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Comment by prewett | Hacker News Reader

I read the announcement and was pretty impressed:

- 20% faster processor

- 4 - 5 hrs better battery life

- 30% faster FaceID (I don't know how slow the previous one was, but I know the speed difference between the TouchID on my iPad Mini 3 and my iPhone 7 makes me love it on the latter and never use it on the former)

- 2000000:1 contrast ratio (!!)

- wide angle and "telephoto" lenses, plus 4k video support, and better low-light imaging

- AI image processing magic

- Dual SIM cards (a must for the Asian market)

- "immersive audio" (this is a maybe: I'll be impressed if a phone can pack speakers that beat my studio headphones, but the 2019 MacBook Pro 15" is 95% as good, so there's a possibility)

- incremental improvements to WiFi and LTE

That all sounds pretty compelling to me. I'm not sure if I want it enough to pay $1000, but this sounds like a pretty solid improvement in pretty much all ways.

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Dual SIM came last year, and the 2000000:1 contrast ratio came in 2017. Aside from the third camera, the rest of these really are incremental improvements rather than new features.

I don't think that is a problem mind you. Lots of manufacturers are flinging shit at the wall trying to find the Next Big Thing(TM) in smartphones. I don't think it's going to happen any time soon. Smartphones in general have gotten incredibly good in the last 4-5 years.

> 2000000:1 contrast ratio came in 2017.

That came a hell of a lot longer ago than that. OLED has been on the market since 2010.

We're talking about iPhones specifically.

> 2000000:1 contrast ratio (!!)

What so exciting here? It's OLED. They all have that kind of contrast ratio. The huge number was just mentioned for marketing sake. Your eyes won't know the difference between 200000, 2000000 or Infinity.

While being P3 compliant?

iPhone 8 and X were the first iPhones to support DCI-P3 color space.

And 99% were non the wiser or cared.

Contrast ratio is just the comparison between the brightest white and the darkest black. All OLED, by virtue of having pure black darks, have infinite contrast ratio. Doesn't matter if it's a good OLED or a shitty one, they all universally have perfect contrast ratio.

20% faster processor over what is already the best in the cellphone world. If intel or amd did the same, lot of the same people here would be cheering their hearts out.

Actually 20% cpu improvement would also be a who cares in processors too. 2x is worthy of note maybe.

Look at the history of CPU performance over the past decade. If we were to get a 20% IPC increase in desktop processors it would be a big deal.

Especially YoY, which people forget. AMD currently seems to be pulling that off though, thus the big hype.

- "immersive audio" (this is a maybe: I'll be impressed if a phone can pack speakers that beat my studio headphones, but the 2019 MacBook Pro 15" is 95% as good, so there's a possibility)

I can't figure out any way that this is not going to be mid-side "wide" mode, from speakers on each end when the phone is at landscape.

https://soundbridge.io/make-wider-mixes-mid-side-ms-techniqu...

> Dual SIM cards (a must for the Asian market)

Haven't heard of that. Why is it a must?

One of the benefits is you can keep one number unchanged and keep changing the other sim card when they have good promotion price especially for data.

Extremely popular in SE Asia because of the fragmentation of the mobile phone networks and almost constant data promotion specials.

What zakki said, and also for people who travel somewhat often and need to get sim cards for travel.

They got used to dual sim in android devices. There are multiple use cases like keeping one number for office and can turn it off after office hours and another sim for personal life all in one device. Another use is have data plan in a cheaper provider and voice with another with better reliability or coverage etc, yet another is have a sim with international roaming or local one without using a separate phone when traveling!

Dual SIM is amazing for travel, and the only reason I upgraded to the Xs last year. I put Verizon on the eSIM and then use prepaid/travel SIMs in the physical port.

Itiis not addual sim cards,but esim and a sim card. Not all markets have operator that can sell esim. And Xs also had it. BTW is it dual active or just standby?

An improvement with no real innovation.

> plus 4k video support

iPhones don't already support 4k video? Good Android phones have had 4k cameras for years.

> Dual SIM cards (a must for the Asian market)

Obviously not a must if they're only adding dual SIMs now.

>iPhones don't already support 4k video?

they do

It's 4k at 60fps with extended dynamic range. If you've experienced HDR/wider color gamuts, then you'll appreciate the distinction.

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