What's the Deal: Putting iPhone 7 to test

Nydia Han Image
Wednesday, September 21, 2016
VIDEO: WTD
When the iPhone 7 hit stores on Friday, Consumer Reports' secret shoppers were there to buy them. And the phones were immediately delivered to their electronics labs for testing.

When the iPhone 7 hit stores on Friday, Consumer Reports' secret shoppers were there to buy them. And the phones were immediately delivered to their electronics labs for testing.

Consumer Reports began testing the new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus on Friday.

The phones tout a number of upgrades, including an enhanced camera, and for the first time, Apple says the iPhone 7 is water-resistant - up to one meter of water for 30 minutes.

So Consumer Reports put those claims to the test in a pressurized tank.

"Our water immersion tests indicate that the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus passed, but we will continue to check them for functionality," said Maria Rerecich, head of electronics testing, Consumer Reports.

What's missing from the new iPhone is getting a lot of attention. With no headphone jack, audio testers examined the new headphone connection using the lightning-charging port.

"As far as sound quality goes, we found no significant differences with the new wired headphone connection," said Rerecich.

Apple is claiming the iPhone 7 Plus is a photographer's dream, with more megapixels on the selfie camera and the addition of a second lens, allowing for optical zoom on the main camera.

"In our preliminary testing, we found the telephoto lens was sharper and had better overall image performance than the primary lens, but that primary lens was pretty comparable to previous iPhones," said Rerecich.

Consumer Reports testers are still evaluating the new phone's voice quality and battery life.

Full results of those tests, along with Consumer Reports exclusive ratings on the iPhone 7, will be available in the next few weeks.