The newest iPhone was announced today, well three new iPhones (iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X), and as is the case with nearly every release of the popular smartphone, it has had a polarizing effect on the society. Some people are in awe with the new features announced while others believe that Apple is merely catching up with what Android phones have been capable for a while now.
With so much discussion going around on whether or not the new iPhone deserves praise or criticism, here are my two cents on the matter and a few reasons why I won’t be going for the newest product by the Cupertino based tech giant.
Also Read: iPhone X price in Pakistan
1. The price
iPhones aren’t the cheapest phones around, but they still have been more or less in the price category for a good flagship smartphone from a reputed manufacturer. But the newest iPhone is playing really fast and loose with the concept of a costly flagship phone. Paying a premium of almost $1,000 (almost 105,000 Pakistani Rupees) for iPhone X is not something which I can convince myself to do or recommend anyone else to do. There are also two other new iPhones, 8 and 8 plus. Starting at $699 and $799 respectively, they don’t really offer a lot of new features and improvements over the previous generation. Looking around the smartphone market, there are many great smartphones which can be bought for much less.
2. Where’s my Touch ID at?
Apple was one of the first manufacturers who popularized biometric verification of users through a fingerprint sensor in the home button. It worked really well and its latest generation was considered to be one of the best sensors in the market. But, for some weird reason, Apple has decided to remove Touch ID from iPhone X and limit the verification to only facial recognition. This is a drawback in my opinion as facial recognition is usually not as fast or convenient as just pressing your finger against the sensor to unlock the device. Even if we ignore the multiple attempts that it took while demoing Face ID on stage, it’s still less secure and faster than Touch ID. Apple itself says that there is a 1 in a million chance of someone else getting access to your data and identical twins might be able to bypass their sibling’s security. It all sounds pretty unlikely but these issues weren’t prevalent in Touch ID.
3. Still no headphone jack…
It might seem a bit repetitive complaint now, but I don’t think the world is still ready to say goodbye to the headphone jack. There is a bit of an investment and change in habit required to adapt to this all wireless trend being introduced by Apple, something which is still not worth it. So instead of trying to carry around dongles to make sure my existing headphones work with my phone, I’ll prefer to retain the headphone jack for now.
4. What are exactly the new groundbreaking features here?
In the launch ceremony, Philip W. Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, said that this generation of iPhones is the biggest leap forward in the mobile technology and it will shape the future of mobile computing. It sounds all well and good until you actually start noticing the features that were included in the newest iPhone X. Let’s break down the new features and see when they were actually released.
- Face ID?! Log in using your face, with special algorithms to make sure that your face cannot be spoofed using a photograph. Why does it all sound so familiar? Maybe because Microsoft did this about 2 years ago with Surface tablets. Since then it has been a very integral part of Microsoft Hello experience.
- Bezel-less display?! Xiaomi Mi Mix, LG G6, Samsung Galaxy S8 and Essential Phone send their regards.
- Wireless Charging?! It still seems like yesterday that Nokia debuted wireless charging on its Lumia 920 in 2012. Of course, Apple might actually believe it was only yesterday as they are just starting to include that feature in their latest iPhones.
5. Apple refuses to move away from lightning cable
Apple introduced lightning cable as a replacement for the 32 pin connector back with iPhone 5. It was a revolutionary step forward, it could be inserted without worrying about the upward or downward facing orientation. But fast forward to 2017 and the world is now trying to unite under a single standard — USB C.
The whole world, except Apple. Apple is still refusing to use USB C on its mobile phones. You know what’s the worse? Apple has completely moved to USB C in its MacBook lineup. It even charges via a USB C connector.
So where does this leave us? If you have a Macbook and want to charge your phone too, you can’t use the same cable to do so. If you want to transfer your data from Macbook to your phone, you will need a dongle to convert it from USB C to lightning. Now go back to the previous complaint about headphone jack. There is a headphone jack on MacBook but not on iPhone. So you can’t use the same headphones with your MacBook and iPhone. Are you sure you are okay there Apple?
Most of these complaints are universal for each release of iPhone, and they still sell by the millions. So, of course, you can disagree with these issues and still be happy with your new iPhone. I, on the other hand, will be skipping this release too and keep riding in the Android lane for now.
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