iPhone Xs, Xs Max, Xr: glad for my iPhone 8

I've seen bits and pieces of the presentation today and, for me, the worst has happened.  Apple no longer has any small(ish) phones.  With a 6.1 inch display, the smallest iPhone is huge.  That might satisfy a number of people, especially if it's inexpensive.

I'm glad to have my iPhone 8, although I could have held onto my iPhone 7 much longer, had I not broken it (and Apple kept me from having it repaired).

At a little over $27 per month for the 256 GB model, it's just fine.  I have loads of apps and several movies and I'm only using about half the space.  My iPhone 7 had 128 GB, so it would be full at this point.  What I don't have is all of my music, since iTunes does not create a backup of music.

While the new devices are impressive and the new processor has just about everything you could want, they have excluded people with smaller pockets, both literally and figuratively.  A 4.7 inch model would be useful to many of us.  I'm glad to have the iPhone 8, since it is recent and it is powerful enough to keep going for a while.

Update 2018.10.15: With all of the law enforcement-related activity in the news, it makes me happier to have a phone that can't be opened with my face.

Update 2018.11.28: Apparently, the iPhone XR not selling so well.  Could the threat of law enforcement have something to do with this?  It's a bad time of year for regular people to buy a phone and the cheaper, but huge phone isn't likely to appeal to rich people.

Can it be used without Face ID?  This would be important for me, because I want my little bit of privacy to remain my own.  Touch ID works just fine for me.

Does Apple realize that the lack of a smaller phone and/or a fingerprint reader may have alienated a lot of customers?  When I was considering a new phone months ago, I considered another 4 inch phone, like the iPhone SE, hoping for a more powerful version.

Update 2019.01.27: Apparently, the iPhone XR is the best selling iPhone of the moment but it's still not selling so well.  You'd think that they'd be willing to create an iPhone 8 replacement in the same 4.7 inch enclosure.  I don't need or want a re-design, and I don't want a huge phone.  Am I returning to Android when the iPhone 8 dies?

Update 2020.05.28: While the XR was the best selling iPhone, the replacement, iPhone 11, has taken that spot away from the XR, and the iPhone 8 had remained selling well.

So, it's been a few weeks since the iPhone SE, second generation--the iPhone 8 replacement--had been introduced.  It will probably be the best seller because there is pent up demand from people waiting for two years for a replacement for their iPhone 6, 6S, 7, or 8, and maybe the original iPhone SE.

My 2nd generation iPhone SE is everything the iPhone 8 was but with better performance from the processor, WiFi, or LTE connections.

Many people seem to have the bigger models but a few aren't satisfied with the size or the Face ID.  However, this iPhone SE could very well be the last iPhone with Touch ID.

Ballistic Cases for Apple iPhone 7

Since the iPhone 5c, I've settled on one brand of case: Ballistic.

Sure, I tried Otterbox and it saved me headaches, but as the size of phones has increased, Ballistic's hard and soft surfaces seem to fit my pocket better and their crash testing seems correct.

How much is a case worth on a US$749 phone?  You only have to look at a few drops and the repairs to see that US$34.99 isn't much to prevent repairs over the life of a phone.

This time, I bought two Tough Jacket cases, one white and black, and the other black.  At the time, they were on discount at US$19.99 each.  Now, they're US$34.99 each.  Signing up for their newsletter will notify you of discounts.

Apparently, you can use these for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s, as well, but you can't use the earlier phone cases, as it partly covers the camera lens.

I don't get anything for doing this but here is the link: https://www.goballisticcase.com/

Beginning again with iPhone 7

Just a day later, Sprint sent me a Gold iPhone 7.  Considering how many people are waiting for Jet Black, I feel as though I've jumped in line ahead of them.

This was an easy choice.  My iPhone 6 is nearly two years old.  It has been good enough for a long time, but I've noticed trouble charging it.  Thinking back, I stopped using a cable because it didn't seem to charge the phone well.  Maybe, it has always been a slight issue.

In any case, the extra power and extra battery life will help.  I tried one running Asphalt 8, which I play, and it was smoother.  It could have been the demo version, but I suspect it would have been a bit erratic on any iPhone 6 also.

Set up is a bit dodgy, considering that I'm doing everything myself, including the activation from home.  Sprint's instructions are not incredibly clear--but they know what they meant.  It's similar to their vanity Speedtest.net pages where they don't know the difference (8 times) between MB and Mb.  I sometimes wonder if their performance in some areas should be rated in the impossible mb.

I connected the new phone to the computer and let iTunes restore the data and settings from the old phone.  After that, I clicked to activate on Sprint's web site.

Now, the phone is resolving all of the new apps and data.  It's taking quite a while because I have so much.  Going from 64GB to 128GB will give me breathing room.  I had around 8GB free in general.

It shows iOS 10.0.2 is ready to be installed, and before the phone was even ready to be used, a new set of carrier settings was placed on the phone.  I suspect that there may be a few.  T-Mobile and Verizon both needed updates.  Hopefully, 10.1 will provide a lot of bug fixes in the near future.

The Home button works much, much, much better than the demo units I've tried.  It reminds me of the MacBook Pro trackpads.

The phone itself seems very close to the iPhone 6, so it will probably be okay in my current Ballistic case until my iPhone 7 cases arrive on Friday.  The company had a good deal and I bought one black and one black/white case at US$19.99 each, instead of the US$34.99 that I paid for the other Ballistic case two years ago.  Considering the price of a repair when dropping one of these US$749 phones, the price of a heavy duty case isn't much.

I will likely get a glass screen protector, as the last one has been good.  It is only cracked a little around one edge and definitely seems worth US$29.99.  With more competition, perhaps ZAGG has dropped their price or increased its ability to be smudge resistant.

I'm not always enamored of Apple but their phones have been just short of great, for me.  Their operating system quality often makes it more difficult than it should be.  It's been that way on the computers as well.  After all the fuss about downloading operating system updates without permission, they did it to me on my Mac with macOS sierra.

I'll talk about my first impressions of use shortly.

Update 2016.10.31: The phone is up to iOS 10.1.1 now.  Since 10.1, App Store can't count and the badge count is smaller than the actual update count.  At first, it was only showing non-Apple apps to be updated, but now, there doesn't seem to be a logic.  It's just an incorrect number.

I didn't get the glass screen protector.  With AppleCare + handling screen replacement at $29, and it was $129 for the warranty, I'm not so sure whether to bother.  The case is working very well.

 The phone's construction is very good and phone calls are fairly clear.  The last phone that I felt was extremely clear was a Sanyo PM-8200 flip phone that was oh, so thick.  Ten years have passed and we apparently want everything thin, thin, thin.  It's better through the ear buds.

The audio adapter works fine.  I've tried it on my now dead Sennheiser ear buds and my Beyerdynamic studio style headphones.  There is no crackling sound.

I'm not sure about the battery life.  I don't believe that it has improved.  Given that the iPhone 6 wasn't as powerful or efficient, I expected more.  The iPhone 7 is definitely more powerful and games work more smoothly but is the battery life better when the phone is idle?  It feels as though the battery is being drained more quickly than the iPhone 6.  It isn't awful and it may be corrected by firmware sometime in the future.  Perhaps, I set my expectations too high.

The display is good, better than expected, at times.  I've been using personal computers since 1981 when I first attached a black and white TV to my machine.  Displays have usually been awful, especially if they were compatible with a wide variety of machines.  Phone displays are rarely great, despite what numbers they calculate in a laboratory.  Do you live in a laboratory?  I don't.

The only displays I've seen that look truly great are those of the LG 4K OLED TVs.

Unfortunately, the software quality has a large effect on how the phone works and Apple is still trying to get this under control.  When I got the iPhone 6, I was concerned but the 64-bit processor was introduced in the iPhone 5s, and I felt safe enough to take the leap.  It seemed that they were more concerned with the size of the displays.

This time, there are a lot of little glitches and I'm sure they'll work them out eventually.

I enabled two-step authentication on my MacBook Pro with 10.12.1 and the next time I went into a game, Game Center wanted me to enter a code.  I couldn't really read the whole window because it was squeezed to fit.  I really wasn't sure what was supposed to happen since the phone was the target of the text messages.

Once, I asked for the code to be sent again, I got no text message and authentication automagically took place.

I must say that I'm fairly happy.  It's better and it's faster and the extra $1.50 per month and the $100 upfront don't hurt too much.  Paying for AppleCare + again and getting new cases added to the expense but every two years, that isn't that horrible.

Update 2016.11.22: At iOS version 10.1.1, things seem okay but not quite good.

The phone seems powerful but not at its full potential.  There are inconsistencies where it will lag but not such that I could point to one app.

LTE seems much better with the Qualcomm chipset.  It hangs onto the signal much longer than the iPhone 6 did.  I suspect that throughput will also be much better, but I haven't been in a lot of Sprint signal friendly areas lately.  I got 68 Mbps at the local skate park with the iPhone 6, but I haven't checked with the iPhone 7 the one time I was recently there.

I noticed that the display brightness was set far too low, probably to show impressive battery life.  Unfortunately, I also need to be able to see what's on the display.  According to the battery monitor, most usage applies to audio.  Using the ear buds might help battery life then.

Update 2016.12.17: I'm learning how frustrating it can be to wear gloves and work an immovable Home Button.  I have to remember to use the power switch to temporarily disable the phone until I can remove my gloves to actually use the phone again.

iOS 10.2 is out and beta testing for 10.2.1 is underway.

I haven't seen a noticeable performance increase at all.  It may be better, but it seems as though they implemented bug and security fixes this time.  I feel bad for the people on version 9.3.5 who will never get the security fixes.  I would have paid for the fixes in order for my phone not to be commandeered.

The phone seems to work well most of the time.  It holds onto my LTE connection well.  Since it's in a case, I don't notice (or care) how slim it is.  It doesn't seem to be overly hot when running games.  The display color seems better.