Anyhow, this year’s iPhone is going to be a really small upgrade so I really don’t see why anyone who owns as old of a model as 12 (except professionals who need the new cameras) should buy this year’s iPhones.
From 12 absolutely, no need. Especially from 12 Pro. But from 11 Pro it would be more wise to jump to a new device. My battery is aging, while it can take another year until the 18 release, I would love new camera features
Other than the weird ugly camera, it still appears to be the good old iPhone 12 with some tweaks. I was doing something for my MIL on her 12 and I was surprised how good this phone still is, a lot lighter and thinner than my 14 Pro.
Yeah, it is a very sad new reality of iPhones: function over form. Apple started catering to vocal majority of users who said they want brick-sized batteries, not bending devices (I believe one can achieve it in a thousand different ways), heavy and large.
I do really miss my iPhone 5, it was top device. Slim, small, light. Who would need Apple Watch back when iPhones were so small and pocketable? I didn’t want or need bigger camera or more cameras back then, because lens was 33 mm equivalent which was very close to what human eye sees (or what human eye focuses at) + the peripheral vision. Now they all sell 24mm as a baseline, very poor choice and awful for portraits (unless crop zoom used, i.e. “fusion camera” which is basically AI-enhanced crop), people look distorted.
Also, Apple nowadays focuses too much on AI photo enhancements which can look extra horrible at times. This is another reason I want Pro model - they have ProRAW that is not as aggressive as baseline JPEG photo mode.
If this was still the same Apple that released iPhones in 2007-2011, not only would the iPhone no longer have any sort of a notch or island, but it would probably have the dynamic island across the board in 2022 already and the “Air” would be the new standard iPhone design.
And this is basically state of the new Apple - they fail at innovating faster than contenders, too slow to polish inconsistencies and ugly aspects (such as the notch which imo became even uglier and weirder when they turned it to “dynamic island”).
They could have already gotten rid of USB-C port and make their iPhone completely waterproof up to 10 meters, like a GoPro. And instead they could have added a magsafe-like connector that is small and efficient, all to the bottom of the device. I really don’t understand how they even allowed notches on some of the newer Macs, rumors tell we will even get notch on iPad in future🤦♂️
Very sad state of modern Apple: milk the base, cater to Android switchers (Androidification of iOS). Since many Android users don’t really care about the design (Galaxy S25 and new Google Pixel prove that), they would probably love all of these design issues
