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How the original iPhone stacks up to the iPhone 7 Plus

As Apple celebrates the 10th anniversary of the iPhone's announcement on Monday, we're taking a look at how far the device has come.

Alfred Ng
Alfred Ng was a senior reporter for CNET News. He was raised in Brooklyn and previously worked on the New York Daily News's social media and breaking news teams.
Alfred Ng
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Dimensions

With more than 1 billion units sold over the last decade, the iPhone has steadily improved since 2007. Its latest rendition, the iPhone 7 Plus, was released on Sept. 16, 2016 -- nine years, eight months and one week after Steve Jobs announced the original Apple iPhone.

To see exactly how far the device has come, we're comparing the two phones across five categories: dimensions, storage, battery life, speed and camera.

The original iPhone might have been a grand vision, but it was small in size compared to the iPhone 7 Plus. With a 3.5-inch display, the original iPhone is dwarfed by the 5.5-inch screen on the iPhone 7 Plus. Also, Apple offered five color options for its latest flagship iPhone, but the original device came in one simple color.

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Storage

Apple killed off the 16 gigabyte version of the device starting with the iPhone 7, making 32GB the smallest storage option available. That's double the original iPhone's maximum storage option.

The original iPhone's minimum storage option was just 4GB, which is about how much space Apple's current devices need to run iOS 10.

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Battery life

The original iPhone's battery life wouldn't last a day in the iPhone 7 Plus' shoes. With 5.18 watt-hours, the original iPhone had less than half the battery life of iPhone 7 Plus. That means being able to browse the web on the iPhone 7 Plus more than twice as long as you could on the original iPhone.

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Speed

Life moved pretty fast over the last 10 years, and so did Apple's upgrades to its phones. While Apple never officially revealed the processor used in its original iPhone, a teardown from Semiconductor Insights in 2007 indicated it was most likely Samsung's S5L8900. Since then, the iPhone has opted for its own homemade A10 fusion chips, skyrocketing its speed.

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Camera

We took the same shot with the original iPhone and the iPhone 7 Plus. As you can see, the original iPhone's camera isn't great in low light situations and could only capture a blurry scene.

We would also have done a video test, but the original iPhone didn't have that capability. Selfies weren't a thing in 2007 either. Apple didn't introduce a front-facing camera until 2010 with the iPhone 4.

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