Apple iPhone 7: Retested with new DxOMark Mobile protocol

With the launch of the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, Apple further improved the already excellent cameras from its previous generation, and added a variety of new features it hopes will continue to make the iPhone the world’s most popular camera. The iPhone 7 camera represents a very solid evolution over the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus in both features and image quality. All three phones feature a 12MP 1/3-inch sensor, and a wide-angle (28mm equivalent) lens. However, the iPhone 7 has a brighter lens – f/1.8 compared to the f/2.2 of the 6 and 6s. It also adds optical image stabilization, previously only found in Apple’s Plus models. Improved image processing and a more power efficient sensor rounds out its new feature set.

The iPhone 7 put in a solid performance when it was first tested using our original DxOMark Mobile test protocol. Read on to find out how it did in our new test.

Key specifications:

12 MP 1/3-inch image sensor
f/1.8 aperture
28mm equivalent focal length
Optical image stabilization
PDAF
Dual-tone four-LED flash
7 MP / f/2.2 front camera
4.7-inch 750 x 1334 display
Apple A10 Fusion chipset

Please note that for this article we have retested the Apple iPhone 7 with our new DxOMark Mobile test protocol that includes tests for zoom and bokeh quality among other improvements. You can still find our much more comprehensive original iPhone 7 review from September 2016 here.

Conclusion: Significant advances and improvements over the iPhone 6 family

Apple’s iPhone 7 improves on the image quality of its predecessors, with a more powerful image processor helping to produce image quality improvements beyond those provided by the new sensor and re-designed lens. With advances in dynamic range and detail capture, as well as significantly reduced artifacts and very good image stabilization the iPhone 7 performs particularly well in bright light conditions, making it a great smartphone camera for outdoor enthusiasts shooting landscapes, street scenes, architecture, or portraits in good light.

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Pros

Very good exposure and dynamic range
Stable and accurate white balance
Good detail in bright light
Fast autofocus in bright light
Good white balance and color and low noise in flash mode

Pros

Good stabilization
Fast and smooth autofocus in bright light
Good detail in bright light
Vivid and pleasant colors

Cons

Loss of very fine detail in bright and low light
Luminance noise in low light
Some autofocus irregularities noticeable in all conditions
Unstable autofocus over consecutive shots and strong vignetting with flash

Cons

Strong luminance noise in low light
Occasionally unstable exposure and white balance transition
Slight frame-shifting is noticeable indoors and with walking movement
Autofocus slows down in low light

Comparing the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus

The iPhone 7 Plus features additional capabilities based on its dual-camera architecture. It is not the first phone with a dual-camera, but it was one of the first to use the second camera for an optical zoom and computed depth information. Its new Portrait mode uses the depth information gleaned from analyzing the images from both of its cameras to selectively-blur image backgrounds, while keeping the subject sharp. This mimics the shallow DOF effect and pleasing Bokeh that photographers using DSLRs and other standalone cameras have been able to achieve. With our new test protocols, we are able to evaluate how well those features perform, and how much difference they make in image quality compared to the single camera iPhone 7.

Because the main cameras on the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are the same, most of our test results for them are similar. So to learn more about their camera features and imaging performance, as well as see how the new Zoom and Portrait features stack up in our tests, we’ve provided a special detailed analysis of how the two phones’ cameras compare.