Apple said at some point the curved edges of the iPhone 6 were there to make the phone not feel as big in your hand to partially compensate for the increase in device size.
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'iPhone 7' Thickness Likely to Approach iPod Touch
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That's one way of looking at it, personally I think Apple is a company led by designers first and engineers second. "We don't care how you do it and what gets sacrificed, but it must be thinner."
It's not thinner at any cost, they generally add to that: 'Don't regress on any import aspect'. These include screen quality, touchscreen sensitivity, camera quality but also battery life.
Using four measures, 3G talk time / Internet use / video playback / audio playback, these were Apple's ratings:
3G - 5/5/7/24 hours
3Gs - 5/5/10/30 hours
4 - 7/6/10/40 hours
4s - 8/6/10/40 hours
5 - 8/8/10/40 hours
5s - 10/8/10/40 hours
6 - 14/10/11/50 hours
There is not a single regression in there, actually there is progress on at least one measure with every new model. Now, our usage of our phones has almost certainly increased to some degree over the years (I personally have definitely increased my audio playback time but this is certainly levelling off, there are only so many hours in one day). Therefore, in actual usage, the battery life probably roughly kept steady (ie, the vast majority of people make it through the day). I however read far less stories of people of having to recharge their phone during day in the last couple of years compared to the 3G/3Gs days, and the numbers above indicate that those two phone had significantly shorter use ratings.
The iPhone 6 stands out in having improved in all four measures (no other model did so). And that is before looking at the 6 plus (which some people for whom both sizes are acceptable can consider as the alternative iPhone with increased battery life). It has increases over the 6 between 17 to 60% depending on the measure. Compared to the iPhone 5s, these are increases between 40 to 140%:
6 plus - 24/12/14/80 hours
Because its movies and games help keep them occupied at restaurants when waiting for food, but the mention of kids was just an example to illustrate a point about durability over thinness. Other examples are Bendgate and short drops onto concrete, both of which are documented to ruin the devices.
We usually buy the biggest, thickest case we can for the phones we buy to protect our phones and tablets (Griffen Survivor works great), but it would be nice if the design were tougher out of the gate.
Nope because the improvements Apple makes in the S cycle are always marginal and eye candy on a poster in the store. The main models are what see significant jumps in computing and design, both inside and out.
A "novel" addition and some performance bumps in no way justifies sitting outside an Apple store for hours or even days. But hey if that's your thing go for it. No one besides you will ever know the difference anyway between the main model and the s model, especially if you have a case on it.
Why do you keep jumping to 64GB. I said 32GB.
what? you bought 2 iphones and a Macbook over the last decade? All for the sake of being a "loyal customer".
Sighs... you know me well. Not. I've been a loyal Apple fan since Feb. 2005. I started with the original Mac mini and never looked back. I used to upgrade on a yearly basis and sometimes more if something great came out, like a retina Mac. Let me try to list as many Apple products as I can remember purchasing since 2005. I won't list the ones I had my father buy for himself, or the Macs I've turned other people on to. Just me.
Mac mini (3), iMac (3), iPhones (all except 5s, 6, 6 Plus), iPad (1st), iPad mini (1st), MBP 17" (2), MBP 15" (3), iPod Touch (3), iPod (2), MacBook Air (2nd), MacBook (1st). That's off the top of my head. I would never keep a computer longer than a year generally, and never had more than one laptop and desktop at a time. I would buy an iMac, then when the 24" came out, I'd sell the old one and get that one. I'd buy the 15" Unibody, then when the retina model came out, I'd sell the old 15" and get the new one.
I've had my current rMBP 15" since 2012. it's the original model. however, I've had over $5k repaired/replaced under AppleCare, which ended this June. I've had a couple screens, logic board, top case/keyboard, battery, etc. It's pretty much a new unit. I just had really bad luck, but as you said, I got what I paid for in the AppleCare warranty, and they just kept on fixing it. Although they should have probably just gave me a new machine and they would have saved money.
I can count 4 other Macs, and several iPhones people have bought based on me telling them how great Apple products were. So yeah, I'm pretty loyal.
Go run a successful business and come back and tell me how much you love lowering your bottom line for "loyalty".
I wish Tim Cook could answer that question for you in a positive way.
EDIT: Removed the (e) at the end of Tim Cook. I had Same Cooke on the mind. Sorry.
You could always run over to people and tell them you have force touch... then they would know you have the "s" model.
Well that's kind of the point, since I buy my phone for myself, not anyone else. So ME knowing about it is really all that matters in this scenario. If someone asks, I'll share the story, but that's not why I update.
And now I'm being forced into buying from at&t online store since that's the only way I can continue my phone plan of a 2 year contract with grandfathered unlimited data. at&t is not offering the 2 year subsidized contract plans through third parties anymore.
I've never done one of those lineup things at the Apple retail store, I've always bought at Apple online store in the past, but they look like fun.
If you're one of those people that buys every other year on the non-S cycle, be grateful that there's a fair number of us on the S cycle, not competing with you every other year for the latest phone. The S phone and the non-S phone take turns being the latest and greatest, but I'm not one of those people that needs a new phone every year. I can understand standing pat if you have a 6, but I have the 5S, I'm due.
And whether you understand it or not, the S cycle phone is always a better phone than the one that came before it.
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Because they don't have a 32gb iPhone... it's 16gb and then 64gb. 32gb model doesn't exist in the current or next gen. My example shows you how someone like ME is the "perfect" example of someone who is willing to spend the money on a 64gb iPhone because I'd surely go to a 32gb one if they made it... because I don't use all 64gb.
So if you have all this money and you're such a smart Apple reseller, why are you complaining about the entry level model? The 128gb is actually the best bang for your buck in terms of gb to dollar ratio... you even bought the original iPhone? If there was an iPhone that was overpriced it was the 2G speed iPhone 1... 3G had already been around for 2 years at that point. I bought it, played with it for 2 days and decided that it wasn't worth losing my At&t corporate discount I had at the time and went back to my 3G windows phone.
The point is, is that they're not screwing anyone... the base model of every iPhone is still significantly more advanced than the base model of any other brand in terms of both specs and features (of that generation). If you're an advanced user they don't want you to buy the 16gb model and as I said, they can REALLy "screw you over" by making the $749 64gb the base and not even giving you the choice of a $649, "cheap" model... actually the more I think about it... I hope they do that.
I'd rather not be that chauvinistic douche who has to tell everyone they're getting off over their new apple product...
Battery life is pretty good already. Increasing battery life 10-12% should be enough for most people. If it's not, buy a Mophie.
That's FALSE and you know it; the 5S alone completely negates your argument. Touch ID and the first 64 bit CPU (huge jump in CPU speed, biggest in any Iphone iteration), major advances that have barely been equaled in Android phones this year for the CPU, and not at all when it comes to Touch ID.
Even the lesser changes were substantial
- Camera : dual led flash (that allows a better color balance of shots using flash), 2.2 aperture and bigger 1/3.2 sensor, burst mode (10 shots per seconds at 8MP) and 720P at 120 fps, taking picture while recording video (so, much more processing dedicated to camera).
- BIS Sensor on Facetime Camera for better low light performance
- GPU: GPU substantially increased which meant that since the screen resolution was the same, frame rate was much higher than Iphone 5. PowerVR G6430 in Iphone 5s vs PowerVR SGX543MP3, twice the GPU for same screen size...
- Battery life: 10% more battery, About 10% increase in battery life, except for talk time were it was 20%.
- LTE and 3G bands : Most 3G and LTE that were still not supported in the Iphone 5 before, were now supported. The highest level of LTE data was also now supported.
- M7 Coprocessor to handle out of band sensors like the GPS without affecting the CPU.
They actually covered that too, with the Verizon-exclusive (and now discontinued) Z3v. It had built-in wireless charging. Still love mine and still use it. Best Android phone by far due to the great features and the nearly Android-pure software. Shame no simultaneous voice/data, though...although only needs an update to achieve it, but we're dealing with Verizon.
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I wouldn't say having 2GB RAM is minor as far performance is concerned nor is finally upgrading the camera.
It seems like to me that the first time is the change in form factor & the S is the upgraded hardware to match this.
You forgot to mention a reason why 16gb base model is better than 32gb base model at the same $650 price. No, don't bother using chip cost as a reason because we all know the cost difference between 16gb and 32gb at whole sale price.
It's not... I was explaining why it's a smarter business decision on Apple's part. Ugh I hate repeating myself... go read my earlier posts on the subject.
Well they did buy the Israeli company for this exact reason, to make thinner cameras. Plus they would have had about 2 years to incorporate this feature into iphone 7. If not, we will deal with protruding cameras for 3 more years until iphone 8.
I have, but I actually use my bed for sleeping instead of a place to use my phone with.
LOL. It's not that I have "all this money," as you know, Apple resale price is much higher than regular old PCs. So for not too much out of pocket if you upgrade annually, you can get a new computer. So although Apple got loads of money from me, it wasn't all directly out of my pocket, with old Apple sales subsidizing my new Apple sales. I was doing this faithfully until 2012, when the retina MBP came out. This computer has everything I need, retina screen, SD card reader, SSD, backlit keyboard, HDMI, discrete video card, etc. It's speed has never given me an issue, which is why it's really the only Mac I've ever been out of warranty on.
But back to the original point, 32GB entry level would be perfect for me. 16GB is not enough, 64GB is too much. I think we'e exhausted this one.
Well I've gotta use my phone as an alarm clock because there might be calendar events and such that I have to wake up for. And on days when I don't have to wake up for anything, I'd like a message from anyone to wake me up or else I might stay in bed too long.I have, but I actually use my bed for sleeping instead of a place to use my phone with.
On second thought that does make sense. Would be harder to hold maybe if the edges weren't rounded and you'd need even longer fingers to grip it right.
I guess they renamed Force Touch to 3D Touch so that even something would remain 3D while the phone itself is approaching 2D.