I think it's a great trade off. I use exclusively Bluetooth audio with my phone- the gym, the car, the motorcycle, walking around... If I want great sounding audio I have a stereo and a set of nice cans and speakers at home and in my office.
I'll never use the lighting dongle and I don't use corded buds/headphones now so I will literally not feel a difference in that respect. I only listen to audiobooks, podcasts, Pandora, and Spotify on the phone, so I'm not exactly getting the greatest audio I could be anyway.
However, having increased dust and water protection are something I'm very happy to get if it improves the longevity of the device. I don't really care too much about it getting that much thinner either, but I'm happy with making the phone more physically robust if they can.
> I have a stereo and a set of nice cans and speakers at home and in my office
Moreover, if you want to play a song from your phone through your stereo and want the best sound possible, you'd use a digital connection versus an analog one.
You don't need to remove the headphonr jack to get water resistance. Look at Android phones like the Galaxy S5 (3 years old, water resistance with headphone jack, SD card slot and removable battery.
And what about the battery life? Don't you care about that either? Or do you even recognize it's a critical issue for many people? It just sounds like you're desperately defending an Apple product at all costs.
I don't have any issues with the battery life of my 6S+, and I'm not sure there are any other phones with a substantially better battery life on the market. I know there are a number of Android models that claim 24+ hour battery life, and so does the 6S+. I do know that a number of Android models ship w/ a 3,700 mAh battery while the 6S+ ships with only 2,950 mAh, but the real world usage claims have them in the same ballpark.
My last Android (Samsung Galaxy Nexus) had AWFUL battery life (3,700 mAh battery, btw) and I had a couple of spare batteries with me at all times. My iPhone 6S+ gets me from 0500 to bedtime nearly every night without a charge throughout the day. According to the release notes I should expect another hour of battery life with the iPhone 7, so it's not like they took things away and decreased the battery life.
For me, and that's all that matters in MY buying decisions, better durability and extended battery life at the cost of a port that I have never used on this phone are an unequivocal upgrade.
You're right, I just grabbed one of my old extended batteries it was only 2,100 mAh. Either way I couldn't get 6 hours out of it and it was awful, just not quite as awful as I gave it credit for.
> However, having increased dust and water protection are something I'm very happy to get if it improves the longevity of the device.
Really? How long do you keep your phones for? 2 years, tops? I've never damaged a phone I've owned, let alone rendered one unusable because of either dust or water.
This will have no appreciable effect on the life of the product for me.
"In all my experience, I have never been in any accident... or any sort worth speaking about. I have seen but one vessel in distress in all my years at sea. I never saw a wreck and never have been wrecked nor was I ever in any predicament that threatened to end in disaster of any sort." -- E. J. Smith, 1907, Captain, RMS Titanic
I'm less worried about icebergs and more worried about 3 kids under four, dropping it in a puddle (I live in the Pacific Northwest), and just dropping it in general.
I'll never use the lighting dongle and I don't use corded buds/headphones now so I will literally not feel a difference in that respect. I only listen to audiobooks, podcasts, Pandora, and Spotify on the phone, so I'm not exactly getting the greatest audio I could be anyway.
However, having increased dust and water protection are something I'm very happy to get if it improves the longevity of the device. I don't really care too much about it getting that much thinner either, but I'm happy with making the phone more physically robust if they can.