Don’t blink.
That was the phrase Apple chose to begin last week’s iPhone 7 release video, and since then it has received an unending stream of criticism on the devices’ new features.
Apple’s official launch video can be described as nothing short of sensory overload. In fact, selecting the phrase “don’t blink” made it clear that Apple’s main objective in announcing the release of its new phone was bewilderment in the name of an iPhone montage.
Some of the more aesthetic improvements that the iPhone 7 promises are an improved retina display guaranteeing a 25 percent brighter screen, an optical image stabilization aperture that keeps images steadier, stereo speakers (speakers at the top and bottom of the phone), and finally a new “glossy jet black” color option that promises to be a black “so black its black to the core,” according to Apple.
“I think it looks better,” Shaila Abbott, a junior public health and economics major said. “They made it sleeker … I think the features they put in the phone are what everyone wanted in the 6, better sound and picture quality.”
Some internal improvements on the iPhone 7 include an A10 Fusion chip with a 64-bit quad-core processor that will allow the phone to conserve battery during usage, more storage options in the 32GB, 128GB and 256GB capacities, better front facing camera quality with five megapixels, a second 56mm telephoto lens on the back of the iPhone 7 plus, and a faster processor.
But the feature that has everyone up in arms is the absence of a headphone jack and the introduction of its accomplice: air pods.
Vincent Panuccio, a sophomore pre-medical and kinesiology major, said, “I thought it looked very sleek and I like the water resistant feature, but I’m weary of there not being a headphone jack.”
“I know that there’s no headphone jack and I feel like I’m going to lose the wireless ones … not being connected to your phone they’ll be hard to find,” senior math major Shwetha Sundar said.
Phil Schiller, Apple’s marketing chief said “It really comes down to one word: courage. The courage to move on to do something new that betters all of us.”
Schiller added that Apple removed the headphone jack partly to make the new iPhone sleeker and free up space for additional features: a decision that has met much backlash from consumers and media outlets alike.
A prime example of an angered media outlet is “Cosmopolitan” as Michael Sebastian compared the new iPhone and the movie, “The Titanic”, which focuses on the comical similarities between the demise of famous Jack Dawson in the “Titanic” and “Jack” the headphone port – a personification of Apple’s recent upgrades that examines the average consumer’s response to the wrenching loss.
“I think it’s ridiculous, everyone is going to look stupid,” Jasmin Del Rosario, a junior nutrition and biology major, said, There was no point in removing the AUX.”
Matt Rasmuson, junior chemical engineering major, kept it short and sweet saying, “I want a headphone jack. I wouldn’t buy a phone without a headphone jack because wireless headphones are expensive, the same reason I don’t have them now.” His opinion was shared by the majority of the students asked on campus.
Less than half of the students interviewed plan to upgrade to an iPhone 7 in the near future.
Inadvertently adding fuel to the fire, Apple decided not to release its first weekend sales figure of the iPhone 7 for the first time in history, putting into question their definition of “courage.”
According to TIME Magazine, the increase that Apple’s stock saw after the initial release of the iPhone 7 has dropped three-percent below the stock’s starting value, reducing the company’s market value by $15.4 billion in a single day.
Apple responded to the growing speculation by saying, “As we have expanded our distribution through carriers and resellers to hundreds of thousands of locations around the world, we are now at a point where we know before taking the first customer pre-order that we will sell out of the iPhone 7.”
Gina Lopez can be reached at [email protected].
