7 Features the iPhone 7 borrows from Android smartphones

The iPhone 7 announcement was accompanied by a string of new feature announcements that Android phones had implemented over the course of the year. Some features, such as the dual camera or the removal of the headphone jack might just be manufacturers including these features in anticipation of Apple’s moves. Even so, these devices were out in the market first. Here are seven such features that Apple has ‘borrowed’ from Android smartphones. Dual cameras were already in the LG G5 and the Huawei P9  Apple announced a dual camera setup for the iPhone 7 Plus, the iPhone 7 will not sport dual cameras. One of the lenses is a wide angle lenses, and the other one is a telephoto lens. There is a feature that is coming soon, a depth‑of‑field effect that mimics the appearance of bokeh photographs taken from DSLRs. Dual cameras are not new to Android phones, with the QiKU Q Terra being the first model to sport one. The Huawei P9 uses two sensors, one in RGB and one in greyscale to deliver sharper images with better depth perception. The cameras for the Huawei P9 were developed with a technical collaboration with the camera company, Leica. The LG G5 also has a dual camera setup. One of the rear cameras is a wide angle lens, which allows for a lot more room for experimentation. Samsung Galaxy S7, Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge and Samsung Galaxy Note 7 were all water resistant  Sony has made some water resistant devices in the past. The simple answer is the cost, but this is an in-depth read on why more smartphones are not waterproof. The Samsung Galaxy S7, the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, and the recently released Samsung Galaxy Note 7 were all models with a certified water resistance rating, released this year before Apple. The Apple iPhone 7 and the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 are equally good at dust resistance. However, the Note 7 beats the iPhone 7 marginally, when it comes to water resistance. The iPhone 7 has a dust and water resistance rating of IP67, while the Note 7 is rated at IP68. The Samsung Gear IconX are cord free earphones  Apple plans cordless speakers, but we already have smart hearables in the market. Samsung’s Gear IconX is available in the market, and it does many of the same things that the Apple AirPods do. Both devices are charged wirelessly, through a case. Both the devices support gestures for use when paired with smartphones. The Gear IconX also doubles up as a fitness tracker, which means that there is no need to pair multiple wearables with a smartphone. The Apple AirPods battery life allows for 5 hours of continuous playback, while the Samsung Gear IconX allows for 3.8 hours. LeEco also ditched the 3.5mm jack  Apple had the “courage” to remove the 3.5mm audio jack from smartphones. Some Android smartphones may have anticipated that Apple would take this courageous step, and have pre-emptied Apple by being the first to ditch the 3.5mm jack. Apple apparently took the decision to save precious space on the phone, to be used for other components. The space saving reason has been used to introduce smaller SIM cards in the past. The LeEco Le 2 and Le Max 2 feature a new audio standard called  CDLA (Continual Digital Lossless Audio) to deliver audio over the USB type C port. Looks like it is time to bid farewell to the 3.5 mm audio jack. The HTC 10 already had the stereo speakers  The iPhone 7 has introduced 2X the number of speakers, and the iPhone 7 is 2X as loud as the iPhone 6s. The setup apparently increases the dynamic range of the audio, making it ideal for consuming multimedia content. The HTC 10 was an Android flagship with stereo speakers, released earlier this year. The HTC 10 has a separate tweeter and woofer for each speaker, and the speakers are powered by individual amplifiers. This allows for a Japan Audio Society High Res Audio certification for the HTC 10. The Galaxy S7 got a brighter screen too  The iPhone 7 claims to have a brighter screen than the iPhone 6s. According to the GSMArena review of the Galaxy S7, the screen is brighter than the Galaxy S6. However, Phonearena actually lists the Galaxy S6 screen as being brighter than the Galaxy S7. The LG G5 also had an unusually bright screen, rated at 816 nits, a unit used to measure screen brightness. Apple rates the screen brightness at 625 nits. Apple does not list the number of colours shown by the device, but the Galaxy S7 can display 16 million colours. The Zopo Speed 8 has a deca-core processor   Apple introduced the Apple A10 Fusion SoC at the event, which is the first quad-core processor for the iPhone by Apple. Two cores are performance oriented, and two cores are efficiency oriented. This new architecture reduces the energy footprint of the chip, allowing for a longer battery life. The Lava X3, a phone available for less than Rs 7,000, has an octa-core processor. The Zopo Speed 8 launched in India in July this year, for Rs 29,999 has a 10 core processor. Apple claims the A10 fusion is the most powerful chip to be ever used in a smartphone. We cannot wait to compare benchmarks with the OnePlus 3.