If you listened to Twitter you’d be forgiven for thinking that iPhone 15 was doomed…
It’s been iPhone 15 week – a busy week, but a fun one nonetheless.
I work alone which means I don’t get a chance to bounce ideas off anyone. I guess that is both good and bad. It means I don’t get to hear general opinions but more importantly, it means I don’t get influenced by urban myths and popular hearsay.
I have written a fair bit about the latest iPhone this week simply because there was a fair bit to write about! But what you get to hear or read from me is at least my thoughts and my opinions.
Knowing that I’d be making a video about iPhone 15 this week (I’m uploading it as I write) meant that I tried my best to avoid the deluge of iPhone 15 videos over the past week. Don’t get me wrong, I was gagging to watch them but I knew with my creator’s hat on, that if I did, it would influence my content. How could it possibly not?
By no means am I saying I’m the best out there, but at least, good or bad, I can hand-on-heart tell you what you read or watch are all my thoughts.
Being in this game for the long run, integrity and honesty have to count for something.
Now calm down!
I’ll admit I spend too much time on Twitter – my excuse is that it makes up for my lack of actual human interaction! By checking it out I get a feel for what the consensus is in my little tech bubble.
I am one of a relative minority that picked up my iPhone 15 on release day – many people, possibly many of you reading this story are yet to get your hands on Apple’s latest and greatest.
And that is what’s behind today’s yarn – don’t believe everything you are reading or watching.
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The same old story
In the run-up to Apple’s annual September event and then the weeks following it, it is pretty much the same old pattern.
Rumour upon rumour is pedalled at us preceding the event – with varying amounts of accuracy. Right after the event, there is the inevitable dose of love – you know the ones – based on less than a few hours of use claiming it to be wonderful and the best thing ever. That frenzy is then followed by the spell we currently find ourselves in.
Creators need content to make – there are videos to make and pages that need filling. Clickbait is as rife today as it’s ever been, and one of the best ways to get reads or clicks is to shock. This week we find ourselves in the midst of the ‘what’s gone wrong with this year’s iPhone’ scandals.
It’s iPhone-gate time folks.
As you’ll know if you’ve read me for any time, a few weeks ago I was not at all excited about the iPhone 15 – and I wasn’t afraid to write about it. I’d tried Android during the summer and to my surprise, I liked what I saw.
At that time, by comparison, the stories coming out of Cupertino sounded pretty tame and dull. Yay – thinner bezels, and rounded off corners & edges. I was bored to the back teeth about the switch to USB-C and the talk of titanium didn’t get my pulse racing.
Even the Wonderlust event itself seemed muted and half-baked. I recall writing about it the day after saying that if they had tried hard, they could have fitted the whole event into a tidy 40-minute video.
But – I was wrong – not so much about the event, but I was way off the mark about iPhone 15.
iPhone 15 – give it a break
Sadly, Apple doesn’t pay me to write – I wish!
As I mentioned I write what I feel on any given day and right now, if I wanted easy, lazy content I would be filling pages with stories about my iPhone 15 Pro Max being fragile, overheating or having a useless battery life. It would almost be a copy-and-paste situation for me.
But I hate to break the bubble – so far for me iPhone 15 has been the best iPhone I have ever owned or used. Yes, I am only a week in and there could be some horror stories around the corner, but so far, so good.
And by and large, it’s the same people who were eulogising about Apple and the iPhone 15 a few weeks back that are now slamming it – odd wouldn’t you say? If I had my sceptics hat on I could say they are following the clicks. I bet their AdSense account has more than mine in though – let’s put it that way.
I still happen to like integrity though.
Won over
Yup – when I tried Android this summer I liked it. I don’t think I was ever likely to switch full-time, but a change was certainly as good as a rest.
The timing of the realise of the iPhone 15 was very timely. With a new iPhone has come a new level of love – and respect for what Apple has done this year. We will never experience again the burst of excitement of the first iPhone or witness the smartphone revolution – that ship has sailed.
But, with iPhone 15 Apple has re-invented the wheel – well kind of.
Realistically, what else can a phone be? How can it be revolutionary – at its core it has to be fit for purpose. Yeah – you can have a folding phone, or a flip phone – which I tried out earlier this year. But when it boils down to it they are all just chasing Apple’s lead. Making a phone fold doesn’t make it better – actually all it does is make it thicker!
You’ll have noticed from the pictures in this story I have taken the time to personalise my iPhone 15 with wallpapers & an icon pack – both of which I spent hard-earned cash on. I spent time refining my Home Screen and I did all this because I realised what I was holding was a thing of beauty.
Praise where praise is due
I think I have proven this year, that I don’t simply sing Apple’s song – I try ever so hard to write how I see things.
This year, Apple deserves praise. First, they gave us Apple Vision Pro and now, possibly, the best iPhone for a good few years. iOS 17 appears to be running smoothly and today I have just installed Sonoma on one of my Macs – there will be stories coming on that once I’ve had time to use it.
Proving a point
Why would I make a video trying to break my iPhone 15 to prove these sudden rumours of fragility? Those scenarios are not real life.
I’m not saying I am some high-end fancy professional, but maybe my demands on the phone are more extreme than others just by the nature of what I do. That video I told you I’m uploading – all shot in log, 4K, 24FPS onto an external drive. Possibly that is not what most do, but it is what I do.
And you know what? The phone didn’t get hot. Put it this way, the Samsung T7 SSD got hotter than the iPhone 15!
As for the battery – okay there, my mind is not yet made up. It certainly isn’t awful though as you may be given to believe. The best I can tell you right now is that it seems to have good days and bad days – but I will keep an eye on it and let you know – promise.
Go for it
If you are reading this because it’s time for you to upgrade and the rumours had you worried, let me put your mind to rest – iPhone 15 is a stunner – go grab one.
The build quality is a delight, and the reduced weight of the Pros is a meaningful step forward as well. It all goes to making the phone easier to live with.
A week in and I’m back in love with Apple and iPhone. No overheating, no quality issues, and no terrible battery life to report on. I was ready to consider moving on – but the iPhone 15 is pretty special.
For once let’s give Apple a break, let them take a bow and just be bloody grateful for what they have given us.
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