2017 iPhone 8/8+ anticipation and rumors thread =) (1 Viewer)

[Cranston37+]

I think you're doing your calculations wrong. That $45.75 is paying off a phone, not your cellular bill. If you stay with your 7+ once it's paid off that $45.75 drops off. Going with the X means an extra $50+ dollars.

I think he's in the iPhone Upgrade Program.

The way I read it, he can either pay $45.75 for the next 24 months for a 7+ or hand it over and pay $56.16 for the next 24 months for the X.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

So right now I have an iPhone 5, which perfectly suits my needs, but has gotten glitchy and a little unreliable after five years of daily use.

The X is definitely not for me. I'm not interested in FaceID, I don't see what the big deal about it not having a bezel is, and I hate that the home button has been removed.

iPhone 8 would seem like the logical choice, then. It has better battery life than my iPhone 5 supposedly, and still has a home button. It's also cheaper. I need to learn more about this wireless charging - it looks like you need to buy a separate wireless pad to charge it? If so, I'm out. I just want to plug in the regular Thunderbolt cable that all of my other Apple devices use, and be done with it. I have a charger at home, and I have one in my office at work, and I'm good. I don't want to have to rebuy chargers all over again. It makes absolutely no difference to me whether I'm putting a phone on a pad or plugging in a cord. It doesn't seem like it should be a big deal. Also, it's made of glass? Can that possibly be anywhere near as durable as the aluminum backs? And if the 8 is the same size as the 6 and the 7, that's maybe larger than I need or want to carry around.

I feel like this is an enormously uncool thing for a guy in his early 30s to say, but I think the iPhone SE may be my replacement choice for the iPhone 5. It's the same size and shape as my iPhone 5, which I am totally content with, and seems to be almost half the price as the 8 and less than half the price of the X. And yet, the last time I bought an iPhone and the time before that (iPhone 5 and iPhone 3GS), I got the most fully loaded version of that phone, so there's that little voice in my head nagging me to do the same now. Except, I don't think I like the fully loaded latest and greatest versions.

Is there anything obvious that I'm missing or not taking into account? Can you guys think of a good reason why I -- as someone fully satisfied with everything about my iPhone 5 except for its age-related glitching -- wouldn't be just as happy with an iPhone SE?

 

[Cranston37+]

I need to learn more about this wireless charging - it looks like you need to buy a separate wireless pad to charge it? If so, I'm out.

You can still charge with cables like you do now. Charging wirelessly is only an option that is there if you want it. The big benefit to wireless is it's a universal standard, so you might see a wireless pad in an airport, restaurant, stadium, etc and you could simply set your phone on it for a top off, freeing you from having to carry a compatible cable with you.

As for the rest of it, Josh, it's so hard to give advice on what's right for you. One point I could make: if you have anything less than a 6S, you won't be able to do anything with augmented reality. You might not think that's a big deal, but wait until more apps use it and you could regret that.

My 70 year old parents need new phones and I told them to wait until this event to get them. They are in the same boat as you in not needing the latest and greatest. My advice to them was the 6S for $449 and not the SE for $349. The ability to do AR and the extra screen real estate are IMO more than worth the extra $100. The models above that? Nice if you can afford it but not life changing for a casual user.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

As for the rest of it, Josh, it's so hard to give advice on what's right for you. One point I could make: if you have anything less than a 6S, you won't be able to do anything with augmented reality. You might not think that's a big deal, but wait until more apps use it and you could regret that.

Patrick, that's a great point on the augmented reality stuff - thanks for bringing it up, because it had escaped my thoughts. Apparently the SE has all of the under the hood stuff as the 6S, so does that mean it would or wouldn't work with AR? I'm honestly not sure that I care about AR.

Honestly, I probably don't even need an iPhone - some cheap phone with a web browser might even work, but with everything else in my house on the Apple ecosystem, it seems neater to stay with them.

Here's what I do use on my phone: text messaging (just texts and the occasional photo, I don't usually do the emoji stuff or the animated gifs or anything like that), the alarm clock, email, browsing the internet, reading the newspaper online, occasionally using Fandago and Ticketmaster apps for ticket purchases, and occasionally using the iPod functions. I use the Apple TV, Onkyo and Oppo apps to control those home theater components. That's it. I don't even like the individual apps most of the time. Whenever I go to the Google homepage to search something, for instance, the phone asks if I want to use it in the Google app, and my answer is always "no", I'm fine with the web browser. I don't game. I don't think augmented reality would be something I'd really be interested in. And I'm concerned the 8 (or an older 7 or 6s) would be larger than I'd like. My wife has the 6S, I believe... that form factor, at any rate. I should see if I can borrow it for a day and see how it feels in my pocket compared to the 5.

 

[DavidJ]

I think you're doing your calculations wrong. That $45.75 is paying off a phone, not your cellular bill. If you stay with your 7+ once it's paid off that $45.75 drops off. Going with the X means an extra $50+ dollars.

I get that, but I would have to pay another 12 months to pay it off and one of the whole reasons I went with the program is so I can trade in and upgrade if I wish. So my net change for the next year $10 more a month. And the overall cost of the phones doing the 24-month plans to completion s a $250 difference.

 

[Cranston37+]

Apparently the SE has all of the under the hood stuff as the 6S, so does that mean it would or wouldn't work with AR? I'm honestly not sure that I care about AR.

AR needs the A9 chip. The SE and 6 have an A8, but the 6S has the A9.

One nice bonus too is the 6S has the 2nd gen TouchID whereas the SE has only the 1st gen. It's speed and accuracy make it much less frustrating to use.

Don't discount AR - it will be a very useful tool. Imagine measuring a room just by pointing a phone at it, or seeing if a couch will fit before driving home with it, or seeing what a new paint color might look like on a wall before spreading it on, or what a change in landscaping would look like before ripping up the sod. If you did just one of those things in the next 4-5 years the extra $100 would have been worth it...

 

[DaveF]

So right now I have an iPhone 5, which perfectly suits my needs, but has gotten glitchy and a little unreliable after five years of daily use.

...

I feel like this is an enormously uncool thing for a guy in his early 30s to say, but I think the iPhone SE may be my replacement choice for the iPhone 5.
...

Is there anything obvious that I'm missing or not taking into account? Can you guys think of a good reason why I -- as someone fully satisfied with everything about my iPhone 5 except for its age-related glitching -- wouldn't be just as happy with an iPhone SE?

A number of bloggers / podcasters I enjoy, including internet-famous John Gruber of DaringFireball, all prefer the iPhone SE for its size.

The iPhone SE is basically an iPhone 6s with iPhone 5s size screen.

You'd be leaving on the table two generations progression of Camera and CPU / GPU. And maybe storage with its 32GB/128GB options. You'd save $250 - $600, compared to entry 8 to loaded 8+.

I think the big question for you is: how important are iPhone photos? Especially low-light and people/portraits? If not particularly, then it sounds like you'll be happy to have the SE.

But if the iPhone is your camera, and if those photos are important to you, you should take a hard look at the trade offs against the 7/8 or 7+/8+.

 

[DaveF]

AR needs the A9 chip. The SE and 6 have an A8, but the 6S has the A9.

One nice bonus too is the 6S has the 2nd gen TouchID whereas the SE has only the 1st gen. It's speed and accuracy make it much less frustrating to use.

FWIW, the SE has the A9.
https://www.apple.com/iphone-se/specs/

 

[Cranston37+]

FWIW, the SE has the A9.
https://www.apple.com/iphone-se/specs/

I stand corrected!

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Don't discount AR - it will be a very useful tool. Imagine measuring a room just by pointing a phone at it, or seeing if a couch will fit before driving home with it, or seeing what a new paint color might look like on a wall before spreading it on...

I'm not discounting that it'll be useful... I'm discounting that I'll ever use it

I mean, look at the stuff that comes loaded with the phone, or did come loaded with the iPhone 5, that I've never used. I've never used FaceTime, I've never used iBooks or Podcasts or ITunes U or Find Friends or Reminders, or Home, or Health, or News (I use individual news sources, not their aggregate service).

One nice bonus too is the 6S has the 2nd gen TouchID whereas the SE has only the 1st gen. It's speed and accuracy make it much less frustrating to use.

Do I have to use TouchID at all? I would prefer to simply press the home button to unlock as I do now on the 5. I don't like that they took away the "press button then swipe" motion in the software. If I could get that back, I would.

AR needs the A9 chip. The SE and 6 have an A8, but the 6S has the A9.

This is always the thing that gets me. I worry that I don't have a new enough chip or big enough hard drive or fast enough processor. But my counterargument is this - all I want to do on a new phone is to continue using the things I use on this phone. I'm not looking to add any new uses, I just don't want the old uses to stop working. And I'm basically doing the same things on my iPhone 5 that I did on my iPhone 3GS before it. In other words, I think despite the coolness factor on some of the new inventions, that I'm not likely to use them.

You'd be leaving on the table two generations progression of Camera and CPU / GPU. And maybe storage with its 32GB/128GB options. You'd save $250 - $600, compared to entry 8 to loaded 8+.

That's true about missing on those advances, and that's the kind of thought that makes me want to go with the upgrade, nevermind the nagging voice in my head - but on the other hand, I'm using the 5. So whatever I get will have a bump. And at a certain point... how much faster can Safari load the text-only newspaper pages? How much faster can the Fandango app load movie times? Do I even use anything that benefits in any way from a speed bump?

I think the big question for you is: how important are iPhone photos? Especially low-light and people/portraits? If not particularly, then it sounds like you'll be happy to have the SE.

I almost never take live video or photos, and when I do, it's more along the lines of texting my wife "Which of these brands of toothpaste did you want?", not to actually get a beautiful photo of a sunset.

I went to film school and imagined that I'd be someone taking pictures all the time for life. The iPhone 3GS was really cool because it took photos and video, so for the first time in my life, I had those options in my pocket without thinking about it. The biggest thing I learned about myself is that the easier it is to take a photo, the less interested I am in doing so. When I was in college, I used to sneak a small digital camera into most concerts I went to, and eventually, I stopped doing it. I got good photos, but the problem was, I wasn't watching the show. I realized that I'm incapable of simultaneously enjoying something and photographing it. Either I'm enjoying whatever it is that I'm at, whether it's a concert or family gathering or a walk through nature, or I'm taking photos/video and putting my critical eye on and trying to get the best shots possible, at the expense of missing the experience of enjoying whatever the thing is. So I haven't taken photos regularly in probably a decade or more, and I don't regret it.

It sounds like, logically, the SE meets my needs, but that emotionally I'm worried I'll be "missing out".

 

[DaveF]

You could buy the SE and PayPal me $400. Then you'll have the iPhone you want and the emotional satisfaction of spending too much money on it.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

My wife might Paypal you my corpse if she ever found out

 

[DaveF]

“THE NOTCH: It offends me. It’s ungainly and unnatural.”

https://daringfireball.net/2017/09/iphone_x_event_thoughts_and_observations

 

[Nelson Au]

Hey guys, some things I noticed during the keynote about the iPhone X is the quality of the fit and finish and materials. I think because I'm in the profession I'm in, product design, I'm likely one of two or three people on this forum who cares about these attributes. But I felt compelled to post about it because of Ron's post picking the space grey color.

If you look closely at the images of the two colors, it's clear that the space gray model has a dark gray stainless steel midband. The silver model has the clear stainless steel midband. It's a match to the Apple Watch stainless steel color. So a matching pair if you own both.

My guess on release day is we will see reports of people complaining of scratching the space gray stainless steel with the natural color of the metal showing through the scratches. I'm also thinking the silver stainless steel model will be easy to polish aware very light scratches. As people have been doing to the Apple Watch stainless steel. Of course most of us will have a case to protect our investments, I certainly will.

These are screen captures that caught my eye during the Keynote and these images stuck with me. This is the level of finish and quality that industrial designers love to see. You can see the color of the metal here. You can see how tight the tolerances are for the fitment of the metal to the gasket and the glass. Great stuff. It's a shame to cover this one. Of all the iPhones that Apple has made, to my eye from the images we can see, this one I think is going to be the most beautiful. I can't wait to see one in person. As a thing, it's a beaut.

Of course this is a phone and a computer in the palm of your hand. So it's going to have to work and I'm looking forward to using it. I'll be curious to try Face ID and Apple Pay using the new Face ID to authorize it. The larger screen should make typing easier and reading web pages. And watching movies and videos too. Amd I'll be curious how the cameras work out.

Hey Josh, I get it that you and others just don't findhaving Face ID that great and are going to be perfectly happy with the iPhone 8. So that's cool. Young minds, fresh ideas, be tolerant. I know, these features have been tried before, but it will be very interesting to see how good Apple has been able to improve on the functionality.

 

[Nelson Au]

About the notch, I just don't think non-designers are going to accept this. And it's going to be hard for me to try to convincingingly explain. But then design and art is and can be subjective, so each person has his or her own interpretation, so nothing is right or wrong. It is what it is.

The design of the screen going to the edge all the way around in its full purity is what Apple wanted to do, I'm sure. And I agree it looks better without the notch. If you look at Patrick's post 178, I'm not in agreement with it. By using the interface to fill in the 'ears', you are in effect creating a visual chin up there. Looks like Samsung. If you leave the ears, all four corners of the screen goes to the edge, in effect, the screen is the full face of the phone. Only we have to have the notch interrupt the screen. It's unfortunate, but I get it.

Apple didn't try to push the earpiece higher to the edge. At least just port the sound out to the edge. But then those cameras probably couldn't go that far up to the edge, so they really had no choice. The Chinese phone maker Xiaomi's Mi MIX is quite beautiful. Also developed with Philippe Stark, a celebrated industrial designer. Not quite as nice as the iPhones, but they manage to get the screen to the 4 edges and port the speaker to the edge, it just didn't need the camera that form that notch. I'll still take the iPhone X's more elegant design, and iOS.

 

[Cranston37+]

If you look at Patrick's post 178, I'm not in agreement with it. By using the interface to fill in the 'ears', you are in effect creating a visual chin up there.

That example was certainly imperfect, because it had to work with the hardware that was already in place. My preferred iPhone X would have looked like this mockup...

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I haven't studied all the reports on the iPhone X yet, but it's my guess that notch is more for the earpiece speaker slot. I've never seen a display that can have a notch cut out of it, but that's how they must have been able to place the earpiece speaker in that location, by notching the OLED display. With the notch, they were also able to place all those cameras. As a designer myself, I don't like the notch, but as was noted so well above, Apple is owning it. So it's going to be an aesthetic choice for some of course. I just literary saw a Samsung commercial on TV and they have a straight edge on top and bottom while the display goes off the edges on the sides. So what Apple did was visually and strongly set itself apart from them by using the notch. And on the mic end, the screen goes to the edge for three sides of the phone that goes to the edge, further separating it from Samsung's offering. I can respect that design choice.

I think it's only fair to cut Craig a little slack that the Face ID demo failed so badly in the presentation. Perhaps someone messed up the preparations. We'll see how it works out in real life.

I really like the new steel band between the front and rear glass. The highly polished piece is akin to the Apple Watch stainless steel model. And so it has the same level of high end-ness. From the images they showed, it continues to demonstrate the high level of finish Apple is able to achieve from the manufacturing process. And if you lightly scratch the edges, I'm going to bet there will be polishing videos and polishing kits soon to be seen. So I'm glad to see that Apple is offering rear cases for the iPhone X in silicone and leather.

This thread is for the iPhones, but I was curious to mention the Apple Watch. I've not posted much on the forum about the watch. I own the first gen stainless steel and I mainly use it as my work out tool. I really like that aspect of the watch, to track my cycling training rides and I'd like to learn more about the health apps. So I wanted to briefly mention, the new Apple Watch does impress that it's cellular now. But I hope Apple has done studies of what impact having a radio on your wrist emitting radiation is going to do. If I upgrade and I'd like to, I hope we can turn off the LTE radio and turn it on when we need it. I'll still carry my iPhone in bike rides so I imagine I'll leave it to Bluetooth to talk to the phone. So I may opt for the non cellular model. But the LTE is compelling if I need it. I'll wait to upgrade the watch until I get the iPhone X.

BTW, I'll be able to tell once we see the iPhone X in person, but I really like the Silver option on the rear. And I'm glad the front is still black to frame the edges of the screen. The silver will be a nice change of pace, I've always had black iPhones.

Nelson,

I am not certain I told my story on this forum or not and the reason why I was mentioned in your post.

I did pick the Space Grey iPhone 7S Plus. I thought it looked very "classy."

Your report is dead on.

I bought a case for it. It was too tight. So tight in fact that I could not remove it. I was stupid enough to take a screwdriver to it in order to wedge the case free. It was the only thing I could think of. Took a nice big chip of black off the side of the phone, exposing bare metal beneath it.

This was after owning the phone for about a day.

I wasn't deeply saddened other than I just ruined the resale value. I just bought a new case, put it on, and the damage was hidden.

So, you are absolutely correct about the things you say about the Space Grey phone.

All that being said, I am buying a Space Grey X. I still love the cover and I am just going to be more careful this time.

 

[Nelson Au]

Ron, I didn't know that story about the tight case. Ouch, that sounded like a painful experience.

Patrick, that mock-up looks cleaner for sure. But it's not edge to edge anymore.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Can I ask a serious question? I know this is gonna make me sound clueless, but here goes..

Why is the bezel-less look considered desirable? It seems to be a trend in high-end TVs now too, and I find that I just don't care too much one way or the other. I want the device that functions the best, and those little aesthetic touches don't mean much to me. I would rather have an iPhone with a uniformly rectangle screen at dimensions that resemble the standard 16x9 that other screen sizes and devices are now based on, than to have one that has a screen that's a few millimeters larger, but an uneven shape.

It's not that I'm in love with it having a bezel, it's just that it's something I had never thought about previously, and now that I am thinking about it, I'm realizing how utterly indifferent I am.

 

[Cranston37+]

Patrick, that mock-up looks cleaner for sure. But it's not edge to edge anymore.

Why is the bezel-less look considered desirable?

I'm personally fine with some thin bezel - practically speaking it gives you a place put your fingers while holding it, keeping them off the screen. It's the age old form vs function debate, really. As you say, it's all preference...