Apple typically releases its new iPhone series in the fall, and a possible September 10 announcement date has been floated this year, which means we...
The iPhone is stagnating really badly. This is yet another generation of overpriced, oversized, and overpowered glass slabs that bring nothing new of substance to the table. If anything, the interesting stuff is in iOS18 but that’s not saying much because iOS is kneecapped by its own limitations.
I got a 14 pro on sale a while ago and it’s simultaneously vastly overpowered for what I use it for and also frustratingly useless. All of that horsepower and tech… just sitting there doing nothing 97% of the time. It has 1tb of storage which is almost completely empty because you can’t use iPhones as storage. You can’t even drag-n-drop music onto them. I use an LG phone as my music player because it has both a headphone jack and allows me to simply drop my FLAC albums onto it.
@TheFeatureCreature I don’t understand the year over year comparison complaints. Most buyers are either upgrading a 3+ y/o phone or are buying new. This is true for androids too. People forget that iPhones have always had minimal changes year over year (remember the S upgrades).
All new phones, android and apple, have to improve incrementally on a yearly cycle because the alternative is worse. People buying a new phone want the latest and greatest. That means a yearly incrimental upgrade cycle.
You’re 100% correct, but I will point out that the iPhone hasn’t really seen any significant design changes since the 11 - arguably the X. That was seven years ago. The same thing has been happening with their Macbook lineup where only just recently have they made major product design changes to replace their 10+ year old designs. The new Macbook Pros were a welcome breath of fresh air and indicated a shift in a new, positive direction for their Mac platform. *
The iPhone needs a similar refresh, imho.
*for the hardware, at least. They’ve made some questionable software choices for MacOS such as iPhone-ifying the settings menu.
@TheFeatureCreature I couldn’t agree more! Apple’s design language was awesome… a decade ago. It’s still classic, but it’s just not unique anymore. What’s worse for Apple is that some companies have moves being Apple and had improved end slab design (looking at you One plus). It’s time to make a change to their iPhone and iPad design. I hope they do more than “make it thinner”.
I switched to iPhone for the stability when Google refused to acknowledge or immediately fix 911 dialer bugs including that Teams one. If your phone can’t dial 911 it’s useless
The OG iPod style drag and drop for music still works.
Moreover, there are quite a few apps out there allow you to use an iPhone as an external storage device. Unfortunately, you need to do it over WiFi. USB only works for photos, videos, and music as I recall.
Maybe get an android, seems crazy that you would csrry both in this day and age.
Agree on the stagnation, that has been clear for a bit now, they need to stop the showcases it is embarrasing to list colours as some laudable new feature.
I’m curious - if you want to listen high quality audio, why not get an actual audio player for that? Surely the DAC in some random android phone can’t be that good?
Also, the 1TB version is really only meant so they are actually somewhat usable for recording proRes or taking pictures in RAW
It’s an LG G8. One of the few phones that has a high quality DAC and amplifier in it. It sounds amazing with a good set of earphones and has plenty of options to tweak to your liking.
I wanted a dedicated DAP such as one made by Fiio, but they are astronomically expensive. My LG G8 was $200 after tax and a Fiio M11S is $700 before tax. I could bargain hunt for a better price but the G8 would always be cheaper. And because it’s a phone, it has more features and power than most dedicated music players (many of them are powered by ancient chips and struggle to do basic tasks) I just stick a large SD card into it and put it into airplane mode if I’m not using a streaming service.
The iPhone is stagnating really badly. This is yet another generation of overpriced, oversized, and overpowered glass slabs that bring nothing new of substance to the table. If anything, the interesting stuff is in iOS18 but that’s not saying much because iOS is kneecapped by its own limitations.
I got a 14 pro on sale a while ago and it’s simultaneously vastly overpowered for what I use it for and also frustratingly useless. All of that horsepower and tech… just sitting there doing nothing 97% of the time. It has 1tb of storage which is almost completely empty because you can’t use iPhones as storage. You can’t even drag-n-drop music onto them. I use an LG phone as my music player because it has both a headphone jack and allows me to simply drop my FLAC albums onto it.
@TheFeatureCreature I don’t understand the year over year comparison complaints. Most buyers are either upgrading a 3+ y/o phone or are buying new. This is true for androids too. People forget that iPhones have always had minimal changes year over year (remember the S upgrades).
All new phones, android and apple, have to improve incrementally on a yearly cycle because the alternative is worse. People buying a new phone want the latest and greatest. That means a yearly incrimental upgrade cycle.
You’re 100% correct, but I will point out that the iPhone hasn’t really seen any significant design changes since the 11 - arguably the X. That was seven years ago. The same thing has been happening with their Macbook lineup where only just recently have they made major product design changes to replace their 10+ year old designs. The new Macbook Pros were a welcome breath of fresh air and indicated a shift in a new, positive direction for their Mac platform. *
The iPhone needs a similar refresh, imho.
*for the hardware, at least. They’ve made some questionable software choices for MacOS such as iPhone-ifying the settings menu.
@TheFeatureCreature I couldn’t agree more! Apple’s design language was awesome… a decade ago. It’s still classic, but it’s just not unique anymore. What’s worse for Apple is that some companies have moves being Apple and had improved end slab design (looking at you One plus). It’s time to make a change to their iPhone and iPad design. I hope they do more than “make it thinner”.
I switched to iPhone for the stability when Google refused to acknowledge or immediately fix 911 dialer bugs including that Teams one. If your phone can’t dial 911 it’s useless
Funny, I do a lot more with my phone than just dial 911
?
The OG iPod style drag and drop for music still works.
Moreover, there are quite a few apps out there allow you to use an iPhone as an external storage device. Unfortunately, you need to do it over WiFi. USB only works for photos, videos, and music as I recall.
Maybe get an android, seems crazy that you would csrry both in this day and age.
Agree on the stagnation, that has been clear for a bit now, they need to stop the showcases it is embarrasing to list colours as some laudable new feature.
I likely will when my contract expires. But for now it is what I have.
I’m curious - if you want to listen high quality audio, why not get an actual audio player for that? Surely the DAC in some random android phone can’t be that good?
Also, the 1TB version is really only meant so they are actually somewhat usable for recording proRes or taking pictures in RAW
It’s an LG G8. One of the few phones that has a high quality DAC and amplifier in it. It sounds amazing with a good set of earphones and has plenty of options to tweak to your liking.
I wanted a dedicated DAP such as one made by Fiio, but they are astronomically expensive. My LG G8 was $200 after tax and a Fiio M11S is $700 before tax. I could bargain hunt for a better price but the G8 would always be cheaper. And because it’s a phone, it has more features and power than most dedicated music players (many of them are powered by ancient chips and struggle to do basic tasks) I just stick a large SD card into it and put it into airplane mode if I’m not using a streaming service.
What are you missing from the iPhone? It sounds like you mainly want to use it as a usb-drive.
To move music to it, you will need to use iTunes, but it is perfectly possible