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Apple iOS 7 review: Should you download it?

For Apple, iOS is sacred. Its unique blend of usability, simplicity and the now gargantuan App Store has granted the company huge success.

When the original iPhone launched, it wasn't the only smartphone on the market. In fact, there were plenty of handsets out there that looked better on paper at the time.

It was iOS that made the iPhone stand out. Simply put, there was nothing quite like it. Now, many years into the iPhone's life span, iOS has become the norm.

iOS 7

© Apple

iOS 7

The iPhone was becoming boring and stale, so Apple went back to the drawing board, chucked everything out of the window and created iOS 7.

The result is an operating system that is as familiar as the day you first switched your iPhone on, yet looks and feels completely different. It's quite an achievement.

The new look
Apple loves a bit of design-speak. When it unveiled iOS 7, we were treated to a video full of phrases like: "I think there is a profound and enduring beauty in simplicity."

But as much as Jonathan Ive's words make us cringe, he has a point. Why does a smartphone need to be complicated? It's something you grab from your pocket, scan and then put away again.

iOS 7 is all about simplicity in every single respect. Gone are the old icon sets, menu layouts and stock applications. It's all been replaced by simple clean lines and colors. To us, it feels like the most modern operating system there is right now.

Some have accused the new look of being too stripped-back but sat on an iPhone 5C, it makes perfect sense. Colourful is clearly the design direction Apple is going to take with its mobile products.

Our favorite tweak with iOS 7's looks is its multi-layered approach to design. The whole UI is split across different interactive layers. The background, for example will tilt along with the phone, while any apps floating above it stay still. As such, the whole of the operating system has a kind of faux 3D effect. It's very slick.

Layered on top of the whole UI are two separate menus on sliders, coming from the top and bottom of the phone's screen. Notifications are at the top, while a quick menu is at the bottom. They are slightly transparent, allowing a blurred version of what's below to peek through. Again, it further adds to the 3D look of the new OS.

Functionality improved
One of iOS's major criticisms has always been the number of steps it takes to carry out day-to-day smartphone tasks.

Apple has now finally addressed this by using a small slide out 'control center' that you can access from the bottom of the iPhone's screen.

It allows you to enable airplane mode, switch Wi-Fi on and off as well as Bluetooth, and toggle the display lock and 'do not disturb' mode. You can also use the menu to change brightness, music controls and interact with AirPlay and the new AirDrop function, which we will come to later.

    "iOS 7 is all about simplicity, in every single respect."

Finally, sat at the bottom of the tray are flashlight, compass, calculator and camera shortcuts. Every major base is covered. It speeds up the rate at which you can get things done on your iPhone and streamlines any interactions you might have.

Craig Federighi talks about iOS 7

© Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP/Press Association Images

Craig Federighi talks about iOS 7

The notifications menu is accessed by dragging down from the top of the screen. This is largely the same in terms of functionality as iOS 6, but features a customisable 'Today' view that means you can remove things like the stocks feature and push calendar or weather up to the top. 'Today' will also provide a summary of events for you to check at a glance, reminding you of things such as birthdays.

Next we have a new look multi-tasking menu. Again, this is all about streamlining processes. Before it would've taken multiple button and finger presses in order to kill an app. Now you can open multi-tasking with a double home button press and then kill apps by swiping them away upwards.

New apps

As well as drastically changing the look of every single stock application, from calendar to email, iOS 7 also adds a large amount of functionality.

The photos app, for example, now lets you see every image you have ever taken in a special 'moments' view, ranking objects based on dates or location. You can also use photos to create a shared photostream across iCloud, allowing friends to post multiple pictures into one single shared album.

Apple's emphasis on streamlining has turned up a few missteps, however. Photos for example, require multiple taps to get a black background up to view pictures, with white being the default.

The music app also has a lovely album artwork scroll in landscape view, but looks like little more than a simple wire-frame in default portrait mode. Album artwork also takes a backseat from text, which detracts from the overall polished and colourful feel the operating system has.

The camera app has been simplified even further. Changing between video and photo modes is done by simply swiping left and right. Then you have a set of built-in filters to play with, while the new iPhone 5S has features such as a slow-motion mode.

AirDrop is Apple's attempt at increasing the amount of sharing that can be done with the iPhone. A sort of workaround for NFC, it's deeply embedded into the entire operating system. You can use AirDrop to send files wirelessly over Wi-Fi and even push them out to multiple contacts iPhones, provided they are nearby.

Vimeo for iOS 7 on the iPad

© Vimeo

Vimeo for iOS 7 on the iPad

Safari has taken a big change in the looks department. It has a shrinking search bar that disappears as you scan down a web page. This irritates us slightly as you need to go back to the top to swap to a different website.

One handy new Safari function is the ability to just swipe left and right to go forward and back pages. It makes browsing a lot quicker.

The App Store, iOS's holy grail, remains largely unchanged bar its looks. There is however one interesting tweak called 'apps near me', which uses your location to see what sort of apps others are downloading.

Siri has been given a functionality boost as well, in the form of proper Twitter and Wikipedia integration, as well as a more complex set of answers and search terms to play with. It feels like it has more depth than ever.

There are plenty more app tweaks under iOS 7's hood, like shared links in Safari, or even the new ringtones and animated backgrounds, that completely change the way the OS handles. For us though, the app tweaks are reason enough for a download.


iOS 7 represents an interesting problem for Apple in that it completely changes the iPhone you currently have in your pocket.

As such, rushing out to buy the iPhone 5S or 5C makes less sense, simply because the iPhone 5 feels just as fresh and exciting with iOS 7 on board.

Apple has worked some real design magic this time with its new operating system. The star of the show in 2013 for Apple hasn't been its phones, it's been iOS 7.

iOS 7

© Apple

iOS 7

Some might not like the way the new operating system looks, but a week with the added functionality and we are sure they won't want to step back. Apple has addressed nearly every major shortcoming of its mobile operating system and returned with a product that finally feels fresh and new.

The only problem we have with iOS 7 is that the company hasn't pared it with hardware that feels even remotely as exciting. For such a drastic design departure, we would've liked to see a mobile phone that did the same.

Ultimately though, this is a free update that practically grants you a brand new handset. So what are you waiting for? Get downloading.

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