Wesley's Tool-Box

While the iPhone 7 I got from Japan was busy getting reviewed, the iPhone 7 Plus and the Apple Watch Series 2 I asked my friend Andy in the United States to preorder for me was traveling around the world. The 7 Plus in particular was actually stuck in here South Korea for a while in transit from China to United States due to shipping issues. Once it landed in the States, Andy sent it back across the Pacific so I could have it in my hands. And that's why it took three weeks to arrive.


The box for the iPhone 7 Plus is the same size as the one for 6S Plus, but with the same new design as the 7. It seems the new Apple Watch Series 2 also come in the same-sized box as the previous version. I ordered a Stainless Steel one this time, unlike the Aluminum (Sport) version last year and was a bit surprised how heavy the box was. Shipping weight was 1.2kg for the watch and 0.5kg for the phone; even with the shipment box removed the boxes weighed 880g and 460g, respectively.

My iPhone collection is constantly growing. When you lay them down like this with their boxes, it provides me with a nice view of how the technology is evolving. As with all things, though, old devices simply ceases to be supported by the manufacturer. The three iPhones at the top no longer receive any major iOS version updates and are stuck in their time. The new member of this is the iPhone 4S, topping out at iOS 9.3.5. I expect iPhone 5 to join this group next year because, along with iPhone 5C, it is the last in the line of 32-bit iPhones and iOS 10 visually warns about an app that's not 64-bit.

iOS updates or not, all my devices are kept in good working condition. So I brought them out for another annual round of tests. For this year's tests, devices from iPhone 5 to 7 had iOS 10.0.1. 4S, 4, and 3GS had 9.3.5, 7.1.2, and 6.1.6, respectively. Last year, devices from iPhone 4S to 6S Plus had 9.1. Let's take a look at the boot times.


Unless it's an old device that's feeling the weight of a new OS, newer devices tend to have a quicker boot time. Strangely though, iPhone 7 does not boot up as fast as its predecessor, and this was repeatedly observed. Perhaps this is due to the tested device having a large, 256GB storage and the system taking its time to test its integrity.