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The Best iPhone

notes.ghed.in

271–280 of 484 posts

Re: The Best iPhone

#271

The best 'cheap' phone that was ever released in the US was the $499 Google Nexus 6P by Huawei in 2015. It was an octa-core phone that made Apple's dual core iPhone 6s (also released in 2015) look like an overpriced joke. The 6P's aluminum body was lighter and thinner than the iPhone 6s, its camera took much better pictures _by far_ especially in low light conditions (restaurants, evening travel, etc), the iPhone's o…

> It was an octa-core phone that made Apple's dual core iPhone 6s (also released in 2015) look like an overpriced joke

The iPhone 6s gets a single-core Geekbench of 528 while the Nexus 6P gets 208. The Nexus 6P's multi-core score was 520 - less then the iPhone 6s' single-core score. The iPhone 6s' multi-core score was 970 - 87% higher than the Nexus 6P.

Yep, it had 8 cores. Good for it. It was still a lot slower.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/9820/the-google-nexus-6p-revi...

AnandTech also found it a lot slower. Mozilla's Kraken web browser benchmark took 2.4x longer on the Nexus 6P. The iPhone scored around 1.9x higher on Google's Octane benchmark.

It's really hard to argue with Apple's superior processor performance. I guess if you're looking for more cores with inferior performance, the Nexus 6P fits the bill. MORE CORES!

Re: The Best iPhone

#272
Best iPhone for me is the one that takes the best pictures. I have small kids growing up and one thing that you might regret is not taking enough quality pictures with the “always available” camera. For this reason I also have “live” photos feature.

Re: The Best iPhone

#273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Am I cheap, poor, frugal or outdated to find it mildly funny US$400-450+tx are considered cheap phones nowadays? I can’t speak to whether you’re any of those, but I can say this. Anyone spending significantly more than that (I’m included in this category) is either: - Buying it for the quality of its camera (me again, not that I’m an especially avid photographer; I almost exclusively take pics of my pup) - Some mix…

None of your reasons cover the hordes of people buying the pro models when there’s absolutely no reason to. Especially in India. I live in an upper middle class apartment complex and half the folks living here have a 13 Pro. It costs 60% more if not higher here than in the US as well. You have to be in the 99.5th percentile of salary earners to cover the price of the phone in a single months salary. It’s all about im…

> None of your reasons cover the hordes of people buying the pro models when there’s absolutely no reason to.

I’m fairly certain the second item does?

Re: The Best iPhone

#274
I use my phone extensively throughout the day but modern phones are good enough for most things. All I want is an excellent camera built in, the higher optical zoom the better. It can be the most boring thing in the world otherwise. I hate that I always must shell out for a flagship phone to get this. Sure, I have a really nice camera too, but the best camera is the one you have on you and it’s not practical to lug around something extra at all times.

Re: The Best iPhone

#275
post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Am I cheap, poor, frugal or outdated to find it mildly funny US$400-450+tx are considered cheap phones nowadays? I can’t speak to whether you’re any of those, but I can say this. Anyone spending significantly more than that (I’m included in this category) is either: - Buying it for the quality of its camera (me again, not that I’m an especially avid photographer; I almost exclusively take pics of my pup) - Some mix…

I have a rule that I spend the most money on things I use the most. Mattresses, phones, computers, desks, chairs, etc. Is a thousand dollars for a phone a lot? Well, depends on how you look at it. I use it for more than an hour a day, every day, so a 1000 dollars over two years for a device like that doesn't seem insane to me. Comes out to about a $1.40 a day.

I have no rule but my heuristic is to spare no expense on things that matter most to me, but to research them if I’m not already sure what I want. That research often factors in price because “spare no expense” can be absurd when it’s blind. Multiple orders of magnitude absurd when you’re not paying attention and think you have that lack of attention available.

Re: The Best iPhone

#276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that chip is not as good as the apple one. In fact not even close. The battery life on that one is atrocious compared to the apple one.

On the other hand it can do live voice translation without an internet connection. Can Apple do that?

I feel Apple actually does more on device ML stuff than Google devices.

Re: The Best iPhone

#277
post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have the 13 mini and love it - I’m sad it’ll be the last one for a long time. The 12 was great too, but the battery life hit was noticeable- the 13 fixed that. I would prefer the telephoto lens to the the warped wide angle (which I find useless). I also miss out on the high refresh rate display (for the 12 year none of the phones had it). The mini is probably my favorite iPhone design of all time. It’s basically a…

if apple would have moved to usb-c, I would have jumped ship to the iphone 13 mini when I needed a phone. Sad that they won't be making them for a while.

Rumor is the next iPhone will be usb type c, but I thought they’d just remove the port entirely.

Re: The Best iPhone

#278
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just wondering, how much did it cost to get the battery and screen replaced? And did you do it via Apple or a third-party repair shop?

I actually did it myself with instructions online. The screen is a bit of a pain because everything sits on top of the screen, so every component need to be removed and then reinstalled on the new screen. Battery is only 10 minutes. As for how much, I think $20 for battery, $50 for screen (iirc)

That's impressive! I would never trust myself to repair my own hardware haha.

Re: The Best iPhone

#279
post #23

I knew I wasn't the only one fond of small, cheap-but-great phones! :) Btw, this is my first post in English. I cover tech here in Brazil for +10 years and run a +9 years old independent, self-sustainable publication written in Portuguese. Now, I decided to give it a shot in another language, despite still feeling uncomfortable with my English. (I hope I haven't misspelled anything!) If you enjoyed this brief iPhone…

Your writing is excellent. The grammar is almost flawless (see below). Beyond that, I enjoyed your writing style as well -- strong opening, thoughtful variations in paragraph length and sentence structure, and generally concise and focused. If you are interested in some small feedback to improve a little more: the final three sentences in the article were the only ones where I saw something that could be improved. >…

> no wonder, it is the third “same” device I buy in seven years

> no wonder it's the third "same" device I've bought in seven years

> no wonder I've bought the "same" device three times over the last seven years

I liked your critique a lot: showing progressively better sentences and explaining why each is better. As a native English speaker learning Brazilian Portuguese, I have the inverse problem of the OP. I'd like to find a book or app that does more or less what you did —— start with a moderately difficult sentence in Portuguese the way an English speaker might say it, then progressively improve it while explaining the reasoning along the way.

Maybe such a thing exists for people learning English; I can confidently say that there is an order of magnitude more resources for people going from Portuguese to English than the other way around.

Re: The Best iPhone

#280
post #100

Am I cheap, poor, frugal or outdated to find it mildly funny US$400-450+tx are considered cheap phones nowadays? Not that I mind as I'm able to find good value (in my opinion and for my needs) in second-hand markets for electronics (couldn't be more satisfied with my $100 Pixel 3a and aging T430s laptop), I just find it impressive how much price references have shifted over time as flagship phones ran from $400-500 w…

The price is "cheap" because it is low enough that most carriers will give it to you basically for free if you trade in your old phone and/or agree not to switch to a different carrier for 18-24 months.

That’s not free. They’re amortizing the cost of the phone into the service fees.

Even budget carriers do this. Google Fi charges $450 for the 6a or $240 if you agree to two years. Their cheapest lines are $15/mo, which is $360 over two years, so you can see how they can offer the $210 discount.

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