Much is being made of the fact that there aren\u2019t the first-day lines for the iPhone like there used to be. And it makes sense. For one, the improvements to the iPhone have been highly incremental – the iPhone 5 got a bigger screen and LTE in 2012, and since then only the larger sizes in 2014 have been an appreciable change. If you had last year\u2019s iPhone, there\u2019s no call to run out for this year\u2019s; the days of leaps and bounds are basically done. But for another, the iPhone X has ruined the iPhone 8\u2019s appeal. The 8 is basically a slightly improved 7; the X is the Next Big Thing (and pronouncing it as \u201cten\u201d does the 8 no favors either), and since the X doesn\u2019t arrive until November, where\u2019s the incentive to run out and stand in line for an incremental upgrade, especially when Apple manages to drop-ship on launch day so effectively and you can just hang out at home to get it?<\/p>\n
I\u2019m more convinced than ever that I\u2019m out on the 8\/plus. I reluctantly concede that if someone else (say, work) were to pony up the $1000 for the iPhone X, I would be intrigued just to see what the impact of a 5.8\u201d screen is on my life. Given that my precious Kindle Paperwhite is only a 6\u201d display, and that I could use white on black to limit the battery draw thanks to AMOLED, and that video is probably actually useful on a screen that size relative to a 4\u201d display, the iPhone X would be a legitimate contender as One Device To Rule Them All, even if it\u2019s still a hair bigger than a hair too big. But at that price point, the incentive is still: let somebody else go first.<\/em><\/p>\n I still hope against hope for the prospect of an iPhone SE2, with the processors of the 8 and maybe a camera improvement while eschewing the space-wasting of 3D Touch and wireless charging. Or an iPhone X-Minus, with a 5-inch AMOLED display in a package roughly the size of the original Moto X – a hair bigger than the SE but smaller than the 6\/7\/8 line. Either would open my wallet. But as it is, I\u2019m going abroad again with the SE (and maybe the Kindle for the plane trip). Of which…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Much is being made of the fact that there aren\u2019t the first-day lines for the iPhone like there used to be. And it makes sense. For one, the improvements to the iPhone have been highly incremental – the iPhone 5 got a bigger screen and LTE in 2012, and since then only the larger sizes … <\/p>\n