A lot has changed!
This summer, my entire outlook changed on what I needed from an iPhone. In short, my priorities have shifted.
The iPhone Air is now my daily carry, and over the past few weeks, it has stood up to its task ever so well.
If you were wondering why there’s been a slight break in my writing schedule, the reason is simple – I’ve literally had no time!
First, I was sent to cover IFA for a brand, and then on the back of that I found myself in New York working for another brand. In an ideal world, I should’ve had time between my Berlin and New York trips to write, but sadly, events overtook me.
I arrived at Berlin airport for my return journey just as a massive outage in UK airspace wreaked havoc for a few days, which meant it took me nearly three days to get home, and that did away with any possibility of my having a chance to write before I was on my way again.
Anyway, I’m back now, and I’ve got quite a lot to chat about, including the recent Apple event, which actually took place while I was stuck on a plane! Yup, the timing sucked!
The kit I took on the road
Obviously, when I travel, it’s for work, which means I need to be able to create and make content. Essentially, I need to be able to create a studio or workplace wherever I happen to be.
The trick is I need to be able to do all that and at the same time keep it trim and nimble. The great thing about working with my gear like this, though, is that it gives me a chance to evaluate what actually works in the real world.
I used to sit and write about gear without firsthand knowledge of what worked and what doesn’t. Looking back, I was guilty of just repeating what was on a press release or Apple’s spec sheets an don’t giving you practical, hands-on feedback.
After these two trips, though, particularly that brutal Berlin trip with its endless layovers and delays, I’m in a good place to give you my thoughts from the trenches, as it were.
Right off the bat, I want to chat about the iPhone Air. Pretty as it is, it did me proud. I was using the phone constantly for a good 12-14 hours a day on these trips, and it never let me down. I was working behind a VPN for most of the time, which is an extra power drain, but even then the battery wasn’t an issue.
Sure, I carried a power bank with me, but it only ever needed to be used briefly towards the back end of the day. The iPhone Air was mighty and cemented both my love for it and proof that I’d made the right choice.
As I said way back when I made the switch, it’s all to do with horses for courses. I hardly ever used the camera, as I was carrying my Canon with me everywhere. But the iPhone Air single-handedly got me around two alien cities using Apple Maps all day. It proved that it was all I needed.
Also, can I just sing the praises of AirPods Pro and their Awareness setting! In a city, it’s priceless, as it helps you keep your wits about you! I could hear the directions crystal clear, whilst still feeling safe!
IFA is the kind of event that is so big that you need to use the event app to help you navigate to find stands, exhibitors and meetings. All that is to say that there was no downtime for the iPhone Air, and in my eyes its reputation has not only been undimmed, but enhanced!
The iPhone Air is a beast delightfully wrapped up in a beautiful skin. As a side note, whilst the iPhone itself was perfect, EE, my cell provider, found every single way to shaft me and ruin the trip. My experiences with them have been bloody shameful, but that is an entirely different story!
The Air was faultless.
On the road
What else did I take?
I had to make the choice to take my MacBook Pro with me. It’s not ideal, but there was no other option. Because of its size, weight and cost, I hate taking it from the studio, but on these two trips I knew it was going to be the only option.
I was going to be creating Final Cut timelines each night to make sure that I’d captured the footage I needed, as I’ve learned to my cost that if you don’t get it right when you’re shooting on location, there is no plan B!
The 16-inch M1 Max MacBook Pro may be the oldest working Mac I have, but it can still teach my other Macs a thing or two about sheer grunt and productivity.
But once the MacBook was in place at the hotel, there it stayed!
I took an external display with me to make sure that I was working as comfortably, quickly, and as efficiently as possible. I happen to use displays from espresso as I’ve always found them to be about the best there is when it comes to colour-accurate portable displays.
But, as you can see, I also took the MacBook Neo with me onto the event floor each day, again with a display. I know it’s a bit extra to pack and carry initially, but the payback is immense when you’re working remotely for any stretch of time.
The Neo is light and nimble and was the perfect carry Mac. I was able to keep up to date far more easily on a Mac than on my iPhone or even an iPad Pro. At my heart, I’m still a macOS boy!
On both trips, I did take my iPad Pro with me, but being completely honest with you, I only used it casually in the hotel room and on the plane. For all that I adore using my iPad Pro these days, the Mac will always be my go-to when I need to get work done.
Obviously, I had all my camera rig, mics, gimbals and tripods with me too, but from an Apple point of view, that was pretty much it! Oh, there was one other item lurking in the camera bag that I never used, and that was my iPhone 17 Pro Max. I took it as a backup camera, but never even switched it on!
I’ve already mentioned that I was using AirPods Pro all day, but in the room and on the plane, I switched to using AirPods Max. I still find them too big to use as everyday carry.
All change
How times have changed! Just a few months ago at CES, the iPhone 17 Pro Max was my main and only camera, yet now it’s relegated to sitting unused in my camera bag on trips.
Before moving on to my thoughts about what Apple announced whilst I was mid-air, a quick word about IFA and New York.
Yes, IFA was smaller than CES, but it by no means felt small! I was there from 10 am until 6 pm for four days, and yet Istill kept finding halls that I’d not been to before. It was brilliantly laid out and felt super-friendly. I made way more meaningful contacts there than at CES. Somehow, because it was that little bit smaller, it felt more manageable – does that make any sense?
If you’re a gadget fan, I’d consider going to IFA before CES. For my money, it was just a more accessible event.
As for New York – wow!
I’d been before, but over thirty years ago, and everything you’ve heard about it is true. I was there to cover an event for a brand, but I made the most of it by walking miles around the city and have totally fallen in love with it. London will forever be my first love, but New York has got my attention!
I was staying not too far from the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue, which was gorgeous! If you’ve been to Apple Covent Garden, it has a very similar feel and vibe to it – except friendlier!
I asked a Genius if he could shoot me walking around the store, and he could not have been more obliging or helpful.
When I asked the same question at the Covent Garden store, I was almost marched out of the building! The Fifth Avenue store is all downstairs – and as you’d almost expect, it’s 24/7! Quite who needs to be able to buy an iPhone at 3 am I have no idea, but hey, this is New York we’re talking about!
I was hoping that, being a flagship US store, they might have had some iPhone Duos on display, but even the mighty Fifth Avenue store couldn’t pull that one off! The guys I spoke to had still not held or seen one, and they’d certainly not been trained on it yet.
Oh, and by the way, I asked my contacts within Apple London if I could have a review unit. Their answer was a single word, and it wasn’t yes! I wonder what on earth I need to do to qualify as an Apple reviewer!
Apple are uniquely unapproachable, so I suppose their answer was only to be expected.
iPhone 18 Pro & Pro Max
It was, as expected, a fairly iterative year for the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, and most of the rumours were spot on this year.
Of course, it’s the biggest battery ever seen in an iPhone and has evenbetter cooling, but as ever, it was the camera that was the star feature. Last year, open gate was the buzz catchphrase, and this year it’s all about variable aperture.
The native camera app has been upgraded to match some of the third-party apps and now gives you the ability to play with aperture, shutter speed, white balance and, of course, the aperture.
Look, I have the iPhone 17 Pro Max to thank for helping me to find a passion for photography, so if this phone can do the same for you, then in my eyes it’ll be a win for the iPhone 18 Pro.
But if you’re anything like me, then once you start to pull back the curtain on the new iPhone camera, you’ll want more and will start looking at a full-blown camera. As great as the iPhone is, the sensor is and will always be small compared to a camera, which means that you’ll get better pictures from a camera.
And at the price of these phones, you could buy a really good dedicated camera. So my question is, why not just buy an iPhone 16e for a steal and get yourself a camera! If you’re initially intimidated by a camera, then just set it to auto and learn as you go along – the results will still be better.
If the camera feature is your main driver for buying the 18 Pro or Pro Max…just give it some thought first! Outside of the cameras, the 16e will do pretty much everything else that the 18 Pro can do – unless that is you’re an AI power user.
For years now, the iPhone Pro has basically morphed into an expensive point-and-shoot camera, so why not just bite the bullet and buy a camera? I promise you’ll soon get into the habit of picking it up every day. My camera has become an extension of my right arm these days.
As for the Duo, well, it was once again pretty much as expected. The size, screen specs and most importantly, price were all as forecast. What are your thoughts?
You tell me, can £2000 for a phone ever be justified? Am I missing something – it’s just a phone, right? Sure, it opens, but why would I ever need a phone with two screens?
You can come at me all day long with productivity, but here’s my point. I’ve just completed virtually two weeks of travel with an iPhone Air, and never once did I feel I needed more space or a second screen. I loved having a lightweight phone in my pocket that I could forget was there. It was bliss.
Will the iPhone Duo catch on? Well, I guess, if anyone can make the foldable market ‘pop’, then it’ll be Apple, but I just don’t think the market is there. At IFA, where I was surrounded by tech nerds, I only saw a few foldables, and I didn’t see one in New York!
It must be me
I’ve just realised that today is iPhone 18 Pro day.
Last year I was standing in a queue at Apple Battersea waiting to pick up my 18 Pro Max and iPhone Air.
This year, however, I’m currently looking at buying a £15 journal! How a year has changed me!
I have all the apps, tech, productivity and connectivity I need from an iPhone with my Air. I may have to buy the Duo to review it, but I’m in no rush.
If anything, I want less from my phone, not more – but, hey, that may just be me, I guess!
