iPhone 11 Pro Why so much vitriol?

[Painter2002]

How is form factor a major change? Seems cosmetic to me and nowadays what much more can be done with external design? Ok, I'll grant maybe shrinking or getting rid of bezels so you can have more screen in a smaller device but people seem fixated on the look and shape of the phone, just MHO.

I’m still waiting for a banana form factor phone... lol. In all seriousness though there isn’t much else form factor for a phone that end users want. Folding phones are more of a gimmick at this point, there’s no practical market for them at this point of time, I mean android tablets are all but non-existent now, so why would people want to buy the same thing that folds out with a crease in the middle? And is as thick as a suburban?

Point is that phones are truly a mature product, and so the hype that came with them is wearing off. It kind of reminds me of flat panel LCD TVs. They were all the rage for years, and now it’s an every day item... now the only way tv companies can make money is by making higher resolutions to a point where it’s almost past the physical eye’s ability to see (talking 8k). At a certain point a product segment is going to become stagnant do to a maturity of the design.

 

[ipponrg]

How is form factor a major change? Seems cosmetic to me and nowadays what much more can be done with external design? Ok, I'll grant maybe shrinking or getting rid of bezels so you can have more screen in a smaller device but people seem fixated on the look and shape of the phone, just MHO.

I actually think that could be interesting. I do find Samsungs cosmetically much more sleek than the current crop of iphones. There are definitely things Apple can do in this domain

 

[Painter2002]

I actually think that could be interesting. I do find Samsungs cosmetically much more sleek than the current crop of iphones. There are definitely things Apple can do in this domain

I think form factor is more of a cosmetic preference. Some like iPhones, some Samsung. I personally like iPhones better, as I don’t like the sloped edges on the Samsung, but I do like their full screen adoption of the design top to bottom with the camera cutout.

But for me my phone is always in a case, so I can style it however I want, so I’m the end if I’m ok with the screen format, I don’t care about the design as much. That said I don’t want to spend a grand on a butt-ugly phone, and to me the iPhone is still good looking.

 

[Zxxv]

And it’s amazing how some people don’t just recognize that others are ok with the way the Apple has it configured, and that just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean it doesn’t work for others... You don’t like it, say so once or twice and move on, it’s an Apple forum for goodness sake, of course most of us are going to say it works for us, what do you expect? No need to keep saying you can believe people defending Apple, yes we know it’s partly a marketing ploy, and yes we are fine with it because it gives people options without raising the base price.

Sure it’s a “Pro” phone, but last time I checked most users don’t need that much storage, heck even I use my iPhone X for professional purposes, lots of photos, and a crap ton of music, I just passed the 64GB threshold (I have a 256). I do the occasional photo cull and backup to a PC, and if I took off my downloaded Apple Music (I download it to save data while on the road), I only am using 28GB. So realistically for most people, you can easily get away with 64GB.

And arguing just because it’s a “Pro” phone is almost funny, because I could say the same thing about the name being a marketing ploy as much as your point of the storage entry point being a marketing ploy.

If most people don’t need anymore than 64gb why is the iPhone 11 (r) 128gb base storage. Doesn’t make sense unless you are milking your customers which you acknowledge.

And I’ll keep replying to people if they keep talking to me. That’s how conversation works.

 

[Painter2002]

If most people don’t need anymore than 64gb why is the iPhone 11 (r) 128gb base storage. Doesn’t make sense unless you are milking your customers which you acknowledge.

And I’ll keep replying to people if they keep talking to me. That’s how conversation works.

Not to sound rude, but you might want to double check those facts. The base iPhone 11 (R version you are referring to) starts with 64GB.

 

[Nugget]

I’m still waiting for a banana form factor phone...

Innovation!

 

[Zxxv]

Not to sound rude, but you might want to double check those facts. The base iPhone 11 (R version you are referring to) starts with 64GB.

View attachment 857616

Cheers. Thought it was 128gb.

 

[BeeGood]

I think for me it all comes down to the pricing strategy Apple has employed in recent years. I think we forget that it was just 4 short years ago that the top of the line iPhone started at $650. Jump ahead two years and the flagship starts at a whopping $1000. Jump ahead to this year and you have Apple giving a “by innovation only” presentation where they show off what is essentially the same phone they have made for the past 3 years. And they spend the whole time trying to convince everyone that better battery life and camera system are somehow incredible “Pro” upgrades, as if we had all forgotten that iPhones have been upgraded in this manner every year for over a decade.

Here’s the thing: I don’t necessarily object to a $1000 iPhone. It’s by far my most used computing device. But at that price, it had better be the best phone on the market. And it’s not really anymore. The chip still leads the pack. But smartphone performance has gotten so fast that any iPhone made since 2015 is fine for most tasks. In the camera department (aka this year’s big upgrade) the iPhone has fallen behind other manufacturers for several years running now, at least for stills. It remains to be seen if the 11 will change that story. But what I saw up there was Apple updating features they upgrade every year (camera, battery, etc.), taking away 3D Touch, making the phone thicker and heavier (again), charging the same high price, and going on and on about how all this is some revolutionary “Pro” upgrade. It’s kind of hard not to be negative about that. They had nothing this year and they knew it. Looked at objectively, the 11 Pro is not a bad phone. But the continued high price and that presentation really rubbed me the wrong way.

You’re definitely not wrong here. I get it.

I get a new iPhone every year. I really enjoy “upgrade season”. However, I haven’t watched a keynote in years. They’re obnoxious, so if that’s the source of people’s frustration then I get it.

My advice would be to skip it and watch the impressions videos that The Verge, CNET, MBKHD, etc put out immediately afterwards. You’ll still come away feeling like the next phone is going to be great without having to endure hours of fluff.

 

[Painter2002]

Cheers. Thought it was 128gb.

No worries!

And I know I was going back and forth on the your point on storage, but I should add that of course I would fully support Apple adding 256GB as a stock storage on an iPhone, but it took Apple years to finally go from 128GB to 256GB as stock on MacBook Pros, so I consider it just a reality if you buy Apple. I just consider it not worth sweating over. I mean buying good cases for a $1000 phone can easily cost almost another $100, so those who are going to buy the phone and really need the storage will pay the extra $150 for storage. Is it right, no, but is it going to change, probably not.

 

[Kung]

I’m still waiting for a banana form factor phone... lol.

Done.

 

[man4857]

You make a lot of excuses for the phone lacking...

-Can't expect new designs? Other OEM's somehow manage to do it, but you make excuses for Apple.

-Reverse charging is pointless? When I go out of town, I have my phone stuff already packed. All I need is one cable, and I can charge my phone with that while I'm sleep, and simultaneously charge my earbuds via reverse wireless charging. Being able to charge two devices with one cable, is far from useless, and has been quite handy for me.

-Who cares about fingerprint? Only a small percentage of people will want that? Where did you come up with that? When you have your phone on the desk or table, that Face ID doesn't do you much good. Who wants to keep having to type in a code, when they could just touch the screen? Of course if they had a smart lock capability like Galaxy phones have, you could tell your phone when to be unlocked...But I'm sure that's one of the many things you mean when you say "optimize the OS".

-Communication? Let's start with that archaic phone app that is incapable of smart dialing features. I know I know...let me guess... you don't need a smart dialer, and you love looking up every contact you want to dial... -_-

Your reply was the typical (and played out) iPhone apologist position of saying "I don't need that" for every single thing you don't have. Then of course, 5 years later when Apple finally adds it (like Face unlock), suddenly it's so wonderful. -_-

I can't expect new designs every 1 or 2 years was my statement. Again if other OEMs want a new design, that's fine and good for them. Every company decides to do their products differently. If you're unhappy with Apple's designs and you feel is stagnant, then don't buy their products.

Again, the whole point of my post was to show that Apple does not need to implement "features" that they think only a small proportion of iPhone users use or what's all the rage now. You can frame it as being less flexible or whatever you want, but that allows them room to optimize their design. If you start implementing all sorts of features you think anyone might use, then you have something called Microsoft. Apple isn't Microsoft, as they have the unique ability to control HW and SW. So they will do what they think the platform needs and so far, it's fine for me and I'm happy with what they're doing. Sometimes I think they do a bit much to "catch up" (I found 3D touch gimmcky for Apple, they didn't need that nor do anything with the software).

1 feature I hope they do NOT implement is to switch out the charging port on the iPhone to USB-C. I find the lightning connector a better design than USB-C. I don't care whether USB-C is the standard. I find the operation of lightning just fine.

A good example is... remember when Samsung decided to implement a heart rate sensor on the back of their phones? What happened to it? lol Now it's not there anymore, are you going to complain about it? There might be 0.5% of people who might use it. When it was first introduced, everyone probably was like woohoo Samsung very innovative, Apple where ya at? Now nobody cares... why? It's all HYPE. No practical use years down the line. Face ID I have seen it already when Apple first did Touch ID. It's the obvious next step down the evolutionary tree for authentication. It was only a matter of time until they rolled it out.

Another example is the Galaxy edge series... just cause of that slanted edge. Great, now do you care? Lol... I can go on and on with this.

 

[tann]

I don't doubt you're a real person. I think the problem is you feel that YOU need something (more storage) so everyone else should be forced to get it too. Not everyone who it will need this. I guess one could take an elitist attitude and say they should just get the regular iPhone but that's not how it works. Apple is giving people a CHOICE to buy lower storage and I don't see how more choices are bad.

Where's my choice for a 16gb model as I never use more than 1gb??

I'm sorry but this argument is coated in Apple Apologist speech.

It's simply not ok to have 64gb base storage on a phone touted as "Pro" costing in excess of £1000.

 

[animalx]

I can't expect new designs every 1 or 2 years was my statement. Again if other OEMs want a new design, that's fine and good for them. Every company decides to do their products differently. If you're unhappy with Apple's designs and you feel is stagnant, then don't buy their products.

I don't. I'm not going to allow Apple to hustle me by selling me yesterday's tech for today's prices.

Again, the whole point of my post was to show that Apple does not need to implement "features" that they think only a small proportion of iPhone users use or what's all the rage now. You can frame it as being less flexible or whatever you want, but that allows them room to optimize their design. If you start implementing all sorts of features you think anyone might use, then you have something called Microsoft. Apple isn't Microsoft, as they have the unique ability to control HW and SW. So they will do what they think the platform needs and so far, it's fine for me and I'm happy with what they're doing. Sometimes I think they do a bit much to "catch up" (I found 3D touch gimmcky for Apple, they didn't need that nor do anything with the software).

No, what they need to do is implement at least basic features. Every year they add more "new" features, that people with competing phones have grown accustomed to for years. For example, now the iPhone can play music on multiple bluetooth devices. This is a "new" feature? That's pathetic. I've been using that feature for years, and it's laughable that they are JUST now adding that basic bluetooth capability. Speaking of feature lacking, they STILL don't have actual multitasking. It's ridiculous that this is supposed to be a top tier phone, but it still can't even multitask. That is inexcusable.

1 feature I hope they do NOT implement is to switch out the charging port on the iPhone to USB-C. I find the lightning connector a better design than USB-C. I don't care whether USB-C is the standard. I find the operation of lightning just fine.

So your position is you hope they stick with a slower and less capable connector, because you "find the lightning connector a better design than USB-C"? You find the operation just fine? lol That's because you clearly haven't used a USB C 3.1 gen 2 device... You position lacks any real merit.

Face ID I have seen it already when Apple first did Touch ID. It's the obvious next step down the evolutionary tree for authentication. It was only a matter of time until they rolled it out.

...Well yeah, it was an obvious next step down the evolutionary tree...because that step had already been taken a half decade before Apple finally got it. By the time they got it, user authentication was already evolving yet again, once again leaving Apple to play the game of catch up they love to play.

Another example is the Galaxy edge series... just cause of that slanted edge. Great, now do you care? Lol... I can go on and on with this.

It's not slanted, it's curved, and yes I care! That curve is what allows those bezels to be so tiny. It's why the Note 10+ has a half inch larger screen, even though the body is basically the same size as the Note 9. It's also why last year's iPhone has a significantly smaller screen, but the body is much larger. Not to mention, you can actually use that edge for things like notifications, menus, etc. I use it every day all day. I can get to what I call "the usual suspects" apps, from any screen at any time, with a single swipe. I also have a panel for the people I contact regularly. I use that all the time for calls or texts. I also have one for screenshots where I have a part of the screen I want to capture, without having to capture the entire thing and then edit it. You can also use it to make gifs on the fly. So yeah...I do care and so does every person I know that has a Galaxy.

 

[iScone]

Absolutely agree with your comment. I was taken aback by the amount of hate and vitriolic comments here.

I would imagine it's because Apple used to innovate and revolutionise. Now they're catching up to standards that existed 6-12 months before they launched it, and have the audacity to pretend they're bringing something new to the market. The smart phone has matured - nobody believes the spin any more. Apple need to step up and be worthy of the company they were under Jobs.

 

[Azathoth123]

I usually lurk and occasionally post in the post-launch months and it’s been nothing but:

1) complaints on price (by far the top complaint)
2) just short of shaming anyone who wants to spend their money on buying/upgrading an iPhone year over year.
3) complaints on lack of exciting rumors
4) complaints on anyone who has issue with the design of the camera, notch, modem, etc.

I’m glad for the not-so-regular crowd making their reappearance to bring a little magic to the forum. I mean, this is supposed to be a place for Apple fans and those with an interest in Apple.

Ever since the iPhone 8 vs iPhone X year, it’s only been downhill.

I’d give this post 10 thumbs up if I could.

The upgrades, especially the camera upgrades in iPhone 11 Pro are great, if you’re into photography.

Phone cameras have pretty much killed traditional point and shoot cameras. Phone cameras are where tremendous amounts of $ are going, computational photography, etc.

This of course makes no difference to a customer that uses a phone mainly to make phone calls or send texts, but it makes a lot of difference to an audience interested in photography.

 

[cardfan]

The higher prices drive more criticism. Typically people who can’t afford to upgrade will justify their behavior by striking out. This in turn makes them feel better that they’re not missing out. It’s ugly. No innovation.

Just human nature. What do you think fuels the Apple haters?

 

[Rafterman]

The higher prices drive more criticism. Typically people who can’t afford to upgrade will justify their behavior by striking out. This in turn makes them feel better that they’re not missing out. It’s ugly. No innovation.

Just human nature. What do you think fuels the Apple haters?

You do know that its possible to love and buy Apple products, but still criticize the faults, right?

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

The higher prices drive more criticism. Typically people who can’t afford to upgrade will justify their behavior by striking out. This in turn makes them feel better that they’re not missing out. It’s ugly. No innovation.

Just human nature. What do you think fuels the Apple haters?

There’s also a lot of people here who can afford to upgrade but can’t justify the inflated cost too.

 

[DougFNJ]

It's funny OP, you come in asking why all the vitriol and people get sucked right into feeding vitriol, people can't help themselves. Negativity is energy sucking and doesn't make for a fun life at all.

What I've learned to do since this all started is look into the titles of posts that interest me and act as if the posts with titles I know will be negative don't exist. It gives me a site that I want all the time when I ignore the noise with content I have no interest in.

Mind you, I don't walk around with the illusion that there is no negativity in the world, and that Apple is a perfect company, but I refuse to get sucked into people creating negativity and complaints where it doesn't exist.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

It's funny OP, you come in asking why all the vitriol and people get sucked right into feeding vitriol, people can't help themselves. Negativity is energy sucking and doesn't make for a fun life at all.

What I've learned to do since this all started is look into the titles of posts that interest me and act as if the posts with titles I know will be negative don't exist. It gives me a site that I want all the time when I ignore the noise with content I have no interest in.

Mind you, I don't walk around with the illusion that there is no negativity in the world, and that Apple is a perfect company, but I refuse to get sucked into people creating negativity and complaints where it doesn't exist.

What on this thread in particular is vitriol? I haven’t seen anything bitter or containing malice. What have I missed?

 

[Azathoth123]

There’s also a lot of people here who can afford to upgrade but can’t justify the inflated cost too.

What inflated costs would those be, they’ve been the same prices from X on except for Max which began as XS and 11 Pro ‘Max’ is still the same as XS? And the iPhone 11 is reduced in price and has an added camera!

And inflated over what?

I think that I get it to some extent. A Rolls Royce or Aston Martin is expensive. I’d LOVE to have one, but I can’t afford them so I don’t have them. No worries, I’m not losing any sleep over it.

BTW, if tech is a hobby for you, it’s a cheap hobby compared to almost anything else. If it isn’t a hobby, you can ride an iPhone till it dies and many that post here do.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

What inflated costs would those be, they’ve been the same prices from X on except for Max which began as XS and 11 Pro ‘Max’ is still the same as XS? And the iPhone 11 is reduced in price and has an added camera!

And inflated over what?

I think that I get it to some extent. A Rolls Royce or Aston Martin is expensive. I’d LOVE to have one, but I can’t afford them so I don’t have them. No worries, I’m not losing any sleep over it.

BTW, if tech is a hobby for you, it’s a cheap hobby compared to almost anything else. If it isn’t a hobby, you can ride an iPhone till it dies and many that post here do.

I always felt the iPhone X was overpriced and didn’t buy it as I couldn’t justify £1k for a phone. It’s not a case of not being able to afford it, I’m lucky enough to have a good job that allows me to buy the things I want, I just can’t justify it on phone purchases. I tend to buy last years iPhone to take advantage of current features at a saving I’m happy with. I’ll still criticise the strategy I don’t agree with though and nobody will tell me I can’t do that. Owning an iPhone isn’t a hobby for me, it’s a nice tool that I enjoy using for social and business needs.

 

[Azathoth123]

I always felt the iPhone X was overpriced and didn’t buy it as I couldn’t justify £1k for a phone. It’s not a case of not being able to afford it, I’m lucky enough to have a good job that allows me to buy the things I want, I just can’t justify it on phone purchases. I tend to buy last years iPhone to take advantage of current features at a saving I’m happy with. I’ll still criticise the strategy I don’t agree with though and nobody will tell me I can’t do that. Owning an iPhone isn’t a hobby for me, it’s a nice tool that I enjoy using for social and business needs.

I understand that, thank you for posting.

 

[CTHarrryH]

If we looked at previous announcements from Apple and other vendors of other products we would find the same complaints and types of issues. All will not think everything is perfect. People have the right to reasonable complaints. What we, who use forums such as this, tend to forget is that we aren't typical users. Typical don't have a lot of stuff etc. on phones etc.
Just be reasonable folks

 

[tonybarnaby]

I personally feel like Apple is lagging far behind Android on many fronts. A lot of people are frustrated seeing how much more you get per dollar with Android. My $250 budget Android has face id, expandable storage and fast charging in the box. iOS still doesn't have always on display. No expandable storage, and they completely screw you over by trying to force you into buying more storage than you need. Apple isn't influenced by Android (Android phones pretty much copy Apple blatantly at times), but a fast charging brick in the box of a $1300 phone shouldn't be extra, it should be part of the deal.

Apple is #1 by FAR in terms of security, customer service, longevity of the device, and simplicity. Even the top tier Android phone only gets 2-3 years of official support, which is really bad. Android resale value is also hilariously bad.

I think at the end of the day people get frustrated when you see all this technology for years available on budget Android phones, then apple slowly releases it but charges more for it, all while patting themselves on the back