6 ms·

Strategically, I think Apple has made a right move by internalising all the hardware designs. That said, as many have suggested, the new iPhone is no more than

by alvis 9y ago

Strategically, I think Apple has made a right move by internalising all the hardware designs. That said, as many have suggested, the new iPhone is no more than just another faster, smaller, and costlier.

criddell 9y ago
Doesn't Samsung do that as well though? They make screens, and CPUs and many of the other components in a modern phone, don't they? I'm wondering when Apple will start making their own camera sensors.
- muninn_ 9y ago
  Basically, yeah, they don't make the OS. I think the parent comment was more aimed at software companies. Though, you could look at it from the opposite point of view as well.
- valuearb 9y ago
  Samsung's screens are excellent, but their CPU/GPU performance is a generation (or more) behind Apple. Plus they are way behind in integrated functionality such as motion coprocessor, ai processing, and secure enclave. I don't know how true this is, but I've heard that the Samsung OLED screen on the iPhone X is significantly better than the ones Samsung puts on it's flagship phones, in color fidelity especially. Partly because of Apple's attention to detail, but also because Samsung's flagship phones ship in much higher volume than the X is expected to.
  - MBCook 9y ago
    I can believe it. The quality is all about cost. What level of rejected units can you accept for price $X? If Apple can pay more (due to cost, scale, or just where the price of the phone is allocated between parts) they can buy a better screen.
  - sundvor 9y ago
    Yeah the S8 and S8 Plus had (has?) significant top/side edge colour shift. (Speaking as the owner of the Plus, who has his first replaced and the second is somewhat better but not perfect. Wife's S8 is also affected but she doesn't see it or doesn't care. I would still take that slight imperfection over the horrid notch though).
  - vilmosi 9y ago
    >>> I don't know how true this is, but I've heard that the Samsung OLED screen on the iPhone X is significantly better than the ones Samsung puts on it's flagship phones I can't believe that. I just can't. All iPhone X reviews mention the screen tech difference, all of them say how they don't notice a difference.
    - valuearb 9y ago
      Most reviewers (and people) don't appreciate color fidelity. Jon Gruber was just talking about how Google spent the time/effort to make the colors of the Pixel display more accurate and natural, and then people complain they don't "pop" and look as good as the super-saturated colors on other android phones.
      - vilmosi 9y ago
        >>> Most reviewers (and people) don't appreciate color fidelity It's not about "appreciating". It's that it doesn't matter. Everyone talked about retina resolution, then about "true colors". Today we have Samsung making all the screens. The point is, nobody except professionals care.
        threeseed 9y ago
        I very much care. The colour reproduction on Samsung phones is just awful after spending so much time on MacBooks and iPhones. Over saturated and as you increase brightness it washes everything out.
    - threeseed 9y ago
      I spent time with the iPhone X today so can comment on the screen first hand. What makes the screen different is that the colours aren't oversaturated like Android phones. It was identical to the iPhone 8 screen (LED) only significantly brighter. From what I've read what makes it better are things like the reduced blue-shift that occurs when moving the phone and the significant reduction in burn-in effect. But what most people will think is that it is the colours that make it better. Even though that could largely be software.
- MBCook 9y ago
  Not quite. Samsung fabs chips. They may even design chips. But they don’t work ‘together’. Samsung makes 5 processors and puts them on the open market. The another part of Samsung buys those chips off the shelf and used them in their phones. My understanding is the two units don’t work together hand in hand like Apples teams do, they work together the way Samsung and HTC do.
- mankash666 9y ago
  Multiple differences between Samsung and Apple: 1. Samsung was a semiconductor maker, that successfully moved up to make phones. Apple was a integrator of third party chips that successfully went down to own many of the chips. 2. Apple's chips are significantly better than the competition. Partly because the chip division has a captive customer whose requirements are more apparent, plus no middlemen thanks to the vertical integration 3. Samsung's components need to serve multiple segments of the phone market, and other external customers. Apple only builds for Apple's specs 4. Every new breakthrough on the iPhone has been because of a chip that Apple alone had. From the very first iPhone's capacitive touch sensors to the new IR sensor system, no one else has the access for a couple phone cycles. Apple put out a 64 bit ARM processor even before arm had finalized the instruction set
  - Vogtinator 9y ago
    4. Is absolutely wrong in every aspect. Most "innovation" was bought tech (primesense, for instance). The ARMv8 ISA was finalized ages before the chips got designed. Middle of 2011 IIRC.
    - mankash666 9y ago
      True - They bought 3rd party companies with the tech. Still doesn't change the observation that they made it better, and tailored it specifically for the iPhone. None of those sensors have drop in replacements. And Apple put out the 64bit proc prior to ARM having IP --> FACt
    - unobtaniumstool 9y ago
      Having the foresight and capabilities to make the right acquisitions at the right times is just good business. Splitting hairs over whether the technology was internally developed or purchased is irrelevant to the point being made about the exclusivity of the hardware.
  - johansch 9y ago
    Number 4 got me curious about the latency for the competitors catching up with the various hardware advances. Capacitive touch screen: iPhone: June 29, 2007 HTC Dream/G1: October 20, 2008 (479 days later) Fingerprint sensor: iPhone 5s: September 20, 2013 Galaxy S5: April 11, 2014 (203 days later) ARMv8 (64-bit) ISA: iPhone 5s: September 10, 2013 Galaxy Note 4: October 17, 2014 (402 days later) Tiny bezel: Galaxy S6 Edge: April 10, 2015 iPhone X: November 3, 2017 (938 days later) OLED screen: Samsung Galaxy: June 29, 2009 iPhone X: November 3, 2017 (3049 days later)
- GeekyBear 9y ago
  Samsung has a problem with adding features to their devices that are simply not well executed. For instance, from the NY Times review of the Galaxy Note 8: >Some of the biometrics, including the ability to unlock your phone by scanning your face or irises, are so poorly executed that they feel like marketing gimmicks as opposed to actual security features. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/05/technology/personaltech/samsung-galaxy-note-8.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/05/technology/personaltech/s...
gehsty 9y ago
Just smaller and faster with new technology, never before seen delivered at this size, capability or scale. What does Apple have to do to impress people? Do all this then give the phones away for free?
- chaostheory 9y ago
  Louis CK - everything is amazing... but no one is happy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUBtKNzoKZ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUBtKNzoKZ
  - hinkley 9y ago
    Easily one of his best bits and he did it on a talk show.
    - chaostheory 9y ago
      It helped spawn an app too: https://theymadethat.com https://theymadethat.com
- hinkley 9y ago
  People used to bitch about why people thought the MacBook was so cool when it was “only” 5mm thinner than anything else on the market. The low end doesn’t understand why people pay so much more for fit and finish. Except automobiles. Everyone seems to accept and even approve of the high end for cars.
  - TylerE 9y ago
    Fit and finish on many "high end" cars is actually pretty abysmal. Especially basically anything Italian.
    - tigershark 9y ago
      Oh..I didn't know that your Ferrari had a shit finish, you must have been quite unlucky...
bluthru 9y ago
>That said, as many have suggested, the new iPhone is no more than just another faster, smaller, and costlier. FaceID is a huge leap and affects how people use their phones. The phone can behave differently if you are looking at it. For example: showing sensitive info only if you're looking at it, and not playing notification sounds as loud (or at all) if you see the notification as it comes in.
- GeekyBear 9y ago
  There's an interesting article from the folks at Wired who have been attempting to fool Face ID without any success so far. https://www.wired.com/story/tried-to-beat-face-id-and-failed-so-far/ https://www.wired.com/story/tried-to-beat-face-id-and-failed...
austenallred 9y ago
> the new iPhone is no more than just another faster, smaller, and costlier. I'm sold. I'll take it.

by alvis 9y ago

criddell 9y ago

Doesn't Samsung do that as well though? They make screens, and CPUs and many of the other components in a modern phone, don't they? I'm wondering when Apple will start making their own camera sensors.

muninn_ 9y ago
Basically, yeah, they don't make the OS. I think the parent comment was more aimed at software companies. Though, you could look at it from the opposite point of view as well.
valuearb 9y ago
Samsung's screens are excellent, but their CPU/GPU performance is a generation (or more) behind Apple. Plus they are way behind in integrated functionality such as motion coprocessor, ai processing, and secure enclave. I don't know how true this is, but I've heard that the Samsung OLED screen on the iPhone X is significantly better than the ones Samsung puts on it's flagship phones, in color fidelity especially. Partly because of Apple's attention to detail, but also because Samsung's flagship phones ship in much higher volume than the X is expected to.
- MBCook 9y ago
  I can believe it. The quality is all about cost. What level of rejected units can you accept for price $X? If Apple can pay more (due to cost, scale, or just where the price of the phone is allocated between parts) they can buy a better screen.
- sundvor 9y ago
  Yeah the S8 and S8 Plus had (has?) significant top/side edge colour shift. (Speaking as the owner of the Plus, who has his first replaced and the second is somewhat better but not perfect. Wife's S8 is also affected but she doesn't see it or doesn't care. I would still take that slight imperfection over the horrid notch though).
- vilmosi 9y ago
  >>> I don't know how true this is, but I've heard that the Samsung OLED screen on the iPhone X is significantly better than the ones Samsung puts on it's flagship phones I can't believe that. I just can't. All iPhone X reviews mention the screen tech difference, all of them say how they don't notice a difference.
  - valuearb 9y ago
    Most reviewers (and people) don't appreciate color fidelity. Jon Gruber was just talking about how Google spent the time/effort to make the colors of the Pixel display more accurate and natural, and then people complain they don't "pop" and look as good as the super-saturated colors on other android phones.
    - vilmosi 9y ago
      >>> Most reviewers (and people) don't appreciate color fidelity It's not about "appreciating". It's that it doesn't matter. Everyone talked about retina resolution, then about "true colors". Today we have Samsung making all the screens. The point is, nobody except professionals care.
      - threeseed 9y ago
        I very much care. The colour reproduction on Samsung phones is just awful after spending so much time on MacBooks and iPhones. Over saturated and as you increase brightness it washes everything out.
  - threeseed 9y ago
    I spent time with the iPhone X today so can comment on the screen first hand. What makes the screen different is that the colours aren't oversaturated like Android phones. It was identical to the iPhone 8 screen (LED) only significantly brighter. From what I've read what makes it better are things like the reduced blue-shift that occurs when moving the phone and the significant reduction in burn-in effect. But what most people will think is that it is the colours that make it better. Even though that could largely be software.
MBCook 9y ago
Not quite. Samsung fabs chips. They may even design chips. But they don’t work ‘together’. Samsung makes 5 processors and puts them on the open market. The another part of Samsung buys those chips off the shelf and used them in their phones. My understanding is the two units don’t work together hand in hand like Apples teams do, they work together the way Samsung and HTC do.
mankash666 9y ago
Multiple differences between Samsung and Apple: 1. Samsung was a semiconductor maker, that successfully moved up to make phones. Apple was a integrator of third party chips that successfully went down to own many of the chips. 2. Apple's chips are significantly better than the competition. Partly because the chip division has a captive customer whose requirements are more apparent, plus no middlemen thanks to the vertical integration 3. Samsung's components need to serve multiple segments of the phone market, and other external customers. Apple only builds for Apple's specs 4. Every new breakthrough on the iPhone has been because of a chip that Apple alone had. From the very first iPhone's capacitive touch sensors to the new IR sensor system, no one else has the access for a couple phone cycles. Apple put out a 64 bit ARM processor even before arm had finalized the instruction set
- Vogtinator 9y ago
  4. Is absolutely wrong in every aspect. Most "innovation" was bought tech (primesense, for instance). The ARMv8 ISA was finalized ages before the chips got designed. Middle of 2011 IIRC.
  - mankash666 9y ago
    True - They bought 3rd party companies with the tech. Still doesn't change the observation that they made it better, and tailored it specifically for the iPhone. None of those sensors have drop in replacements. And Apple put out the 64bit proc prior to ARM having IP --> FACt
  - unobtaniumstool 9y ago
    Having the foresight and capabilities to make the right acquisitions at the right times is just good business. Splitting hairs over whether the technology was internally developed or purchased is irrelevant to the point being made about the exclusivity of the hardware.
- johansch 9y ago
  Number 4 got me curious about the latency for the competitors catching up with the various hardware advances. Capacitive touch screen: iPhone: June 29, 2007 HTC Dream/G1: October 20, 2008 (479 days later) Fingerprint sensor: iPhone 5s: September 20, 2013 Galaxy S5: April 11, 2014 (203 days later) ARMv8 (64-bit) ISA: iPhone 5s: September 10, 2013 Galaxy Note 4: October 17, 2014 (402 days later) Tiny bezel: Galaxy S6 Edge: April 10, 2015 iPhone X: November 3, 2017 (938 days later) OLED screen: Samsung Galaxy: June 29, 2009 iPhone X: November 3, 2017 (3049 days later)
GeekyBear 9y ago
Samsung has a problem with adding features to their devices that are simply not well executed. For instance, from the NY Times review of the Galaxy Note 8: >Some of the biometrics, including the ability to unlock your phone by scanning your face or irises, are so poorly executed that they feel like marketing gimmicks as opposed to actual security features. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/05/technology/personaltech/samsung-galaxy-note-8.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/05/technology/personaltech/s...

gehsty 9y ago

Just smaller and faster with new technology, never before seen delivered at this size, capability or scale. What does Apple have to do to impress people? Do all this then give the phones away for free?

chaostheory 9y ago
Louis CK - everything is amazing... but no one is happy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUBtKNzoKZ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUBtKNzoKZ
- hinkley 9y ago
  Easily one of his best bits and he did it on a talk show.
  - chaostheory 9y ago
    It helped spawn an app too: https://theymadethat.com https://theymadethat.com
hinkley 9y ago
People used to bitch about why people thought the MacBook was so cool when it was “only” 5mm thinner than anything else on the market. The low end doesn’t understand why people pay so much more for fit and finish. Except automobiles. Everyone seems to accept and even approve of the high end for cars.
- TylerE 9y ago
  Fit and finish on many "high end" cars is actually pretty abysmal. Especially basically anything Italian.
  - tigershark 9y ago
    Oh..I didn't know that your Ferrari had a shit finish, you must have been quite unlucky...

bluthru 9y ago

>That said, as many have suggested, the new iPhone is no more than just another faster, smaller, and costlier. FaceID is a huge leap and affects how people use their phones. The phone can behave differently if you are looking at it. For example: showing sensitive info only if you're looking at it, and not playing notification sounds as loud (or at all) if you see the notification as it comes in.

GeekyBear 9y ago
There's an interesting article from the folks at Wired who have been attempting to fool Face ID without any success so far. https://www.wired.com/story/tried-to-beat-face-id-and-failed-so-far/ https://www.wired.com/story/tried-to-beat-face-id-and-failed...

austenallred 9y ago

> the new iPhone is no more than just another faster, smaller, and costlier. I'm sold. I'll take it.