I have this conversation from time to time with people when they see the name of my iPhone:
“Final Fantasy?”
“Yeah.”
“What’s that mean?”
“Well, when I got this phone, it completely checked off everything on my whiz-bang gadget list. I don’t have anything else that I really want a phone to do.”
Sometimes I have to explain that there’s a game pun in there, too. So, it’s been almost a year since this iPhone was released, and nine months since I bought it. Has my idea of an ideal changed? Yes and no.
The iPhone 6s Plus is a huge slab of glass, but there are larger ones out there. When I got it, there was a week or so of buyer’s remorse, since the iPhone 5s had been so much smaller. But once I adjusted, I can’t go back.
Part of the reason I’m not itchy to upgrade is the camera, which is not only fast and accurate with colors, but has automatic image stabilization when shooting video.
Another part would be the long battery life. I can easily last a day of normal use without having to plug in. If I do need a top off midday, it charges really quickly, which is great.
The last is the fact that I can see so much on the screen. I’ve been an iPad fan since day one, and still own and use two constantly, but there is rarely a time that I’ve not also got my iPhone sitting there, giving me notifications, or looking up quick bits of info while I write, watch, or play on the larger device. And, as with all phones since the first iPhone, it’s always with me.
The thing that sold me on the first iPhone was standing in an airport security line, getting a call from a client with password issues, logging into our company server, resetting his password, and being done with a trouble ticket before my TSA strip-search. I didn’t have to find a place to sit down, pull out a laptop, find wifi…
With each version, a new feature or processor improvement convinced me I “had” to upgrade. Until now. Yes, My current phone could be faster, but not much. The new version of iOS, due this Fall, will fix the “too-fast touchID” issue (the fingerprint reader is so fast that it turns on and logs you in without showing the lock screen – where your notifications live.)
Yes, the wifi could be more reliable, but is that a phone issue or an infrastructure one? Could the camera be better? Not without better optics, and that’s not going to come without a huge change in digital photo sensors! Or a bending of the laws of physics. If I want it, I have a better camera I can quickly plug in, or I can attach lenses. It’s still the basic phone at the core of it all, and it handles outboard gear with aplomb.
With past phones, I was always just a bit disappointed. I really wanted better low-light photography. Better flash for skin tones. Image stabilization. All-day battery life. And, deep at the roots, I wanted to never think to myself, “I’ll have to wait until I’m back on my Mac to do that.” I hardly ever do that these days. And the fantasy of having a phone, still under AppleCare, paid off, that I don’t really feel a burning itch to upgrade may just come true this time.
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I’m kind of in the same boat as you. I’m pretty happy with my Nexus 6P. So far none of the newer phones I’ve tested are tempting me to buy something new. Actually, the only phone that I am interested in right now is the iPhone 7 and that’s because that we don’t know what it will offer and I’m a little bored with Android.
I also got a 6S+ and feel much the same way. My solution to the “too fast unlock” is to hit the home button with an unregistered finger, or hit the power button on the side instead. My biggest problem with the current models of iPhone is that I feel like I have to use a case with it. If I take it out of the case, the metal and glass are just too slippery and it would be dropped more often.
Yeah, @Aphoid, I’ve learned to use a knuckle or the sleep/wake button, too, but it’s such a habit to click with a thumb – and both are registered. Twice. And the case thing is true with all these thin slabs of glass. You know, in Star Trek, Picard et al didn’t have cases on their PADDs. Maybe their screens were made out of transparent aluminum!