August 10th, 2021 at 10:55 PM
My iPhone 8 served me well for three long years. Paid full price for it and it lasted through swimming pools, 130 degree cars, plenty of drops, and heavy use. But it finally gave out recently and I decided to replace it rather than spend over $200 to fix it.
The iPhone 8 was about $700, and at the time, that was the best that $700 could buy. Apple has since raised the prices substantially. I ended up buying the most expensive phone I've ever bought and paid $830 upfront to buy the regular iPhone 12 (6.1 inch) directly from Apple. AT&T forced me to order it because they refused to sell me a phone without financing it. Apparently prepaid customers are discouraged from using high end devices, but prepaid cuts my bill roughly to 1/3 of what it would otherwise be, so I have no intentions of switching.
I can confidently say that this is the best phone I've ever owned. The screen is absolutely amazing. It's an OLED, and it looks as though you're looking at a real paper when you're reading on the screen. It pops out and it's bright, and it supports full HDR. The phone itself is snappy and fast, the design is great, and the speakers are very loud and clear. The battery life is 13-14 hours (much better than claimed on paper), and the phone is overall highly polished.
(It's worth noting that Androids have had OLED screens for years. For us Apple users, most of us are only recently finally able to experience them.
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There were some things that irked me a bit as well. Of course, Apple cheaped out and didn't even bother to include a charger in the box. They claim that this is for "environmental reasons" - but the included cable itself is a USB C -> lightning cable, obsoleting all of your old chargers anyway. The headphones are not in the box either, nor is the lightning -> 3.5mm converter. Apple pretty much just gives you the phone and a cable, and nothing else. $830 is a lot of money to be spending to not even get a charging brick.
Secondly, the ultrawide lens was noticeably subpar compared to the main lens and performed much more poorly in low light conditions. They no longer include the telephoto 2x zoom lens in their two-carmera phones, and force you to spend over $1000 on the pro if you want the same optical zoom that $800 used to be able to get you. They also included weird arbitrary restrictions again, such as only allowing 30fps HDR videos on the non-pro models (forcing you to pay more for 60fps), despite having the exact same hardware between both phones. The main lens on the iPhone 12 is still fantastic, and it takes incredible photos. But some of the more advanced features are largely restricted to the Pro.
Otherwise, I've been pretty impressed with it. I do want more freedom from a phone and will probably be switching to android sometime in the next few years, but this one will carry me for a little while, and it's definitely the most polished and advanced iPhone they've ever made.
Anyone else have the new iPhone 12, or planning to get the 13 when it comes out? What are your thoughts?
The iPhone 8 was about $700, and at the time, that was the best that $700 could buy. Apple has since raised the prices substantially. I ended up buying the most expensive phone I've ever bought and paid $830 upfront to buy the regular iPhone 12 (6.1 inch) directly from Apple. AT&T forced me to order it because they refused to sell me a phone without financing it. Apparently prepaid customers are discouraged from using high end devices, but prepaid cuts my bill roughly to 1/3 of what it would otherwise be, so I have no intentions of switching.
I can confidently say that this is the best phone I've ever owned. The screen is absolutely amazing. It's an OLED, and it looks as though you're looking at a real paper when you're reading on the screen. It pops out and it's bright, and it supports full HDR. The phone itself is snappy and fast, the design is great, and the speakers are very loud and clear. The battery life is 13-14 hours (much better than claimed on paper), and the phone is overall highly polished.
(It's worth noting that Androids have had OLED screens for years. For us Apple users, most of us are only recently finally able to experience them.
)There were some things that irked me a bit as well. Of course, Apple cheaped out and didn't even bother to include a charger in the box. They claim that this is for "environmental reasons" - but the included cable itself is a USB C -> lightning cable, obsoleting all of your old chargers anyway. The headphones are not in the box either, nor is the lightning -> 3.5mm converter. Apple pretty much just gives you the phone and a cable, and nothing else. $830 is a lot of money to be spending to not even get a charging brick.
Secondly, the ultrawide lens was noticeably subpar compared to the main lens and performed much more poorly in low light conditions. They no longer include the telephoto 2x zoom lens in their two-carmera phones, and force you to spend over $1000 on the pro if you want the same optical zoom that $800 used to be able to get you. They also included weird arbitrary restrictions again, such as only allowing 30fps HDR videos on the non-pro models (forcing you to pay more for 60fps), despite having the exact same hardware between both phones. The main lens on the iPhone 12 is still fantastic, and it takes incredible photos. But some of the more advanced features are largely restricted to the Pro.
Otherwise, I've been pretty impressed with it. I do want more freedom from a phone and will probably be switching to android sometime in the next few years, but this one will carry me for a little while, and it's definitely the most polished and advanced iPhone they've ever made.
Anyone else have the new iPhone 12, or planning to get the 13 when it comes out? What are your thoughts?
