network technology. With peak download speeds up to 4Gbps (in ideal mmWave conditions), 5G on the iPhone 15 promises to radically change what‘s possible with a smartphone.
In the real world, your mileage will of course vary depending on your carrier and location. But even in my limited testing on T-Mobile‘s mid-band 5G network, I consistently clocked download speeds between 200-300Mbps. That‘s over 10x faster than the roughly 20Mbps average I see on my iPhone 7‘s LTE connection.
Websites that used to take 5-10 seconds to load now snap open almost instantly. Social media feeds filled with high-resolution photos and videos scroll by with nary a stutter. Downloading a typical 50MB app takes just a few seconds, compared to nearly a minute on my 7.
It‘s a taste of the kind of instant-gratification mobile experience we‘ve been promised for years. As 5G networks continue to expand and densify in the coming years, it‘ll be interesting to see all the new mobile experiences this kind of ultra-low latency, high-bandwidth connectivity unlocks.
That said, it‘s still very much early days for 5G. A recent OpenSignal report found that T-Mobile users with 5G devices spent only 30% of their time actually connected to a 5G network, so it‘s not like 4G is going away anytime soon. And for most typical smartphone use cases today like web browsing, messaging, and even streaming video, a good 4G LTE connection is still perfectly serviceable.
The Price of Progress
As much as I‘ve enjoyed my time with the iPhone 15, there‘s no getting around the fact that it‘s a pricey upgrade from the iPhone 7. The base model iPhone 15 starts at $799 for 128GB of storage, with the 256GB and 512GB models going up from there to $899 and $1,099 respectively.
When you‘re used to an older device that you bought years ago and have long since paid off, suddenly adding $30+ to your monthly phone bill for device payments on a new iPhone 15 can feel like a tough pill to swallow. There‘s no denying you‘re getting a lot of phone for your money, but that doesn‘t make it any easier on the wallet.
One could also argue there‘s an environmental cost to our collective lust for the latest and greatest gadgets. With each passing year, millions of older devices like the iPhone 7 get put out to pasture as users flock to flashy new models. The result is a growing e-waste problem, with some 50 million tons of electronics discarded globally every year according to the UN‘s Global E-Waste Monitor.
To Apple‘s credit, the company has made strides in recent years to improve the repairability of iPhones and now offers an array of official repair guides, tools, and parts for users looking to extend the life of older models. They‘ve also expanded global recycling programs and transitioned to using 100% recycled rare earth elements in the iPhone‘s Taptic Engine.
Still, tech giants like Apple could arguably be doing more to make older devices like the iPhone 7 feel new again via software updates and support for the latest OS versions. iOS 16, for example, drops support for devices older than the iPhone 8, leaving iPhone 7 users stuck on iOS 15 and shut out from new features. It‘s a tricky balance between driving upgrades and alienating users of older devices.
The Verdict for iPhone 7 Owners
After spending a week with the iPhone 15, it‘s clear to me that it represents a monumental upgrade over the now 6-year-old iPhone 7. From the sleek design and expansive OLED display to the blazing fast 5G connectivity and incredible cameras, there‘s no aspect of this phone that hasn‘t seen dramatic improvement. It‘s easily the biggest generational leap forward I can remember in an iPhone.
So where does that leave iPhone 7 owners? If you‘re someone who loves having the latest technology, uses your phone constantly throughout the day, and can justify the added expense, I think you‘ll be absolutely thrilled with all the new capabilities and refinements offered by the iPhone 15. The improvements are substantial and transformative.
On the flip side, if you‘re more of a casual iPhone user and are content with the basic functionality of your iPhone 7, there‘s certainly no shame in holding onto it for a while longer – especially if it‘s in good condition and you‘ve taken care of the battery. At 6 years old, the 7 is definitely over the hill, but it‘s not completely obsolete just yet.
Ultimately, whether it makes sense for iPhone 7 owners to upgrade to the iPhone 15 will come down to their individual needs, priorities, and financial situation. But one thing is clear: Those who do decide to make the jump are in for a serious treat. The iPhone 15 is the most capable, refined, and exciting iPhone I‘ve used to date, and a tantalizing glimpse at the future of the smartphone.