iPhone 7 Plus’ Portrait Mode Still Needs Some Work

One of the features of iOS that would be exclusive to the iPhone 7 Plus would be the Portrait Mode in the camera which allows for a simulated bokeh effect. This feature was recently released as part of iOS 10.1, but unfortunately it seems that the feature isn’t quite working out the way Apple had promised it would.

According to a variety of posts on Twitter by iPhone 7 Plus users (as compiled by Gizmodo), it seems to suggest that there are many iPhone 7 Plus users who aren’t impressed with the feature. While in some instances it does seem to do a good job of simulating a shallow depth of field, there are instances in which it clearly shows that this is all computer simulated.

For example it seems to be unnecessarily blurring objects, and in some cases various parts of the photo were blurred which would not have been possible with a normal camera. This is because apparently the feature seems to lack situational awareness, meaning that it is hardpressed to tell what should be blurred (the tips of the cactus above seem unnaturally blurred) and what shouldn’t, and sometimes seems to tell objects apart, such as foreground and background.

However we should point out that Apple has made it very clear that Portrait Mode is still in beta despite being released with iOS 10.1, so bugs and imperfections are to be expected. We know that Apple has gotten into trouble before with Siri a few years ago which is why they slapped the beta tag on the feature, so it looks like Apple is trying to avoid another lawsuit with Portrait Mode, so hopefully with more work, Portrait Mode will be perfected in future updates.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Apple, Cellphones, Photo-Video
Tags: iOS 10, iphone 7 plus