Why spend $1,449 on an XS Max when you could have replaced the battery on your phone for $29?
- $200 no questions asked buy-back - Better camera - Larger screen in a just about the same size form factor
I expect to have this phone for ~4 years with probably a battery refresh in ~2ish.
I went 4S -> 6S -> XS. I hadn't upgraded an iPhone in years, Apple has made the process extremely slick and painless. I was seriously impressed at picking up the new phone and being "good to go" in ~45 min when my apps downloaded.
I'm sure I'm an outlier
If you use a password manager that supports OTP tokens (lastpass with their authenticator app, 1password, bitwarden) you could just use that and remove Authy out of the picture.
I have no connection other than being a happy premium user for around 2 years. By far the best of those I found.
Now I have 2 devices that I can use, which makes me much less fearful about losing (or more likely misplacing) my phone.
In iOS I use 'Authenticator' - https://github.com/mattrubin/Authenticator. It's open source.
In not-perfect-light scenarios (not necessarily by night), photos shot with the iOS stock camera App have noticeably grain or "patches". The portrait mode is nice, but has glitches occasionally such that some item in the background gets merged with the face in the foreground.
So, I’m not a professional photographer, I only use the camera of my iPhone XS Max. The results are good enough, but the improvement isn’t that big over the iPhone 7 or 8.
What I do like is the big screen, since I use my phone only a couple times per week to make a call. Most of the time is spend in apps.
I have used the latest models and don't see any improvements worth upgrading for. FaceID is cool, but not enough on its own to convince me to upgrade.
In previous cycles, my update from 3GS to 4S was a no-brainer (retina, massive speed improvement), as was the upgrade from 4S to 6S (lightning port, LTE, massive speed improvement, larger screen).
Once I got my battery swapped, the phone was as good as new.
And I still have a headphone jack.
If I knew this earlier, I could’ve bought the X sooner. Couldn’t recommend it enough.
Having recently deleted all my timeline-based social media accounts, I'd even consider switching to a smart dumbphone like the Nokia 8110 if it had WhatsApp and Spotify (WhatsApp is rumoured to be at least coming soon to KaiOS) and just get rid of the distraction altogether.
So yeah, iPhone nerd here.
I’ve been rocking an SE for a couple of years now. Love it. Works. Quick enough. Small, robust. No plans to update.
I think the novelty has worn off. They used to be these cool new toys. Now it’s just a phone. I want to spend less time with the thing as time goes on, not more.
Now on ios 12 my iphone 6 is fast again. But, I probably would have bought the iphone 8 by now anyway, just because of camera quality, etc. The speed trouble just pulled my purchase up by a year. (I even bought a stopgap SE in the summer of 2017)
I suspect others also upgraded early in 2011 due to ios 11. Of course this situation is better long run now that its fixed. I'm so pleased with ios 12.
> Why spend $1,449 on an XS Max?
Period.
This is the cost of what an entry level macbook was...
The effect is so dramatic that some manufacturers rescale the indicator so it isn't possible to reach those charge levels, and makers of electric cars won't charge above 90 percent by default.
https://batteryuniversity.com/index.php/learn/article/how_to...
"A laptop battery could be prolonged by lowering the charge voltage when connected to the AC grid. To make this feature user-friendly, a device should feature a “Long Life” mode that keeps the battery at 4.05V/cell and offers a SoC of about 80 percent."
I've had a lot of laptops with this kind of mode on them from several different manufacturers. I think Samsung, Lenovo, and HP have some knowledge of extending the life of their batteries. https://support-us.samsung.com/cyber/popup/iframe/pop_troubl...
"...it is strongly recommended to select "Optimize for Battery Lifesapn mode" or Conservation Mode and keep AC adapter connected alll the time. This mode will enable the battery to be fully charged to 80% or 60% of its design capacity." https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/solutions/ht069687
I have little reason to think a similar concept applies to phone batteries, as they're usually a similar chemistry these days.
I know that manufacturers sometimes gate off some of the capacity so that the battery doesn't actually reach extremely high or low levels of charge, but that would still imply that avoiding the very high and low ends of the reachable spectrum would still be helpful, just maybe not as much.
Samsung recommmends not going under 20% charge, but nothing about going over 80% https://www.samsung.com/uk/support/mobile-devices/how-can-i-...
gadgethacks thinks that we should avoid going over 80% https://android.gadgethacks.com/how-to/set-charging-limit-yo...
Apple has fantastic information: Don't charge past 80%, if it's too hot! https://www.apple.com/batteries/maximizing-performance/ The expected battery cycles are around 500 and then you have at least 80% capacity left on the battery. https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT208387
Both samsung and apple says that you should have at least 50% charge if you store the device long term and also avoid going too low and leave it empty.
I get that apple/samsung will not recommend not charging 100%, from using accubattery (play store) they say that a full charge uses about one charge cycle, but charging to 82% does not take any charge cycle.
From what I've read the best thing for the longevity of the battery would then be to have it between 20 and 80%. But if you will replace the battery or phone after 500 charging cycles you could just charge it to 100% as much as you like. But never go below 20%.
AccuBattery should really add a warning about the battery health when going under 20%.
I did not know that it's possible to monitor battery health in iphone settings nowadays, that's great!
Just have to crack that digitally signed battery cable ;)
Jokes aside, Apple been deliberately reducing their products' repairability since at least iphone 3. I myself had a side business of selling factory refurbished phones when I was an exchange student in Singapore from 2007 to 2009. Malaysian refurbishers told me that in the middle of production run, Apple deliberately began gluing their front glass to the display with impossible to undo glue to nuke any chance of profitable refurbishment.
In contrast to "dumb" phones of Japanese brands, that were designed for extreme manufacturability, Apple's products are unique in that regard to be engineered with an opposite goal.
That’s true for most modern high end phones and has been since 2012.
https://ifixsmartphone.com/2012/11/16/smartphones-with-glass...
Funnily enough I got an email about availability of the new models for a discounted price "for a limited time only". Maybe their prices will be reviewed?
Headphones, same issue, phone wants to initially connect to any other bluetooth device except the headphones in my hand. So, now I have to dig into settings, etc... I don't have that issue with 3.5mm jacks.
And now the Iphone XR has brought the side-bezel back! It almost looks like a rubber case.
And very few people won't do it to a phone that costs several hundred dollars to buy, and that will likely suffer considerable damage if you ever drop it on any hard surface without a case.
> US dollar strength-related price increases
A weaker dollar (due to inflation, etc.) is the reason that consumer prices increase. A stronger dollar in theory should make the prices decrease.
EDIT: I understand that a stronger dollar means the prices in other currencies will increase, but I was referring to specifically the price in US markets. Pretty sure the iPhone prices in the United States increased as well.
But I'm still a bit confused on it. How is Foxconn being paid? In dollars or in yuan? If the dollar is strong, shouldn't the BOM and manufacturing costs decline in lockstep with the Chinese buyers' purchasing power (relative to USD)?
So US probably has the cheapest iPhone in the world.
But for whom? If you're outside the US, and I'll remind you that most of the world, including China, is, then goods effectively priced in US dollars will be more expensive.
This is what I think 99% of business people don't get when they are confused by counterintuitive price dynamics of the industry.
strength-related price increases can be ambiguously read, whether the U.S. dollar strength increased or decreased, it led to price increases.