I absolutely hate upgrading my phone – for the most part it’s the fact that I’m doling out so much money at one time, but if you think about it, the amount of usage that you get out of the device, it’s likely the greatest value proposition to anybody anymore. I had been using an iPhone 8 for the last two and a half years, and while the device was still running fine from a software standpoint, I began encountering some issues with the battery that were hindering my daily required usage. The last iOS update really seemed to force the issue, because up until then I could at least get through the day without recharging, but after that last update, I found myself constantly having to keep it on the charger throughout the workday, otherwise it’d be dead by lunch time.
I originally was just going to order the SE – the iPhone 6 and on to me has been a perfect form factor with the 4.7” display, and Touch ID sensor, but I actually was able to get a little more trade-in credit than I had initially thought, so I went ahead and sprung for the next tier up. When I went in two years ago to purchase an iPhone 8, I was really split between the 8 and the 8 plus. In fact, I was briefly considering the 7 plus, but the processor scared me off. The decision to go with the 8 over the plus was entirely due to size, I found the 5.5” display a little cumbersome, despite having larger hands and finding typing easier. So as you can imagine, moving from the 4.7” to a 6.1” display is quite an adjustment.
After about a week it’s safe to say that I’m entirely used to it at this point. The only real changes were the notched display that changes around how you access the ‘command center,’ and like I mentioned before, the sheer size. I’m finding the larger size to be something I’m liking that I really didn’t anticipate. I’ve tried playing a few games to view the graphics processing, and this is somewhere where the size is about perfect. All in all, it’s just another iPhone, and I’m perfectly okay with that – it does what you need it to, and does it right, but there is one thing it does amazingly that the others, while they’ve done well, this does amazingly… the Camera.
This weekend, while I didn’t get out to do a ‘photo walk’ like I would have liked to, I did grab some shots while I was out fishing and getting some yard work done, and those were really good… but it was when I took some shots of the Neowise Comet that I truly saw just how astonishing the camera on this phone is. I’ll be uploading those to a different post, however it truly is just amazing to me that this camera can do so much without a tripod, or any type of stabilization system. The customizable shutter speeds, and rendering make this incredibly simple to use while offering an image quality close to that of an SLR.
All in all, I’m thoroughly enjoying this device, and I look forward to getting to play with some of the additional features I haven’t played with yet, and the advancements that are going to take place with iOS Android…. errr…. I mean iOS 14.
Roving On 