iPhone 7, 7 Plus cameras don't produce as sharp or well exposed images as Samsung's Galaxy S7 line, but OIS, f/1.8 aperture, 2x optical zoom are major upgrades
While their resolution may have stayed the same, the 12-megapixel rear cameras in Apple's iPhone 7 and 7 Plus look offer a big improvement in picture quality.
Context & Ripple Effects
A year after the iPhone 6S moved to a 12-megapixel sensor with 4K video, Apple kept the resolution flat in the iPhone 7 generation and instead spent its upgrade budget on optics: optical image stabilization, an f/1.8 aperture, and — on the 7 Plus — 2x optical zoom. Tom's Guide's verdict is split: real picture-quality gains, but still behind Samsung's Galaxy S7 line on sharpness and exposure.
That gap matters because Samsung had already made the camera its flagship differentiator, and the supply chain read the 7 Plus's zoom as the thing to beat — KGI's early 2017 note framed the Note 8's planned dual-camera 3x optical zoom explicitly against the iPhone 7 Plus.
First-order effects
- Buyers choosing between the iPhone 7/7 Plus and the Galaxy S7 on camera quality face a trade-off rather than a clear winner: Samsung holds the edge in sharpness and exposure, Apple in stabilization, low light, and zoom reach on the Plus.
- The 2x optical zoom gives the 7 Plus a feature the Galaxy S7 line cannot match at all, making the larger model Apple's camera flagship in practice.
Second-order effects
- Samsung's response path was already visible: KGI expected the Note 8's dual 12MP/13MP setup with 3x optical zoom to be 'much better than that of iPhone 7 Plus' and to match the then-unreleased OLED iPhone, turning zoom range into the next head-to-head spec.
- With resolution frozen at 12 megapixels across both camps' flagships, component differentiation shifts toward lens apertures, OIS modules, and dual-camera assemblies — raising the bill of materials for every premium phone that wants to stay in the camera conversation.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, smartphone camera competition permanently decouples from sensor resolution and reorganizes around optics plus software — the trajectory that later reviews of the iPhone 12 Pro Max and iPhone 16 Pro describe as closing in on dedicated-camera quality.
- Head-to-head camera shootouts become the de facto ranking system for flagships — as in the late-2017 comparisons where the Pixel 2 XL topped iPhone X and Note8 — giving reviewers outsized influence over which vendor's next optical bet wins.
The trend: Flagship phone competition is shifting from megapixel counts to optics, zoom, and image processing, with each year's camera verdict setting the spec the rival must top next.