I got my first iPhone, a 5s, back in April for my birthday. I wasn’t the biggest Apple fan after having used Android phones my whole life, but slowly I began to get comfortable with Siri and even fall in love with my phone. It started having more problems than usual at the beginning of this month, which coincided with Apple announcing the arrival of the new iPhone 7 and 7 plus. Is it true that Apple makes their products built to last only until the new model releases? I don’t think so, but the new iPhone 7 does have a lot to offer and just as much to take away for students.

The new iPhone 7 is no longer available in 16 GB – 32 GB  and is now the new standard, which makes sense as Apple has also improved pixel resolution/ HD display, FaceTime, dual cameras are a thing now (only on 7 Plus), battery life, water resistance, processor, and iOS 10 software. 

I think Apple took a big step in the right direction by making the iPhone water resistant. If I had a dollar for every time my phone has been near water and a quarter for every time it’s dropped in water, I could pay off my college tuition. Students no longer have to worry about dropping their phone in the shower or toilet, then putting it in rice after a quick prayer that it still works. 

Students can also look forward to notably better photos, especially at night, so enjoy having those night football games and your photos being light as day. The Messaging app now lets you send personal handwritten notes or you can have invisible ink over notes/photos that the recipient has to scratch over to reveal your message. 

The new addition of “bedtime” allows the user to set a time they want to go to sleep and adjust the wake up time based on the amount of hours they want to sleep. For example, mine is set for a minimum of 7 hours, therefore “bedtime” has to between 11 p.m. – midnight. Yet, all of these advances and improvements lack in comparison to the biggest, noticeable difference in the iPhone –– or really any phone –– the absence of an headphone jack.

Apple is cutting the cord between students and the new iPhone 7… almost. A dongle to lighting port connecter is now necessary for those who want to use traditional headphones. Moreover, Apple does offer the dongle and EarPods that connect to the iPhone’s lightning port, but what if you lose it? Who wants to pay to replace it each time? Students are not going to just be replacing a pair of headphones should they upgrade.Yet, what’s more irksome is losing the ability to charge your phone and listen to music or watch TV on your phone. If a student is at the library, they can’t just play their music loudly while charging their phone; that’s against the rules. Unless Apple is willing to add a second lighting port to future models, they need to work on increasing battery life.

But, with all these changes, there are some things that have remained the same from the previous models. The structure of the iPhone 7 is a replica of standard iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus so you’re not gonna have any issues about size adaptation. Also, the same finishes are available for the iPhone including: rose gold, gold, silver, or “black,” which really looks more gray to me, and new this year –– jet black. I would avoid the “jet black” color option because scratches will look more apparent.

Overall, I would hold off buying a new iPhone 7, especially if you already have the iPhone 6. Instead, get the new iOS 10 software update. Everything from the touch-to-unlock, messaging app, Apple Pay, and display of your notifications are completely different –– almost to the point of where I feel that I have “new” iPhone … without having to buy one and lose my headphone jack.

Arnelle Johnson is a junior majoring in economics. Her column runs biweekly.