iOS 7 is the biggest upgrade in terms of UI refresh since the very first iPhone was announced. iOS 7 was released back in June and since then it has been a subject of wide debates. People were very quick to judge iOS 7 from the beta update without realizing the simple fact that Beta was never going to be how the final product would be.
Do not forget to check what’s new in iOS 7 here
As beta updates rolled on, things improved drastically and so did the opinions of people. iOS 7 has definitely been a worthy upgrade. Here are our reasons:
iOS 7 is a Visual Treat
Going back from iOS 7 to iOS 6 even during the days of Beta was like stepping down from Android Jely Bean to Gingerbread, or worse, from Windows 8 to Windows XP. Yes, the UI is that much improved and better. The easiest way to test this is to run two devices simultaneously, one with iOS 7 and one with iOS 6. We did this test by updating our iPhone 5 to iOS 7 and leaving our iPhone 4 on iOS 6.
Needless to say, we much preferred the colors and the vibrancy of iOS 7. At the first glance, it may seem too much, but you will start to love it. The flat designs are good to look at and Apple has actually streamlined the design across the board, right from the springboard to the apps, we are talking about consistency here. How well the third party apps take to this update is yet to be seen, but seeing how well app developers support iOS, that should be last of your concerns.
Animations look smoother and natural
Animations on iOS 6 looked jerky and maybe too fast now. The classic example is if you compare the unlock animation. iOS 7 looks a lot smoother and rounded. It is like moving from a device which has extremely sharp edges to one with nice rounded corners which will not hurt your hands, just that hands here are your eyes.
It may come down to personal preference but we like the subtleness of iOS 7 over the cut to cut feel of iOS 6. This may give you a feel iOS 6 is faster because the animations are maybe shorter, but with iOS 7 it is a lot more aesthetically pleasing.
iOS 7 has features galore
iOS 7 has bought to table some of the most requested features as far as Apple fans are concerned. It pretty much takes jailbreak out of the window as apart from changing themes, all the major tweaks are now inbuilt into iOS 7.
The Camera app is much improved with loads of filters and features such as ability to shoot in square resolution for foursquare and zoom within video shot.
You can read our detailed impressions of iOS 7 Camera App here
Airdrop is a wonderful feature where you can easily share pictures with another iOS device, kind of like Bluetooth but with a fancier name. There is Control center built in which means you can now toggle your settings right from anywhere. The notification center is much improved whereas all the system apps at least follow the same design principles as that of iOS 7. The translucent backgrounds on the keyboard and control center look the part and overall improvements make iOS 7 one of the most functional and complete Mobile Operating Systems out there.
The Battery Question and Wireless Connectivity
The battery of an iPhone 5 running iOS 6 was very hit and miss. Although it is early to make the claim, but it has been a widespread notion that iOS 7 despite being a little more resource heavy, iOS 7 has improved the battery of iPhone 5. Even on the likes of iPhone 4 and iPhone 4s, the battery performance has improved.
Not just this, but in our time with iOS 7 we also found the GPS lock-in to be more relaible and faster as compared to when the device was on iOS 6. The Wi-Fi signal strength seems to have gotten a little better too
The Lockscreen
The Lockscreen on iOS 7 is totally revamped from iOS 6. Gone are those black bars from the screen which means your wallpapers are a lot more visible now. You can also slide across from anywhere on the screen to unlock your device, means you are not restricted to swipping right within that small box.
At first this may not be a big deal, but on large devices such as iPad, this is an extremely convenient feature. We have always had a problem in locating the exact small area from within to unlock the device on iPad and iPad Mini. You can also access the Control Center and Notification right from lockscreen and also the quick access to Camera remains.
To Conclude
iOS 7 may have been a massive jump, but you feel Apple had to do this to stay in touch with Android in terms of staying visually appealing. The flat designs, more than anything else make iOS 7 simpler on the eye. The OS is functional and despite a ton of added features does not give a feeling of being overdone at any point.
We are sure there will be several updates to iOS 7 just like any other OS by Apple, but to start off with, iOS 7 is definitely a worthy upgrade from iOS 6.
