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Comment by fmajid | Hacker News Reader

I'm still on my iPhone 6, and I am not going to get the 11 either, in fact I have been dabbling with LineageOS on a Xiaomi Pocophone F1 as a second travel phone.

What would make me "upgrade" (not sure if I can really call that an upgrade in the absence of a headphone port).

Must-haves:

1. USB-C

2. 5G support using a single-chip like the Qualcomm Snapdragon X55 baseband chipset (not a separate 4g and 5G chip as with the X50)

3. No more stupid notch

Nice to have:

4. Some sort of anti-slip ridges or grip milled into the casework

5. Getting TouchID back

6. No more stupid lens bump

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For me, the must haves are:

1. Headphone jack. Absolute MUST for any sort of music recording (lag, quality) and long distance running (battery life).

2. TouchID. My wife has FaceId and I hate it so much.

Everything else I can live with or without.

I’m still on my 6s+ for those reasons, and it’s sad. Nobody would NOT buy the latest iPhone if it had those things. But a non-zero population doesn’t buy it bc it lacks them. Just silly.

iPhone 5 SE. Headphone jack: Check. TouchID: Check. No FaceID: Check. Actually fits in my hand and I can reach any part of the screen with my thumb: Check.

I guess it's not a "fast" smartphone anymore but... it's definitely Fast Enough.

This is exactly the case for me too, I love my 6S+. My only problem is that the battery is starting to die. Now I would just replace the battery and stick with it but some years ago I dropped the phone and the screen shattered.

You can't see the cracks in normal head on operation and there are no usage issues but I think it would mean that I'd have to have the screen replaced to replace the battery. At some point this is not economically good sense.

I can easily afford an new iPhone every year but I want a headphone socket for use with Rosetta Stone. When I use my headphones wirelessly with it it switches to a headset profile (with an annoying beep) and the sound quality drop to that of a headset before it switch back to audio profile (with another annoying beep).

Apple's solutions things like audio in the new iPhones seems half baked. Using a 3.5mm headphone lead with the same Bose QC35s everything works perfectly with clear sound at all times.

Also FaceId won't work when sitting in the charging cubbyhole of my car, TouchId does.

A new screen is about $200 and a battery about $70 or so. It’s not even about 25% of a new iPhone, and it gives you many more years of use.

In the UK a new screen is £166[1]. A new battery is £49[2] a new iphone 8 (without trade in) is £479 which is somewhat closer to 45%.

That’s not a clear cut win to me.

[1] https://support.apple.com/en-gb/iphone/repair/service/screen...

[2] https://support.apple.com/en-gb/iphone/repair/service/batter...

Same phone here, for the same reasons. It still does everything I want, as quickly as I want. It’s actually a little mind boggling to me that they have nearly doubled the version number without adding anything at all that I find compelling.

> I'm still on my iPhone 6, and I am not going to get the 11 either

The cost of going from a 6 year upgrade cycle to a 5 year upgrade cycle is something like 12 cents per day. Even if you're not entirely happy with the current phones, at some point waiting to upgrade is a net negative if you actually cost it out and compare it rationally to your utility curve.

Its 2019 and Apple is still milking their largest subset of buyers on the Lightning tax. In my opinion Apple has some fantastic engineering still happening but the blatant disregard of USB-C shows the true motives. While I understand there are likely challenges with switching the iPhone Pro doesn't fit, at all, with the connectivity solutions in the MacBook Pro or iPad Pro line. Its really unfortunate a lot of what Apple showed today are derivatives of things Android manufacturers have been doing for years. Then again there's nothing to be upset about, the majority of this was public for quite a while.

Keep in mind USB-C came to Android on the Nexus line in October of 2015.

The thing is a lot of Apple product owners have a lot of Lightning cables and chargers already. For them, they're not paying any sort of tax. Changing to USB-C would be a tax for these people as they'd have to buy all new cables.

Yes, in a tech forum the majority of us have many USB-C devices. But I personally don't have that critical mass of USB-C devices compared with Lightning or microUSB.

I'd buy this if Apple didn't start doing USB-C on their computers 3-4 years ago, If USB-C isn't where you want to go as Apple, fine, but be consistent across the product lines.

You can't power a laptop from a Lightning cable. Lightning came out 7 years ago to replace the 30-pin connector.

It makes sense for the laptops to replace their proprietary power ports with USB-C but they'd need a time machine to be consistent across product lines and not screw somebody over.

Lightning tax? Have you tried finding charging options for USB-C after forgetting yours in an airport yet?

Every device I've bought in the last couple of years has USB-C. Most devices powered externally today, in the tech field have gone to USB-C. I'm not sure what airports you traverse but I've yet to be in an airport in the last two years that doesn't sell some sort of USB-C charger. That and since most all of my devices charge via that method that's what I mainly carry.

What I mean by Lightning tax is the literal Lightning tax. Lightning is a proprietary connector that needs to be licensed by Apple and of which Apple makes revenue from. [0] So by Apple keeping it around on their flagship device Apple continues to profit from accessories continuing to be made.

I'm curious why you think it's great for Apple buyers that tote MacBook Pro, iPad Pro and iPhone to need two types of cable for charging and connectivity?

Remember FireWire? It was great for it's time but saw it's day well before Apple finally dropped it. Lightning has seen it's fate. A flagship phone, with the price Apple commands, should have a current generation port.

[0] https://mfi.apple.com/MFiWeb/getFAQ.action

I’ve had phones with microUSB, USB-C and Lightning within the past 5 years. Oddly enough I still have a few things which take a microUSB cable including a book light.

At the end of the day, having different cables is a slight inconvenience but not terrible. I know with both USB-C and Lightning I’m tired of cleaning the connectors. I’m not going to say I want them to go away, but Qi charging ftw! Renders this entire debate almost entirely moot, and lint isn’t an issue.

Replacing one annoying connector with another isn’t an upgrade, it’s a lateral move at best, and a downgrade for people with iPhones today that are well invested in Lightning peripherals.

USB-C is on its best day, equal to Lightning for the purposes of shifting electrons, and is in some ways worse because the design of the connector is more fragile on the female end, I.e. the phone, rather than the more easily replaced cable. The day Apple switches over to USB-C is the day the connector is meaningless. It will probably happen, but today is not that day.

> USB-C is on its best day, equal to Lightning for the purposes of shifting electrons

I haven't seen exact specs for a Lightning cable but I've seen it suggested that it tops out at 12W.

In theory USB-C can shift 100W (20V * 5A) so, again in theory, it would allow much fast charging if the phone could support that.

> USB-C

Careful what you whish for. I can totally understand the desire for uniform and interchangable power adaptors and ports, but USB-C on my S8 wore off within half a year, to the point that to "take" and speed-load, I had to ram it into the plug several times in succession, greatly contributing to wear.

Check if there was lint in the receiving area. This will cause chargers not to take.

I did, and had it even blown out, to no avail.

I was hoping their "One more thing" would be tracking tags with precise positioning and an AR viewer to see exactly where something is placed in the world.

It should still be coming soon as code was found for it in the OS. It will display a red, IT (horror movie) style, floating red balloon where your lost item is.

Me, too.

They might announce this later — I think that tracking AR tags will end up being huge.

Anti slip would be amazing. Without a case my iPhone X slips on every surface, including my hands.

The notch isn't so bad, I'll fullscreen videos and don't even notice it.

I solved the too-slippery case on my Windows Phone by putting some clear skateboard tape on the back edges.

I should do this on my XR...

Sounds like a good way to sand a hole in your pants.

You would think so. :) But I wore slacks back then not jeans (office dress code) so there wasn't a lot of pressure on your pocket lining.

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