Apple last week unveiled a pair of new smartphones in the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. The latest handsets both feature multiple camera-related enhancements although in keeping with tradition, it's the larger of the two that sees the most significant update.

This year, the advantage comes in the form of a dual camera system.

If you recall, both new iPhones feature a 28mm, 12-megapixel camera with optical image stabilization and f/1.8 aperture, six-element lens mated to a new image signaling processor. The larger iPhone 7 Plus adds a second camera, a 56mm telephoto lens with f/2.8 aperture that affords true 2x optical zoom.

That all sounds impressive if you're a photography enthusiast but in reality, people are going to judge the cameras based solely on image quality (as they should). Fortunately, we now have some early samples ready for evaluation.

On Sunday, Sports Illustrated photographer David E. Klutho tested out the iPhone 7 Plus during the Tennessee Titans and Minnesota Vikings football game. Apple also gave one of its new handsets to ESPN photographer Landon Nordeman to cover the US Open. Results from both shoots have been embedded in this article and of course, you can check out both sites for additional images.

So, what do the samples this tell us about the image quality of the iPhone 7 Plus? Not a whole lot, unfortunately.

At first glance (and with the right display), they look great. The problem is that the images have all been resized so we don't get to see what they look like in their native resolution. It's also not known if the photos were captured using the basic Apple camera app or in a third-party app that affords much more control over things like aperture, shutter speed and ISO.

Furthermore, were they retouched at all or are we seeing exactly what they look like straight out of the camera?

With iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus reviews scheduled to hit the web in the next day or so, we should get a much better idea of exactly what the new cameras are - and aren't - capable of.

Images courtesy David E. Klutho of Sports Illustrated and Landon Nordeman from ESPN, respectively.