The day has arrived – what am I looking forward to the most?
iPhone pre-order day is always a little special.
I have written this week about the Wonderlust event and how in my mind it was anything but wonderful. At best it was slower than we may have expected, at worst it was ponderous and dull.
But whatever misgivings I may have had about the actual event when we eventually got around to talking about iPhone 15 – the undoubted star of the show, Apple did deliver a punch.
The iPhone 15 & 15 Plus were not of as much interest to me as the Pro phones – although possibly they are the real winners this year. If you are looking to replace and update your iPhone those two models have loads to offer. In essence, you’re getting an iPhone 14 Pro minus a few bells and whistles. Okay, so you’ll only have the two-camera set-up with no zoom and a 60Hz refresh rate on your display, but you’re getting the A16 Bionic chip which has been brilliant to use, great speakers and dynamic island too.
While I struggle to call a phone that is £800 value for money, in the context of what we are talking about here the 15 & iPhone 15 Plus are pretty good value.
All in for iPhone
I have plumped for the Pro Max so today I will find myself £1200 worse off – but I’m glossing over that. Today is not a day to dwell on hum-drum realities but to feel the excitement of what is currently sitting in my basket at apple.com!
My current phone is the 14 Pro and is the first phone I have bought outright and the first pro-iPhone that I have owned.
Battery life to one side I have loved using it as well. I have never been one to buy into this battery-culling myth that Apple is purported to carry out at this time of year – but my 14 Pro has been struggling over the past few weeks. Even though I am using it less it now barely lasts a day. So the first thing I am hoping for on the 15 Pro Max is an improved battery life.
The physical battery is bigger and the phone will be based on Apple’s first 3-nanometer chip – the A17 Pro chip which is meant to offer much improved power efficiency which together with the bigger battery should see a big improvement in up times. We’ll know soon enough I guess.
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Diet time
My iPhone 14 is only the 6.1-inch Pro not the Pro Max and that is already heavy.
It’s a double-edged sword though – although he is a chunky little fella, the weight does add to the feeling of being premium. But, I guess anything that can make this mobile computer a little more manageable and comfortable to carry around all day has got to be a good thing right?
Apple this year we are told have managed this weight reduction due to the titanium frame that the two pro phones boast. I’ve read that titanium is used in spacecraft and is renowned for its strength-to-weight ratio. The press release says that Apple then bonds this frame to an aluminium sub-structure all of which is supposed to make this phone bloody tough and much lighter weight. This time next week I’ll be able to let you know if all that is true!
I am one of those freaks who goes both case-free and screen protector-free as well. The frosted reverse glass on my current phone is as good as the day I took it out of the box. The Ceramic Shield glass on the front though has not fared quite as well. There are three minor but visible, tiny scratches on it – I’m hoping that the glass year is a little more durable.
Even with all that toughness though for the first time I am taking out Apple Care on this bad boy – can’t be too careful right?
Action Stations
Much has been said about the new Action Button but again until I get hands-on and spend some time with it, it’s hard to say whether it’ll be of any real use or not.
I have a feeling that once I have mapped it to one function I’ll never touch it again. I’m thinking I’ll have it set to launch the camera – but if that is really any quicker than holding the icon on the Home Screen I’ll be intrigued to find out. The Action Button will make me use Dynamic Island though as you get a notification in it that the correct app is being launched. By the way – Dynamic Island – do you ever use it?
Weird how the mute button has fallen so far out of favour these days. Does anyone leave the ringer on now – ever?
iPhone and USB-C
Yup – that is finally a thing for iPhone.
Although we didn’t get full Thunderbolt 4 data transfer speeds we did at least get 10-gigabit USB 3 speeds – so not the full beans but a meaningful step forward from the 480Mbps that we had with the Lightning connector.
It’s ironic that now we have the port, I won’t be using it for data transfer as much. Apple have danced around not having given us Thunderbolt by more meaningfully giving us the option the record directly to an SSD which is a super cool idea.
If it works as well as it sounds then I’ll be a happy chap. That means I can shoot ProRes 4K 24FPS or even 60 FPS now to my heart’s content knowing that I’ll be able to actually use it. I’ll forgive them for not having Thunderbolt 4 if this works as easily as they showed us it did. It should be a case of shoot and then hook up the SSD on the Mac and I should be ready to start editing.
The cameras
I’ve been mighty happy with the cameras I have on the 14 Pro, so if they are even better then I will be impressed.
Some of the images they showed us were stunning. Now I know these will have been set up perfectly, with great lighting, sets and models, but even so – the depth of the shadows they had held was astonishing.
The reason I went for the Pro Max was because it is on this phone only that we get all the tricks. There is the new 5X zoom and the ability to switch between three popular focal lengths to 24mm, 28mm and 35mm. There is also improved camera stabilisation and the ability to add the portrait mode after the shot has been taken.
The details
The Pros are equipped with the latest 5G have support for Wi-Fi 6E and have an improved Ultra Wideband chip.
Most of these little features won’t get noticed day-to-day but they should all go towards making the phone even quicker and seamless to use.
The 14 Pro has been a great daily so I am ever so excited to see what my first ever Pro Max can deliver. I may be £1200 poorer but I have to admit I am also a tad excited.
With 20 minutes to go – time I best get my credit card ready. It’s gonna be a long week of waiting but I am now feeling the excitement that I’d been missing before the event.
New iPhone days are pretty cool after all.
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