I wrote my initial impressions last Friday when I got the phone delivered. I have had a bit more time with the phone now have some more thoughts.
1. The Design
Most of my feelings about using the phone for a couple of hours still stand true: the lighter weight, the titanium frame, the smaller size and bezels are really great. There is a lot of criticism that Apple is not innovating any more, and it is very true, at least in the iPhone space. Apple aren’t innovating, they are perfecting.
The titanium edge of the phone meeting the back glass of the phone requires a bit of getting used to. The way the glass back is attached to the titanium frame differs from the past few iterations of the iPhone. Titanium and glass are completely different materials and they feel the opposite – it’s smooth but if you run your finger over it feels a bit sharp. I even wondered if I had got a faulty unit because of the way the titanium edge felt when I was holding the phone, I did make a trip to the Apple store and they all felt the same!
I haven’t put mine in a case yet. I am not hoping to put one in either (except when I am going to the gym when I like my phone to be in a case), but there are loads of reports about the durability of the iPhone – especially the back glass – compared to the previous Pro phones with a stainless steel case. Most people put their phone in a case, and I don’t want to. How will this end up? I don’t know yet.
2. The Camera
The camera is pretty great, I haven’t spent much time with the camera. Whilst the 5x Teraprism camera is new the other 3 cameras are unchanged from the iPhone 14 Pro Max, but the camera looks better with much more detail and clarity. If you are not looking for these you will not find it, but zoom in and do a bit of pixel peeping there is a difference compared to the 14. iPhones have been, since the iPhone 6S saving images at 12 megapixels and the jump to 24 megapixels is a great addition to the arsenal of the iPhone camera system. The 5x camera delivers much better low light performance than any 3x iPhone lens did prior to this, this is a great technical feat for anyone who enjoys taking photos on their iPhone.
3. The Concern
The phone gets hot quite a lot. There are a lot of reports of this happening too, some even asking Apple to address these and there is no official answer yet. My take is that the phone is new and there is a lot of indexing happening in the background, and this should all go away. Plus people are playing with their shiny new toy, after the honeymoon period it should go away. Maybe the software is not optimised for the 3nm chip. I hope Apple addresses these concerns. That said, this does not bother me, it does get warm but I don’t think there will be a Samsung Galaxy Note 7 situation.