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iPhone 8/X and the Keynote
Sep. 13th, 2017 09:25 pmSo I got through the Keynote, which of course has some fluff in it and two products I really don't care about -- the Apple Watch (LTE? Really?) and the 4K Apple TV (don't have a 4K display, it's a waste of pixels).
What was my true interest was the iPhone series: The 8/8+ and the X.
In a nutshell, the iPhone 8/8+ has a better CPU/DSP/GPU, better sensors (photo/light/IR/etc), and Qi wireless charging. The iPhone X ("ten") adds to that by dropping the Home button for high-dpi OLED-ish edge-to-edge-with-ears screen, adding face recognition via neural network processing and IR based face mapping... and for fun gives you FaceRig style emoji animation. Oh, and two extra hours of battery life while you relearn how to use your phone.
The iPhone 8 and 8+ are the regular pricing ($700 and up). The iPhone X... starts at $1000.
Yeah. That's hard to justify. You see, the pricing for all the components is usually around $280-ish, aka under half the price. Custom chips I can see eating up a bit of that. Custom screen? I will be shocked if that bumped the actual hardware price to $500 or more. I really don't see it, and I really can't justify paying twice more.
That said, I don't see if it's worthy to jump ship from an iPhone 7/7+ to the 8/8+ ether. I think plunking $99 on Mophie's Juice Pack Air will get you wireless charging plus an extended battery, and the charging hardware will transition over to next years models (9 and 11, maybe?). I'm in that loop myself -- I gotta find a case that has 3600 mAh battery AND Qi charging.
It also means that the wireless charging standards war has been won by Qi, with Apple the one making the decision.
If you got the older model, you maybe got a year left of usable battery anyway before it'll force you to upgrade... so go for it anyway. It's a nice revbump that's a bit future proof.
In short: 8/8+ good for older phones, adapt your 7/7+, the X is too damn expensive to consider.
What was my true interest was the iPhone series: The 8/8+ and the X.
In a nutshell, the iPhone 8/8+ has a better CPU/DSP/GPU, better sensors (photo/light/IR/etc), and Qi wireless charging. The iPhone X ("ten") adds to that by dropping the Home button for high-dpi OLED-ish edge-to-edge-with-ears screen, adding face recognition via neural network processing and IR based face mapping... and for fun gives you FaceRig style emoji animation. Oh, and two extra hours of battery life while you relearn how to use your phone.
The iPhone 8 and 8+ are the regular pricing ($700 and up). The iPhone X... starts at $1000.
Yeah. That's hard to justify. You see, the pricing for all the components is usually around $280-ish, aka under half the price. Custom chips I can see eating up a bit of that. Custom screen? I will be shocked if that bumped the actual hardware price to $500 or more. I really don't see it, and I really can't justify paying twice more.
That said, I don't see if it's worthy to jump ship from an iPhone 7/7+ to the 8/8+ ether. I think plunking $99 on Mophie's Juice Pack Air will get you wireless charging plus an extended battery, and the charging hardware will transition over to next years models (9 and 11, maybe?). I'm in that loop myself -- I gotta find a case that has 3600 mAh battery AND Qi charging.
It also means that the wireless charging standards war has been won by Qi, with Apple the one making the decision.
If you got the older model, you maybe got a year left of usable battery anyway before it'll force you to upgrade... so go for it anyway. It's a nice revbump that's a bit future proof.
In short: 8/8+ good for older phones, adapt your 7/7+, the X is too damn expensive to consider.
