Spoiler alert: Come next Friday, I’ll start my review on the iPhone 11. Not the iPhone 11 Pro Max Gold Money Bang, the simple iPhone 11. I have the iPhone XS, and I’m on the iPhone Upgrade Program, so I could have upgraded for just the upgrade fees. Instead, I’ll be saving $180 a year with an iPhone 11. I may not even upgrade next year! So what happened? Why’d I decide to downgrade upgrade?
Apple isn’t selling a phone worth over $1,000, and they made it worse in ways that matter to me.
The iPhone 11 Pro that I’d want is the 5.8″ version, in “Midnight Green,” with 256GB of storage. That would run me $1,149, over monthly payments of about $56. The iPhone 11 I’d want is $849, or about $41 per month. $300 less. It’s an upgrade over the iPhone XS in many ways, looks fantastic, has better cameras, is faster, and will save me $180/year. But why upgrade at all if I’m happy with the iPhone XS? Why keep that $180 away from Apple?
Because they removed 3D Touch from all the new iPhones, have crippled it in iOS 13, and, frankly, it was the biggest reason I got an iPhone XS over an iPhone XR in the first place. Apple’s not selling features, they’re selling an image, and I’m not buying it.
In This Article:
The iPhone XR Was the Best iPhone Last Year
Last year, Apple released the iPhone XS and iPhone XR. The iPhone XS was barely an upgrade over the iPhone XS. It introduced a gold color, improved the main camera in low light, and sped up the processor a little. It was a disappointingly small upgrade. Despite the idea that the iPhone X was an anniversary model, a special edition that was released at a higher price point, the iPhone XS still held on to its bonkers $1k price tag. I upgraded because I was on the iPhone upgrade program and it cost me very little to upgrade. That’s it.
For human subjects, the iPhone XR had a better portrait mode than the iPhone XS!
The iPhone XR, however, brought the upgraded camera from the iPhone XS to a middle-ground 6.1″ package. It had an LCD screen that doesn’t flash to reduce brightness like the OLED iPhone XS (Pulse-Width Modulation, which gives some people headaches), it comes in vibrant colors, and it has the upgraded processor of the iPhone XS. Sure, it had a little less memory, but iOS is fantastic with memory management. It didn’t use depth detection on the rear camera for portrait mode, but the AI-based version worked well for human subjects and actually looked better than the iPhone XS’s portrait mode, due to using the wide aperture camera instead of the telephoto one. Plus, the iPhone XR had battery life that made every other iPhone owner jealous. Honestly? Only a fool would have gotten the iPhone XS over the iPhone XR last generation.
Unless you wanted 3D Touch.
The iPhone XR didn’t have 3D Touch. For me, a person who used it frequently, especially for cursor movement and text selection and peek and pop in Mail and Messages, this was a deal breaker. So I accepted my fate and upgraded to the more expensive iPhone.
No 3D Touch? No Deal
3D Touch, introduced on the iPhone 6s (here), is now dead
This year, the “Pro” model of the iPhone lacks 3D Touch. Apple claims their battery improvements were due to a more efficient processor, but it’s likely that the hardware for 3D Touch took up space that the battery could use. The processor upgrade only added an hour of battery life to the iPhone 11. We trade battery life for 3D Touch, because Apple can’t imagine making a device thick enough for a large battery. Though, to Apple’s credit, the iPhone 11 Pro is a little thicker than the iPhone XS.
Without 3D Touch, I simply wouldn’t have upgraded. I would have just kept my iPhone XS another year. However, iOS 13 also removed Peek & Pop from Apple apps. It’ll eventually disappear from third party apps as well. The only good thing about 3D Touch in iOS 13 is text selection. You can still apply pressure to act like a double or triple click when selecting text, and move it to act like dragging a mouse over text. It’s brilliant. It’s one of the iPhone’s greatest features. But is it worth $180 and horrible battery life? Not really. So I decided to save some money to upgrade.
The iPhone 11 Pro Just Isn’t Worth It
Frankly, the iPhone 11 Pro, even with its extra camera and cool Midnight Green color, isn’t worth the upgrade over an iPhone XS. Likely not even an iPhone X. The iPhone 11 might be worth the upgrade for iPhone XR owners, especially at its lower price point. Over the iPhone 11, you get one telephoto camera with only 2x zoom and a screen with improved contrast that you likely wouldn’t notice. For the huge jump in price? That’s silly.
And that’s the problem. Apple has set the price of their iPhones, which offer the same features of Android phones (and fewer features, honestly), at an exorbitantly high price. The flagship iPhone, with roughly the same features of Android phones, is over $300 more expensive than them. The new iPhone is simply not about the features, it’s about the image of having an expensive phone.
Apple Has Lost Touch
Apple serving gilded desserts at its press conference today sure does seem symbolic of something pic.twitter.com/gNZcK3S71C
— mat honan ☀️ (@mat) September 10, 2019
Apple served pastries with actual gold leaf on them. Gold leaf doesn’t improve the flavor of anything. It’s edible, in that it doesn’t really get digested and goes right through you. So why bother? Because Apple wants you to think of their products as a luxury. The problem? No one wants that. Even trust fund babies in Williamsburg apartments don’t want to dress and look like they’re made of money. Democratic socialism is on the rise, people understand that much of inequality comes down to privilege, the middle class is shrinking, the wealthy control the government, and the wealth gap in this country is as large as it was before the Great Depression. Frankly, people don’t want to eat gold leaf, they want to eat the rich.
But Apple is positioning itself as a luxury brand. The kind that puts gold on everything. That’s new. Apple Stores had class, but they were never gilded. They used a plain stone floor, plain wood tables. Everything about them was simple. Their elegance came through simplicity and impeccable lighting design. Now Apple’s the tacky company slapping gold on pastries and selling iPhones for $1k.
Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, and Donald Trump. Photo: Reuters
Basically? Apple’s selling iPhones to the kind of people who are impressed by the design taste of Donald Trump. It’s a tacky opulence, it’s glitz and glam with no substance, it’s a farce, and no sensible person wants it.
Apple Left its Roots
Apple was founded on the idea of making computers for everyone. Now they’re selling overpriced products at events with gold leaf-laced macaroons. Apple products were always more expensive, but they lasted longer and had higher resale value, meaning they were a good investment. Now Apple asks you to replace your iPhone yearly, replace its broken glass at half the cost of a new device, and ignore that you get more features from their less expensive competition. By selling to the 1%, Apple forgot it’s supposed to be a business for the 99%.
So I Down-Upgraded
The new iPhone 11 will definitely be an upgrade over my iPhone XS. Better cameras, faster processor, and drastically better battery life. Plus, it’ll be bright red, one of my favorite colors, and contribute to the global fight against AIDS. It’ll have a slightly larger screen—just right, if you ask me—and will send a message to Apple. Even if we can afford your overpriced phones, we’re not putting up with this anymore. The iPhone 11 Pro is fools gold. Pretty, but worthless. But perhaps that’s Apple’s target market now, rich fools.
You know, like Donald Trump.