Apple unveiled its new iPhone 15 models this week, and some fans say they lack innovation.
Apple's new iPhone 15 is an underwhelming 'slap in the face,' say disappointed fans::Apple unveiled its new iPhone 15 models this week, and some fans say they lack innovation.
Most definitely. Phones are no longer really throw away devices. They’re full fledged little supercomputers in your pocket and they’re expensive as fuck.
Nobody upgrades their laptop or PC every year. Hell, the most important components like CPU, GPU, and RAM don’t even get new releases every year.
Phones are damn near as powerful today. Nobody but someone that is already pushing the most powerful flagships to the limit can or will take advantage of the incremental updates.
I honestly don’t understand. I’m on my 11 pro at 86% battery. Might just use it for many more years after a battery swap, why would I want to change every year? I love the sharper edges of the new ones, and now also the dynamic island and USB C, but I’m not going waste money when my current phone still can do anything as fast as the day I purchased it.
Then they shouldn't release every year and create a new batch of endless ewaste and demand in natural resources mined by exploited labor.
Your talking about where you place the blame: the drug dealer with no regard for human life as long as they are profitable, or the drug user who is weak, sick and often incapable of breaking their unhealthy habit.
There’s no requirement for you to upgrade every year if you don’t want to but without it, what would the people who need something new do? I’m upgrading this year from an iPhone X that is really on its last legs. Broken screen, charging more than once a day etc. It’s served it’s purpose well but now is the time for a new one. A two or three year refresh cycle would mean I would be potentially buying a two year old phone today. Why would I want that when I keep things for several years?
Shit, even my 5-6 year old S9 was pretty decent at the end, and fairly similar to my new phone. I only upgraded because the network chip was getting wonky, which made me a bit uneasy about getting stranded somewhere.
I can't wait for the EU regs about removable batteries to kick in. Now, if only we could finally move to a display technology that doesn't suffer from burn-in....
I'd be more interested in legislation forcing them to release at least security updates for a decade. My phone is 6 years old, works absolutely fine (even the battery), but it hasn't received any security parches for a couple of years, meaning it's insecure and I have to replace it even though it works great. Complete buffoonery.
Edit: I mean more than the screen thing, not the battery thing.
I'm still on an S10. Battery life sucks and the screen has been cracked for years, but she still works just fine. No motivation at all to spend $1k on an 'upgrade'
Because cellphones were just emerging then. The technology was rapidly changing all the time
And when you look back, a ton of the innovations were trying to solve a part of the problem that modern smartphones have solved and then some.
When texting took off, companies tried to innovate better ways than T9 to do that. So you ended up with variations of full keyboards. Slide out, on the face, swivel, etc.
Flip phones and other slide outs tried to maximize screen space before touchscreens were around or good. When the screen is only useable as a screen you have to get creative to still have a keyboard.
When cameras first got out into phones they sucked. So companies put a ton of effort into innovating that. Hell cameras are still one of the main focuses on innovation. It’s just that there are diminishing returns with what you can package in a phone. So it takes a lot more work to get a small improvement.
Beyond that, most of the innovation is under the hood and less noticeable. Improving the chip architecture to be more powerful and more efficient. On device encryption for security. Lidar scanning for 3d modeling. Better integration with the ecosystems.
Beyond those you still have innovations like the foldable, which right now still kinda suck. Just like phones did when they started trying to innovate. Foldables will lead to crazier innovation down the line with the added space. Right now they’re still just trying to get the folding screen decent.
Once a technology matures, you stop seeing massive jumps and innovation becomes evolutionary rather than revolutionary. Another 10-15 years and you may see phones slow down to laptop pace, where a new model is only released every few years and then the jump between generations is bigger by comparison because you’ll have three years of work into it rather than one.
What would you add to a flagship smart phone that hasn't already been done and is actually possible with the technology available?
The solution here is to vote with your wallet and not pay $1000+ for the latest flagship if you can buy a $300 phone from a couple years ago that's pretty much the same thing.
This year's new phones are for people that last bought a phone in 2020 or earlier. If the average user is on a three year upgrade cycle (what the data shows as I recall) then you'd expect roughly 1/3 of people to upgrade every year.
This is better for Apple, as it keeps their revenue more spread out instead of heavily concentrated in year one of a three year cycle.
This is better for consumers, as it means new features and upgrades are constantly being made. If they want to upgrade early they can, and they'll get new features even if it's only been two years.
This is also better for both Apple and consumers because there's more opportunities to course-correct or respond to feedback over issues. If Apple only released a phone every other or every three years, it'd take that much longer for the switch to USB-C.
Just because a new product is launched does not mean you need to buy it. Nvidia released a new GPU last year, but I didn't buy it even though it's newer than what I currently have. Arguing that new phones shouldn't come out each year is like arguing that new cars shouldn't come out each year. It makes no sense.
What's funny is this is the biggest update in years. The action button and USB C by themselves are a much bigger difference than last year was. Base models also got dynamic island. Smaller bezels, rounded edges, new colors. I dk how much more could change visually besides those things anyway?
The pros also have 3nm, armv9, wifi 6e, thread connectivity, new cellular bands, ai 5g modem, ray tracing, more ram, Qi2, 10 gbps port, increased repairability, titanium. 5x zoom on the Pro Max.
I think the problem that people are picking up on is that the base model is turning into a budget version of the previous year's pro model. If you want newer tech you are forced to pay over $1,000 now. Before they had the same internals as the pros.
correct me if I'm wrong, but literally the first 3nm computing devices to land in consumer's greedy paws. 12-atom wide transistors. what a SLAP IN THE FACE
And this is why Lemmy is absolutely less about "techy people who know security" and more about people who just want everything to be free for some damn reason.
So what the fuck do you all want? It's a phone. All the innovations that could be crammed into a candybar-style phone have pretty much been done.
If you want real innovation that means a return to the early 2000s when there were tons of different form factors in the market. Sliders, flips, phones with full keyboards, etc. But that means you either need The Only Phone Manufacturer to produce more than one product line of phones, or it means you need to consider other options.
There's a LITTLE innovation happening- Samsung and Google are both using the new flexible OLED panels to make flipbook-style phones that look pretty cool. Motorola has one too that's a flip phone style gadget, kinda square when closed but flips open to be a standard phone size. Sadly I don't see any real contenders with a physical keyboard.
I'm also not convinced the new flip phones are the new way forward and not just a gimmick. Like we got a few years of rapid flatscreen TV development, and after it started to stall manufacturers tried to push it the 3D route, but it never caught on.
I don't want or need innovation in my phone or TV.
Personally, I would like to see miniaturization become the the trend again.
I haven't been interested in a new release since phablets became the standard. I don't need my phone to replace my PC. It just needs to be able to run a web-search in a pinch.
I was really hoping the Apple Watch was going to be the next leap forward, but they were very careful about making sure most people didn't replace their phones with them.
Interesting. Personally I was planning to buy a phablet for my next phone but they've gone out of style it seems and been replaced with folding phones.
I would be interesting to see something with a rolled up slide out display like the Global communicator from Earth: Final Conflict, basically a slim stick of a phone with a larger display rolled up inside that can be pulled out as much as necessary for the desired screen size.
I've no interest in a flip phone. Why? Why is my option a foldable screen, but no head phone jack? That's not something I want, that's something I need.
Yeah I agree. It seems brain dead- you're making a $1200 book-flip phone that opens up like a laptop to a giant screen, so you have tons of space for ports, and you can't re-add the headphone jack? Seems overly focused on profits rather than usability.
CPU was lower-mid-range back in 2020, will be horribly out of date now. No 5G. No wireless charging. No detail on which Android version(s) it supports.
I miss the days where the new phone came out and it had five brand new amazing features, but phone design has pretty much been perfected now and the only room for innovation is going to be on the software side of the UI and a better camera.
It's absolutely not worth paying $1000+ for the latest flagship anymore and it hasn't been for years. Buy a $300 phone that came out a couple years ago, it's the same thing.
phone design has pretty much been perfected now and the only room for innovation is going to be on the software side of the UI and a better camera.
Strong disagree.
Phone design in one form factor has been mostly perfected, but even there room for innovation exists. More ports, more features- remember how the early Galaxy phones had IR blasters and headphone jacks? That could make a comeback. Or maybe make the phone 2mm thicker and put a battery that will last for days. Or make the phone 5mm thicker and put rubber padding around it so it's indestructible even without a case. Or do like the old Compaq iPaq and make dockable modules that add significant functionality (week long battery, small projector, full HDMI/USB suite, etc).
There's a bit of innovation happening with other form factors- foldable screens are being used in the most boring and basic ways possible. I want to see something more like the Global Communicator from Earth: Final Conflict- little stick of a device that has a pull out video screen that can be pulled out to various sizes.
I think there IS room in the market for innovation, it just requires companies that are willing to a. take the risk and b. commit to better software support than Samsung.
Indeed. The issue for these companies. If phones aren't enticing enough and people start hanging onto devices for an extra year that effecticely cuts their revenue in 1/4.
That's why icloud got more expensive, it's why google is trying to monetise your web history for ads. They're looking for further revenue.
We were there 10 years ago and that's being generous. Phones have been fucking boring for over a decade.
And that should be a good thing because by now you should be able to pick up a great smartphone for a hundred bucks... except that all these phone companies have to keep the money flowing in so they keep inventing shitty gimmicks and charging thousands of dollars for them.
Or they strip out features to make you use their shitty clouds and subscription services.
Or they keep bloating the OS so much that the hardware can't keep up - but God forbid you want to ignore their shitty update that brings 100 new emojis! They're gonna force that shit on you whether you like it or not.
Tech industry is a desert of wasted talent nowadays.
This is an overstatement. My first smartphone was an old Sony in 2014 and it was good.
My second phone was a crappy Samsung in 2017 and it was bad. Slow data rates. Horribly over saturated photos.
My third smartphone was a pixel 2 and it was remarkable. Better battery life than I was used to. The photos looked amazing.
Then the released the night mode feature and I realized I had never seen a good phone Pic taken in a bar, but I was, on last year's hardware taking decent photos in dive bars...
Then pixel eventually started supporting portrait mode. That was cool.
But really? Apps and websites have gotten so bloated with shit we don't realize how capable phone processors have become. If the data on websites now had been this way in 2013? Forget about it. People would have hated smartphone.
Progress on cameras has been pretty obvious. Batteries and screen size slightly less obvious. But I feel the counter acted gains on processor speeds have gone unnoticed. Phones have changed in the past ten years.
But the little assistants could be so much better.
Like I want to ask Siri to do complicated tasks. Make me a reservation. Find a picture of a cow and send it to Jeff. Change my background to StarCraft. Stuff like that.
I'm happy as long as Siri doesn't get worse like Alexa, who will turn on a fan in another room when I say "Alexa, turn on the fan" but if I say turn off the fan it turns off the correct one.
My complaint is with the bulky camera island - barely sticks out on my 11 pro, would like to see smg similar in the future (without a loss in wuality of course)
I used to be one of the angry people pissed off about losing the jack.
Now that I have a few wireless earphones, I wouldn't go back to wired. It's a mild inconvenience to have to charge them but the battery life is decent and not have a cable getting caught on stuff whilst I'm working is super useful.
The audio quality is a tiny bit worse than wired, but unless you're an audio engineer, you're not going to notice.
There was always a Lightning to headphone adapter if you really wanted it but most of us had given up the headphone jack long before Apple stopped providing it
It's just a phone. Here's an idea: You don't have to rush out to pathologically buy the latest thing that Apple makes. You and Apple don't owe each other shit. If your old phone works, stick with it. And if the new iPhone doesn't do it for you, just fuckin' buy something else.
This article isn’t even relevant to anything. It’s just quotes from like… 5 people who posted on twitter that they were disappointed. That’s not a useful sample size, and who cares about some strangers opinion on something that isn’t for them? It’s just weird how many of these articles are coming out saying “these users” think this.
In reality, it’s more like “these cherry picked tweets match my narrative for this click bait article that will spur divisive discussion”.
🙄 yourself. Adding a 3.5 jack doesn't stop anyone from using Bluetooth, and only adds functionality.
Being able to get a cheap pair of headphones that actually sound decent and don't run out of batteries is pretty nice
People say this every year. The vast majority of true innovation is behind us. Why was an article written this year? Is it just because some reporter browsed X and thought, "eh, why not?". This is not news.
You know, it's funny. I've never in my life met a Toyota Camry fanboy who was willing to fight me to the death, or at least bitterly argue with me incessantly in the comments, over their allegedly superior choice to buy a Camry or my allegedly inferior choice not to. Damn strange.
You'd drop a $1000 for usb-c, round edges, new camera software and case options?
Are you rich?
I'm not saying that it's a bad phone, but presumably your current phone works just fine, which means you think those features are worth $250 each. I personally think I could use that money for better things elsewhere.
It actually is and the world would be a better place if people were more willing to vote with their wallets.
Phone companies will absolutely take notice if people start choosing cheaper models over the latest flagships.
I haven't bought a flagship for my last two generations of phones, I've never once regretted not buying the top of the range option and I'm over £1000 better off because if it.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but is portrait mode just a blurred background? Google photos has had the ability to blur backgrounds ( at least on Pixel) on old photos for a fair while.
The iPhone's portrait mode uses actual depth information captured from the separate depth sensor. The new feature is that it will always capture the depth information for every picture you take so that at a later point you can use it to blur parts of the image at different depths. Google's version of portrait mode just uses image recognition to detect what's in the background. It does a good job, but not as good as if it had actual depth information.
Eh pretty much all of the reputable YouTubers have said it’s not a huge upgrade, but the new features are very nice to have.
I don’t think I’ve heard anyone say it’s incredible or revolutionary. You’ve gotten the click baiters that say it’s the biggest upgrade ever, but that’s about it.
Apple fans have attacked the new iPhone 15 on social media, describing it as "disappointing" and "underwhelming."
"I'll never leave Apple but the iPhone 11-15 are all the same exact phones," said one user in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
Other Apple fans posting on X described the new iPhone lineup as "underwhelming" and said the lack of innovation left them "tempted to go back to Android."
"Launching iterative phones is one thing but this year's base 15 models are a slap in the face to loyal customers who (are) locked into the ecosystem and need an upgrade," they added.
The latest range of iPhones did feature a number of changes from previous models – most notably switching from the company's lightning charger to USB-C. Apple said that it had no choice but to make the change after coming under pressure from European regulators to adopt the standard.
However, this new feature has also attracted criticism from fans because it limits users to just one action at a time.
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I don't know if Lemmy is degrading already or if the Apple fan boys and girls have just migrated en masse, but this thread sucks.
Apple sucks, they don't innovate. They wait for others to test innovation in the market, then they copy it and market as their own.
the people saying stop expecting new features/designs every year are missing the larger point, they shouldn't be releasing phones on a one year cycle in the first place AND, if they are, it better be for a reason (e.g. New features/designs)
those saying, "not news" are apologist shills - it's never wrong to call out corporate violent and endless greed.
Did you know that people who's comments say "LOL" in a dismissive gesture are statistically likely to never wipe their assess after going to the bathroom?