No More Camera While Traveling
Last year I decided to give up my camera. It was a move that I didn’t make lightly considering that I do share photos here on the blog, but it was a decision that I am happy with. At the time I had just bought a Galaxy S6 and decided that the camera in it was finally good enough to be a standalone. No longer did I need to lug around another piece of glass while traveling. It was freeing.
For the most part I have not regretted that decision. Overall I am happy with the quality of the photos I get and with a little post-production I feel the quality of shots on the blog is fine too. There are still a couple of areas where quality suffers though. First, low light is still an issue, although outside of a DSLR, that would be an issue (albeit a lesser one) with a point and shoot.
Related: Why I’m Ready to Dump my Camera for my Phone While Traveling & My Google Photos Review
The real major issue for me is a lack of zoom. My S6’s camera only has one focal point and any zoom is completely digital which means grainy. The iPhone 7 Plus is launching with two rear cameras. One will be a telephoto and one will be normal wide angle. This will essentially allow a 2X optical zoom, although it will just switch from one to the other. What is nice though is that the framing and quality should be better.
Of course the LG G5 also has this setup, but I don’t think LG has ever been able to get the camera processing quite right. It remains to be seen if Apple has figured it out with their new design either, but they are the best in the business. And so I ordered an Apple iPhone 7 Plus, but I am not committed at all.
AT&T Access More to the Rescue
The truth is I was going to order an iPhone anyway. Over the past year my wife and I have each opened an AT&T Access More card and neither of us has redeemed our free phone bonus. I wanted to wait for the iPhone 7 to come out to get a maximum return if I decided to sell. Products deeper into their cycle don’t sell for as much, but the iPhone 7 will get full retail value on the resale market.
So instead of ordering an iPhone 7 for $649 in order to get my $649 credit, I spent an extra $120 out of pocket to get the 32GB 7 Plus. It will take a few weeks to arrive and during that time I will read all of the expert reviews to see if it is a worthy upgrade. If so, I’ll welcome it into the family and finally ditch my Android. If not, then I’ll just sell it or more likely my wife will steal it. Win, win?!?
Other Considerations
I love technology and love to tweak things. Back in the day I would mod my Android phone and do all sorts of cool (to me) stuff. Nowadays I don’t do that and instead rely on my phone mostly for business. I keep up with news, answer emails, monitor my Amazon inventory and do about 100 other things. All of those things can be done on the iPhone. Growing up sucks.
Of course battery life is big too and is a category where my current phone fails miserably. Apple simply does battery life better and that is important when traveling, especially when your phone is your camera. As for the screen, my Galaxy S6 has a better resolution, but Apple has very good quality screens and I’ll have to deal with having fewer pixels. Oh well.
Conclusion
I am excited for the first time about an iPhone because I feel the camera has made a true step forward for travelers, especially those who rely on their phone as their camera. We will still need to see how that works in the real world, but if it does, that leap will be enough to get me to switch, even if I will miss my more complicated but beloved Android.
How many of you redeemed your free phone credit for an iPhone 7? What are your thoughts on the new dual camera setup of the 7 Plus? Let us know in the comments!
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what was your process of ordering your iphone 7 through At&t in order to trigger your $650 rebate? The link on the Citi website when I login isn’t working.
The link was working two days ago when I made the purchase.
ok i’ll try again. Thanks!
Was your order on AT&T’s website successful? I tried ordering an iPhone 7 twice now and have both times had my order cancelled.
Yes it went through but others have reported issues. AT&T’s site isn’t very good. Hopefully you have now had success.
Haha. Im gonna have to side with Ace 21 here…
Cmon Shawn. You have tons of fans here, but you bought the Penis Phone 7 w/ really classy and sexy PenisPods sticking out from your ear? Or maybe they look like wireless Sperm…
The iPhone 7. This is Penis.
Im sure you have considered the BEAST MODE exploding fire hazard Note 7… Just wait until its fixed though!
Do you know if it’s possible to use the ATT $650 credit on a phone for someone else, or does the new phone account have to be under the ATT Access More cardholders name to work?
I don’t believe the card has to be under the person’s name to work. You just need to sign-in to the account while ordering. With that said, you need to actually use the card to pay.
Oh man, made me cringe to read that you’re switching from android to the iPhone 7 and their penis-plug headphones. I personally wouldn’t waste my time buying right now. Even if you do prefer the Apple ecosystem, why not wait until next year? Yes, the dual camera sounds like an upgrade, and trust me I “get it” with picture quality and having a family and all that but where are the other upgrades beyond that? The headphones are tacky and expensive (apparently means “this is penis” in Hong Kong) and are likely to get lost. Just feels like a waste of time and money to jump ship now when you can hold off a year since you’re still holding a quality phone.
Debunktion junction:
http://m.imore.com/no-7-written-7-only-ever-means-7
haha. yea its still a funny joke though. also it depends how its pronounced. not necessarily just the written Chinese characters…
oh yea. btw. i wouldnt take someone who took chinese class for 3 years too seriously vs native speakers who are the ones making fun of apple…
Because… Because.
Fair enough about the 32GB, but what about the incorrect information about the dual lenses?
Yes ninja we get it, ur obsessed with the word Penis. What are u 8?
Shawn, regarding the dual lens system, you say that “one will be a wide angle and one will be normal.” This is false. The wide angle lens is the “normal” one (and the same one as in the iPhone 7), and the other one is a telephoto lens. Please correct your post to prevent the spread of misinformation.
Also, 32GB? Seriously? That is really not enough if you’re planning on taking any reasonable amount of photos and videos.
All of my photos backup daily to Google Photos and are indexed and fully accessible. Once every few months I download them to my computer and clear them from the memory of the phone. I have a 32GB phone now and it works fine.
I will never ditch my DSLR. A good camera and good lenses with a little PP (post processing) is my only
way to document travel. The new IP7 does have a small amount of optical zoom, which is a big improvement, but good glass is good glass. You cannot get Nikon or Cannon quality from a phone. All that being said, for the person that knows nothing about photography, this is a good option. It is interesting to see that as phones progress, they are simply turning them into cameras & not better phones.
Agreed: I have a 64GB 6+ and couldn’t have lived with less memory!
I’m waiting for the V20. Been using the V10 for almost a year and I love LG’s manual control for their camera app.
You made the right choice but Only 32GB? Your phone will run out of space in a week.
this is what I feel as well. 32GB is the new 16GB!
Still, with Google photos unlimited backup, Shawn should be okay.