Mixed bag: iOS 7 is great, but no slam dunk, say early reviews

With the ambitious launch of iOS 7, Apple has looked to do something drastically different – something that the company did not think about for nearly four generation of updates. Not just the company, but users have been nervous to see how Jony Ive’s colourful redesign will perform along with the bucketful of new features crammed into this update.

It has barely been a couple of days since iOS 7 was made available for download to the general public but there have been verdicts ranging from the good, the bad to the ugly. When it comes to the first thing that strikes you as new in iOS 7, i.e the design and UI, the verdict is unanimous – it’s nice but we’re reluctant to love it.

Liked by most, but loved by few

“Looking back now, iOS 6 feels dated, despite the fact that when I first started using iOS 7 I felt it was inferior in terms of look and feel to the older OS,” says Darrell Etherington of TechCrunch. “Apple’s new look with iOS 7 takes acclimating, but on the whole, it’s an improvement.” As David Pierce of The Verge puts it, “Where there used to be big, gray icons, now there are only letters. Nearly every clickable item is just a word, which can get really confusing if you don’t know your way around. There’s little guidance, only feedback… For everything else, you just have to tap on something blue and hope it works. iOS 7 isn’t harder to use, just less obvious. That’s a momentous change: iOS used to be so obvious.”

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Of course, Apple’s new OS, like every single one before it, draws comparisons to Google’s Android. Like IGN’s Scott Lowe says, “Even with the significant design and feature improvements, however, there’s still room to grow. Apple still lags behind Google’s deep integration of unified cloud services on Android, and iOS remains somewhat of a tightly regulated ecosystem. With Apple’s recent leadership shakeups, hopefully future iterations will see more drastic expansions.” Martin Bryant of The Next Web puts a contrary view for iOS 7 when compared to Android, “Sure, some will still prefer the flexibility of Android or the look and feel of Windows Phone, but Apple has its own, highly successful approach and it’s sticking to it.”

The redesign may take a while to get used to, but it’s nice

One of the most important aspects that has come out of the iOS 7 release is Apple’s situation itself. The winds of change have been blowing in the Cupertino-based company’s offices for a long time now and there’s been a clear distinction between the “old” Apple and the “new” in tech circles. The drastic overhaul on the operation system means that Apple did not wish to stick to status quo. Like Brian Klug and Saumitra Bhagwat of Anand Tech say, “I feel like the old Apple would’ve waited until the design was perfect before letting it out, while the new Apple is acutely aware of the competition that exists and is fine shipping and updating along the way. In many ways this is more like how OS X has worked in recent years, and I wonder if that’s the transition we’re seeing happen now. With a new face, comes the beginning of the maturation of iOS.”

Eventually, any major release of an iOS update boils down to whether or not it works for everyone and how well rounded it is. Zach Epstein of BGR explains, “iOS 7 is a balancing act and Apple did a tremendous job of balancing new and now.” Pixel Envy’s Nick Heer too believes that Apple has done well with the overall revamp of iOS 7. “[It] is a truly sublime experience which manages to preserve the familiar aspects of iOS while providing a brand new look and feel. The redesign makes the entire user experience feel brighter and more alive. It’s not just a bit of trite marketing: updating to iOS 7 really does feel like getting a brand new phone.”

We don’t hate it!

All in all, it sure looks like people – especially in the Twitterverse – seem more than willing to take back all they said about the iOS 7’s redesign as a knee-jerk reaction during its unveiling at WWDC this year. To put an end to all the hullaballoo surrounding the OS’s drastic new change, Ars Technica’s Andrew Cunningham paraphrases The Simpsons to explain iOS 7: “I’m no [design] critic, but I know what I hate. And I don’t hate this.” That seems to be the general consensus about iOS 7 – we do not hate it!

Have your say. What do you think of Apple’s iOS 7? Love it or hate it?