That's it.
"The best camera is always the one you have with you."
I have far more expensive dedicated cameras but my iPhone is the one that I use the most frequently because it's _always_ with me. That matters and I'll always upgrade if the camera is significantly better in any way (especially in low-light, which is the area where there's a ton of room for improvement).
But I'm speaking as a person who values and has a dedicated interest in photography.
My mom really doesn't care as much because phone cameras have gotten really really good for most people's use-case.
There's no chance I'm getting anything but an iPhone, for those and a number of other reasons.
With that being said, there are significant improvements year over year in the camera hardware used across the industry regardless of manufacturer. There's also really innovative stuff going on in camera software and computational photography from both Google and Apple among others (shoutout to Halide Camera).
I'm not going to swap out my entire phone operating system and integrated workflow for a single software-feature like Night Sight (even though I think it's very cool).
I was just making a statement about how smartphone cameras (as a category) will continue to get more impressive through a combination of software and hardware. The step function improvements in the camera experience alone are enough for me to consider upgrading even if the rest of the experience is only marginally better. The point being that even as someone with more expensive cameras and lenses, the camera on a phone is still extraordinarily important to people like me because it's the camera we end up having with us all the time.
I get that you really want to turn this into an Apple vs Android thing, but I'm going to play that game with you.
If I were you I'd start planning how to move to the side where competition is actually a thing, before you're paying 4x or 5x for the same thing.
The value of the ecosystem working reliably together is worth the premium to me (in addition to things like reliable updates, good privacy models, and a focus on customer service, among other things).
Apple have an incredibly opinionated view of computing, for sure - but it's one that I prefer even at increased cost.
With that being said, I would like to keep the focus of this conversation on camera technology across the industry. Apple or no Apple, the cool stuff going on in computational photography excite me as a photographer.
A phone that could be plugged into a usb C hub and instantly I have a running full Ubuntu desktop environment with all of my phone's data in the right places.
I know there's some partial attempts at this out there but I'm talking the full thing with Apple levels of quality and polish.
Imagine you want to go to a coffee shop, go sit somewhere else in your house, go to meeting someplace, get on a plane, go to an office etc.
There's no hubs, screens, keyboards etc. in these places so you'd be stuck with a phone. You're effectively much much less mobile than a laptop, only incrementally more than having a desktop at home.
Perhaps if hubs / screens became ubiquitous everywhere (maybe apple can do that) it would be useful.
I’d rather just wear those (inexistent) googles that create virtual screens anywhere I want.
And with help of rclone sync via S3 I have (98%) mirror of my laptop terminal environment (vim, git, npm, pip, gcloud, awscli etc.) and also nice GUI.
True not all gadgets use USB-C.
Happened to me as I changed employer and had to hand back the fancy Pixel slab. I have been fine with the cracked screen 'burner' phone that I had bought in a hurry after I accidentally put my previous personal phone in the wash.
The 'burner' was only supposed to be a temporary purchase so I could take personal calls from not-so-well relatives. However I like having a not-so-special phone and not having the fear of dropping the posh all-singing-all-dancing Google device. Family channel messaging still works on it, it works fine as a phone and it even has nice touches like an SD card and replaceable battery. The smaller size is particularly good, the Google thing did not fit in my pocket too well.
The lack of decent camera is fine. It is actually what you do with a camera more than how good it is that matters the most. Plus there is that 'live for the moment' aspect of not having a posh camera.
The only downside is not having 'the big phone' for 'really important things'. I used to be able to do that, for a really important call, fancy photo or serious surfing, tell people 'hang on a minute, let me get my big phone for this...'. There was comedy value to it (but, like the best jokes, you would have had to have been there at the time).
Funny too that I never really needed any of those apps, games or whatever else you are supposed to have on these things. There is also value in being 'other' and not having a precious phone rectangle. I don't tease others for having to have their hand-rectangle crutch with them at all times. I am even okay with leaving my phone behind, if anyone calls then I call them back when I get in. Nothing is that important. There is no needless checking of the phone at every opportunity for me nowadays. I understand that new phones have apps to moderate that behaviour, I find that quite comical as I have no need for that imposed 'self control'.
As an outsider to hand-rectangle life I now observe others sharing a room, all of them engrossed in whatever it is that is shown on their respective hand-rectangles and not talking. If you want to do any of those things a hand-rectangle is for then a regular laptop (with tethering) is far better. I can't think of anything of consequence I have read or watched on hand-rectangles of old. Even maps is something I am dubious about, I am good for the zombie apocalypse when directions will need signs, landmarks, sun-angle and other clues. Camera is also a bit more nuanced. A dedicated camera with tripod mount is much better than even a Pixel phone when you want to do things like product shots. Out and about, the burner camera is fine for those things you message people with.
Testing websites for web-development is kind of even better with a burner phone. If it looks good on my phone then everything else is pretty covered (aside from Safari nuances).
It reminds me of the time I gave up my addiction to music, once I took the headphones off I discovered that the ambient soundtrack to my life was pretty good. I can honestly say I don't aspire to a new hand-rectangle but if I did wash my phone again and had to get a new phone then I would find today's burner phones pretty sweet compared to what I have now to go for the same. To think of the 'status anxiety' aspects of the past, where obviously I would need the deluxe version of a device with that extra RAM and storage space 'just in case'. I have grown past that feeble dependency.
He’ll, it’d be worth it for 4g.
Won’t happen in the states though