- No USB-C port
- No 30W Fast charging
- No 90Hz or 120Hz ProMotion display
- No 5G (Expected but still a con)
- No In-Display TouchID
So basically I felt that they had absolutely nothing to show off apart from the 3rd camera and 10-20% SOC improvements. They had more videos to play as time fillers. Some of the videos were good but that’s that. The whole presentation at any point did not make me “I gotta have this”. I felt this upgrade didn’t need a pompous event such as this.
There’s a lot they aren’t being given credit for. 5G is worthless, SoC improvements give better battery and more ability, it takes 9 photos at once and uses AI (new chip and feature) to make better photos than any other phone (there’s a review on YouTube from China showing its abilities, better night shots, better video capabilities, better water proofing, Dolby ATMOS style audio abilities, 1200! nit brightness, T2 chip for hardware encryption, 18w charging (if it was 30 you’d complain why it wasn’t 35), all new AI potential thanks to the increase in power, and the new U1 chip.
That U1 chip could be a freaking game changer and I don’t think I’ve seen anyone here even mention it. Right now it’s a simple task of better airdropping but like the T2 chip there’s so much more potential to come from it. Imagine location tracking down to the freggin mm. The potential uses for it like knowing exactly where you left your keys, VR headsets with no external or big sensors needed and much higher refresh rates, etc.
People look at a screen and say “so and so had one that has a higher screen %” but completely overlook the amazing accomplishments under the hood.
The truth is that Google has done an amazing job with Android and pioneered a few features like photo AI. It use to be Android sucked at photos so google pumped tons of $$$ into R&D for that. However, on a hardware note I don’t think Google or any other manufacturer has really brought much new tech to the field. They have gimmicks. They have slower processors that are less capable so Chinese manufacturers started pumping stupid amounts of RAM in them to retrieve apps that had already been opened faster giving a false sense of ability.
Apple could release a software update tomorrow and give an entirely new user experience because there’s a lot of room for growth in the hardware they’ve designed (ie T2 chips, AR chips, U1 chips). Android phones are hardware limited and stuck with what they got.
There’s A LOT that’s very impressive about this design there just aren’t many people that seem to bother looking past a design, which I really like. I tried the Samsung and they can keep their curved screens that are guaranteed to hold a glare and look weird in a bulky case.