11 ms·

Even before this announcement, it is beyond me how anyone can argue that this is not the best smartphone on the market. It has an incredibly fast processor, fa

by dr_ 15y ago

Even before this announcement, it is beyond me how anyone can argue that this is not the best smartphone on the market. It has an incredibly fast processor, fantastic camera, one of the most popular music hubs (iTunes), the largest app store and probably the most advanced AI technology in a phone. When the technorati (and, to be honest, most bloggers have been supportive of the product) diss this phone, are they actually suggesting someone would be better off with a Android, Blackberry or Windows 7 phone? It's a plain and simple fact that people refuse to accept - people purchase Android because it's available on many different carriers and comes in many different price points. People choose blackberry cause sometimes their work requires it or they want blackberry messenger. And no one chooses Windows phones. With the iPhone now available on more carriers at different price points, the game will continue to change.

tybris 15y ago
Best is a term that suggests there is no subjectivity to preference.
Cushman 15y ago
There was a time, not too long ago, when Apple stuff was legitimately a worse deal than the equivalent brown-box product. It got ingrained into our cultural consciousness: Macs are overpriced, they underperform. They claim to put design first, but they still break. Not worth it unless you really like the OS. That hasn't been true for a while, of course; Apple has made all the deals they needed to be competitive or untouchable on price and performance, and their revolutionary design philosophy has outgrown puberty and started changing the world. But, of course, the mythos continues.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- drivingmenuts 15y ago
  What drives some people away is the price tag, regardless of quality and features. I just dropped $1800 and change on an iMac, which really doesn't have any more mojo than an equivalent PC. If I need support, someone will say: "How can I help you?" no matter how inane the question, instead of (Linux) "RTFMNoob" and (Windows): "Google, install driver, visit MSDN, etc.". The difference (in my mind) is that I didn't buy a personal computer, I bought a Mac. I didn't buy what I needed, I bought what I want.
  - thatjoshguy 15y ago
    > I didn't buy what I needed, I bought what I want. The funny thing is that's the complete opposite to what Apple retail employees are taught. Sell what the customer needs; nothing more, nothing less
    - Cushman 15y ago
      I'd say that just highlights Apple's 0th law, that one thing only they seem to get: form is function, what you want is what you need. If it doesn't do what you want, it's insufficient for your needs. Conversely, if it does more than you need, you don't really want it, you just think you do.
      - zmonkeyz 15y ago
        This is so true. While i'd love to have a new 27" IMac I just can't justify getting rid of my 3GHz 2008 since it still works so well. It's like I just took it out of the box.
- smackfu 15y ago
  Apple also does not bother to compete in the discount PC area. They just don't make a $250 desktop, or a $500 laptop, and Compaq and Dell do. So if that's what you are interested in, Apple definitely feels too expensive.
Meai 15y ago
Let's stay on the ground here. Yeah it is better.. because it's new. There are many phones with a good camera, which will be enough for many people. Most advanced AI technology? I guess so, other phones don't have any AI technology. How fast the processor is, is mostly irrelevant unless the phone can't handle its own UI. I own a Windows Phone because it was very cheap (180 Euros) and it's essentially the same as an IPhone from a functionality and design viewpoint.
danssig 15y ago
>Even before this announcement, it is beyond me how anyone can argue that this is not the best smartphone on the market. Because, just as people complain about irrational "fanboys", there are also irrational "haters". If Android was a huge, old-style brick phone with a pull-out antenna windows CE style interface Apple haters would be talking about how great it is and how much better it is than the 4S.
- cooldeal 15y ago
  Similarly, there are a number of people who would love a "a huge, old-style brick phone with a pull-out antenna windows CE style interface" and how it was better than the Galaxy S II or Prime just because it was made by Apple.
xlevus 15y ago
I might agree, it looks like a nice phone. Possibly better than the Android competition. But the underlying issue I have with the iPhone, is the lack of freedom I get with it. I don't want to (and more or less can't) be restricted to iTunes, and feel I shouldn't have to void my warranty to use the device how I see fit.
- nirvana 15y ago
  I don't understand this "lack of freedom" (or the "androids more open" mantra). I rarely use iTunes myself, and don't feel "restricted" to it. (unless you feel that using iTunes to sync is "restrictive"... and even if that's the case, syncing is now doable via iCloud.) I guess if you want to do hardware hacking, you'll always be voiding your warranty. I don't see how you'd have to void it to use an iPhone how you see fit. I run whatever software I want on mine, open source stuff, stuff that's never seen the appstore... and that's without jailbreaking it. As I understand it, on android, you'd have to jailbreak it. If the complaint is that apple doesn't allow malware on the AppStore, I think that's a good thing. Its not like Apple only allows software Apple thinks is good on the store. (though I do wish they would be more restrictive in that regard.) Always I see the claim that android is "open" or the assertion that the iPhone causes a "lack of freedom".... but rarely are there any specifics. This forces me to guess what you're talking about in order to argue a different point. You're now in a position to say that all of my examples were not what you were talking about... which is the rhetorical value of vague complaints.
  - lukifer 15y ago
    > I run whatever software I want on mine, open source stuff, stuff that's never seen the appstore... and that's without jailbreaking it. I'm guessing this is due to a developer certificate? I don't think it's reasonable to expect even power users to jump through all the Xcode hoops (and pay a $99 freedom tax) in order to run unapproved software. > Its not like Apple only allows software Apple thinks is good on the store. Curiously enough, if Apple were to allow sideloading, they could get far pickier about what goes in the App Store, which would be a better experience for 99% of customers, and potentially result in more total sales by creating an expectation of quality. There is much less shoddy junk in the Mac App Store for this very reason. All that said, I've never run into anything I wish I could do that I can't, and so even though I've jailbroken my iDevices 5+ times, I always end up undoing it with the next upgrade.
hahaiamatwork 15y ago
There's only really a couple of points in your post that are valid, so I'll go through each point you made. 1. Phones with the same class of processor have been available for some time now. Tegra 2 is a dual core 1ghz SoC and there are 1.2 and 1.5ghz dual cores from competitors, with a quad core 1.5ghz due from Nvidia within the next few months. 2. The camera may be excellent, but previous phones have applied some bad automatic settings to this, making adjusting of photos result in unnecessary detail loss. 3. iTunes and the App Store I won't argue against, but it's worthy of note now that competitors are approaching Apple with these features. 4. As far as the AI goes, I doubt it will ever see significant widespread adoption. Nobody has yet been able to give me a few good solid examples of use outside of 'play this album' and 'set a reminder for x'. Facetime was supposed to be the be-all and end-all of video chatting. I think I have used it once. 5. The general point about carriers is almost certainly stated by an American. iPhones have been available on many carriers in many countries, and still Android is advancing significantly. 6. You're ignoring the significant downsides to the iOS ecosystem. For example, if you purchase apps, you would be better off with an Android. Why? Because purchasing those apps on an iPhone means that the associated cost of switching to any other platform increases by the value of those apps. That cannot be justified as a 'good thing'.
- reidmain 15y ago
  You're ignoring the significant downsides to the Android ecosystem. For example, if you purchase apps, you would be better off with an iPhone. Why? Because purchasing those apps on an Android phone means that the associated cost of switching to any other platform increases by the value of those apps. That cannot be justified as a 'good thing'.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
  - moultano 15y ago
    I'm not understanding what you are saying. Any Android app you purchase can be installed on all of your Android devices. Would you mind rephrasing so I understand?
smackfu 15y ago
OTOH, how many of the people who are watching and commenting on Apple keynotes have even tried the latest Android phones?
- nirvana 15y ago
  I watched the keynote, and as someone who does almost all his purchasing online, found myself in Best Buy the other day. So we wandered over to the phones and checked out a Windows phone and an HTC which were right next to each other. The windows phone was pretty interesting. It took my partner a couple tries to figure out how to use it (I'd seen demos online so I was more prepared for the UI) but they eventually got it. Still, the UI was broken in some very weird ways-- for instance, going to the datebook app, you could easily scroll from day to day, but what if you wanted to go a year into the future or the past? (The phone was set for last year)... eventually we were able to figure out how to bring up a calendar view that showed months at a time, but tapping on a particular month or day didn't bring you to that particular month or day's agenda! Never did figure that out. I give Microsoft credit here for trying to come up with something new. I think in a couple years, they will have something very usable, and it certainly is very different and potentially innovative. (Didn't get to use the device long enough to see if it was different for difference sake, or if there was a fundamental UI insight behind the way it worked.) Then we picked up the HTC. It was pretty eye opening. I did like the animated background, that's cool. The icons are fugly, though. Its like someone who didn't know what they were doing tried to copy an iPhone. The device was really cheap plastic. The touch screen wasn't very reliable, and the apps were ... poor at best. I was surprised at how fiddly everything was... you couldn't just launch an app and immediately know how to use it. On the iPhone (and windows phone it seemed) there are standard controls and paradigms, like the tab bar and swiping left-right. I'm sure android has these features as well, but they aren't really supposed to be features... they're the common commands that Apps should share so that the user spends time comprehending your app and what it means, not trying to figure out how to get to the next page, or whatever. I don't know, or care, whether this was the "latest" android phone. In fact, replacing an iPhone every 2 years is a much better experience than having to keep up with a marketplace of phones that changes every three months... and given that Apple always delivers a superlative experience, while the android hardware market is competing more on headline features, there's a huge incentive for android makers to put in some feature (like LTE, or a power hungry processor) that undermines a more important, but less exciting capability, like battery life. Trying to keep on top of all that, making sure I'm not getting screwed is more effort than I want to spend when shopping for a phone.... especially when I can just buy the latest iPhone and get the best experience, and know I'm not going to regret my purchase.
CJefferson 15y ago
You really can't imagine why anyone might prefer the Samsung Galaxy S II (for example) to an iPhone? How about (straight off the top of my head) Better Linux connectivity. Ability to easily copy files on and off the phone. Ability to sync podcasts directly on the phone, without having to connect to a computer with iTunes (not used an iPhone for a while, they might have finally fixed this). Ability to run software Apple doesn't like (emulators). We haven't really seen the AI yet, I remain to be convinced, and I don't care about the camera. Also, you mention price point. The iPhone (particularly the 4S) is about the most expensive phone around at the moment. In general of course the most expensive phone with have the fastest processor, that's hardly suprising.
- kaylarose 15y ago
  All of those are things regular people - i.e. not hacker news readers - don't give a toss about.
  - thatjoshguy 15y ago
    But 'regular' people are loving the Galaxy S 2, I guess because of it's large and vibrant screen, and it's thinner (to hold) compared to the iPhone 4[1]. I really like the Galaxy S 2 and I wish so hard that Android was actually polished to the degree that iOS is. My iPhone bores and I love the screen on the Galaxy S, yet I know I will miss out on OS updates and being able to smoothly rotate the screen. The day android is as polished as iOS is is the day I switch. [1] I'm not sure if it is actually thinner than the iPhone 4, but it feels thinner, much in the same way the 2nd gen iPod touch was thinner than the previous gen)
    - eren-tantekin 15y ago
      It is about a milimeter thinner than iPhone.
      - masklinn 15y ago
        0.6mm at its thinnest point, and 0.5mm thicker at its thickest point (the latter being a sticking point, UK's Advertising Standards Authority ruled against Samsung's claim of thinnest smartphone on the market on these grounds)
runjake 15y ago
Different strokes for different folks. The iPhone is a great phone, but it's silly to suggest the iPhone is one size fits all. PS: I chose a Windows Phone. Though, I'd be on an iPhone if Mango (Windows Phone 7.5) wasn't around.
rdtsc 15y ago
> are they actually suggesting someone would be better off with a Android, Blackberry or Windows 7 phone? It seems your comment is based on a flawed assumption that all these consumer devices should be evaluated in a vacuum where price, app markets, & previous corporate adoption doesn't matter. iPhones where historically really expensive devices. And price is one of the features of the device just like camera resolution is. So it is a bit like saying "Can't people see that a Lexus is a much better car than a Honda Civic? Why are reviews for a Honda Civic better sometimes than reviews for a Lexus, I don't get it !?"
- BlazingFrog 15y ago
  He didn't say it was the best value on the smartphone market. He said it was (in his opinion) the best smartphone. Not sure how price qualifies as a feature considering prices may change based on time, geography, carrier choice and other factors. No matter how you look at it, a Lexus is a better car than a Honda Civic. You, as a customer, may not assign the same value to the actual features as a different customer may is the only difference.
  - rdtsc 15y ago
    I just see value as one of the features. Even reviewers who get the device for free will probably have an idea on what it would cost and thus have correspondingly higher expectations of it. To continue with my stupid exampel, if I am asked to review a Lexus, I will end up reviewing it differently perhaps because I expect more. Heated seats not working well enough -- taking points off. Even in a comparison review some of this bias will leak in.
- masklinn 15y ago
  > iPhones where historically really expensive devices. No. Smartphones are historically really expensive devices. Year before the iPhone was released, I had a Eseries Nokia phone, it was something like 500€ out of carriers (and few carriers had it, Eseries are enterprise/corporate phones), unsubsidized Nseries phones ("comsumer" smartphones, usually with a 10key and more multimedia features instead of the full qwerty keyboard of Eseries) were the same price. When the original iPhone was released, it was not expensive, it was unsubsidized.
rudiger 15y ago
I want a bigger screen :( It's hard to read books on the iPhone, but it's easy on 3.7-4.0" phones, even when they have less pixels.
zmonkeyz 15y ago
I love my Windows phone especially with the new update. The software actually makes up for the substandard hardware. On that note the new Iphone is pretty damn awesome.
majorlazer 15y ago
A few reasons why I prefer my Thunderbolt to the iPhone 4: -Bigger screen -LTE 4G -Tons of different ROMs available -More customization options -I prefer the Android interface It all comes down to your needs. The screen size alone takes the iPhone out of consideration for me.

by dr_ 15y ago

tybris 15y ago

Best is a term that suggests there is no subjectivity to preference.

Cushman 15y ago

There was a time, not too long ago, when Apple stuff was legitimately a worse deal than the equivalent brown-box product. It got ingrained into our cultural consciousness: Macs are overpriced, they underperform. They claim to put design first, but they still break. Not worth it unless you really like the OS. That hasn't been true for a while, of course; Apple has made all the deals they needed to be competitive or untouchable on price and performance, and their revolutionary design philosophy has outgrown puberty and started changing the world. But, of course, the mythos continues.

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
drivingmenuts 15y ago
What drives some people away is the price tag, regardless of quality and features. I just dropped $1800 and change on an iMac, which really doesn't have any more mojo than an equivalent PC. If I need support, someone will say: "How can I help you?" no matter how inane the question, instead of (Linux) "RTFMNoob" and (Windows): "Google, install driver, visit MSDN, etc.". The difference (in my mind) is that I didn't buy a personal computer, I bought a Mac. I didn't buy what I needed, I bought what I want.
- thatjoshguy 15y ago
  > I didn't buy what I needed, I bought what I want. The funny thing is that's the complete opposite to what Apple retail employees are taught. Sell what the customer needs; nothing more, nothing less
  - Cushman 15y ago
    I'd say that just highlights Apple's 0th law, that one thing only they seem to get: form is function, what you want is what you need. If it doesn't do what you want, it's insufficient for your needs. Conversely, if it does more than you need, you don't really want it, you just think you do.
    - zmonkeyz 15y ago
      This is so true. While i'd love to have a new 27" IMac I just can't justify getting rid of my 3GHz 2008 since it still works so well. It's like I just took it out of the box.
smackfu 15y ago
Apple also does not bother to compete in the discount PC area. They just don't make a $250 desktop, or a $500 laptop, and Compaq and Dell do. So if that's what you are interested in, Apple definitely feels too expensive.

Meai 15y ago

Let's stay on the ground here. Yeah it is better.. because it's new. There are many phones with a good camera, which will be enough for many people. Most advanced AI technology? I guess so, other phones don't have any AI technology. How fast the processor is, is mostly irrelevant unless the phone can't handle its own UI. I own a Windows Phone because it was very cheap (180 Euros) and it's essentially the same as an IPhone from a functionality and design viewpoint.

danssig 15y ago

>Even before this announcement, it is beyond me how anyone can argue that this is not the best smartphone on the market. Because, just as people complain about irrational "fanboys", there are also irrational "haters". If Android was a huge, old-style brick phone with a pull-out antenna windows CE style interface Apple haters would be talking about how great it is and how much better it is than the 4S.

cooldeal 15y ago
Similarly, there are a number of people who would love a "a huge, old-style brick phone with a pull-out antenna windows CE style interface" and how it was better than the Galaxy S II or Prime just because it was made by Apple.

xlevus 15y ago

I might agree, it looks like a nice phone. Possibly better than the Android competition. But the underlying issue I have with the iPhone, is the lack of freedom I get with it. I don't want to (and more or less can't) be restricted to iTunes, and feel I shouldn't have to void my warranty to use the device how I see fit.

nirvana 15y ago
I don't understand this "lack of freedom" (or the "androids more open" mantra). I rarely use iTunes myself, and don't feel "restricted" to it. (unless you feel that using iTunes to sync is "restrictive"... and even if that's the case, syncing is now doable via iCloud.) I guess if you want to do hardware hacking, you'll always be voiding your warranty. I don't see how you'd have to void it to use an iPhone how you see fit. I run whatever software I want on mine, open source stuff, stuff that's never seen the appstore... and that's without jailbreaking it. As I understand it, on android, you'd have to jailbreak it. If the complaint is that apple doesn't allow malware on the AppStore, I think that's a good thing. Its not like Apple only allows software Apple thinks is good on the store. (though I do wish they would be more restrictive in that regard.) Always I see the claim that android is "open" or the assertion that the iPhone causes a "lack of freedom".... but rarely are there any specifics. This forces me to guess what you're talking about in order to argue a different point. You're now in a position to say that all of my examples were not what you were talking about... which is the rhetorical value of vague complaints.
- lukifer 15y ago
  > I run whatever software I want on mine, open source stuff, stuff that's never seen the appstore... and that's without jailbreaking it. I'm guessing this is due to a developer certificate? I don't think it's reasonable to expect even power users to jump through all the Xcode hoops (and pay a $99 freedom tax) in order to run unapproved software. > Its not like Apple only allows software Apple thinks is good on the store. Curiously enough, if Apple were to allow sideloading, they could get far pickier about what goes in the App Store, which would be a better experience for 99% of customers, and potentially result in more total sales by creating an expectation of quality. There is much less shoddy junk in the Mac App Store for this very reason. All that said, I've never run into anything I wish I could do that I can't, and so even though I've jailbroken my iDevices 5+ times, I always end up undoing it with the next upgrade.

hahaiamatwork 15y ago

There's only really a couple of points in your post that are valid, so I'll go through each point you made. 1. Phones with the same class of processor have been available for some time now. Tegra 2 is a dual core 1ghz SoC and there are 1.2 and 1.5ghz dual cores from competitors, with a quad core 1.5ghz due from Nvidia within the next few months. 2. The camera may be excellent, but previous phones have applied some bad automatic settings to this, making adjusting of photos result in unnecessary detail loss. 3. iTunes and the App Store I won't argue against, but it's worthy of note now that competitors are approaching Apple with these features. 4. As far as the AI goes, I doubt it will ever see significant widespread adoption. Nobody has yet been able to give me a few good solid examples of use outside of 'play this album' and 'set a reminder for x'. Facetime was supposed to be the be-all and end-all of video chatting. I think I have used it once. 5. The general point about carriers is almost certainly stated by an American. iPhones have been available on many carriers in many countries, and still Android is advancing significantly. 6. You're ignoring the significant downsides to the iOS ecosystem. For example, if you purchase apps, you would be better off with an Android. Why? Because purchasing those apps on an iPhone means that the associated cost of switching to any other platform increases by the value of those apps. That cannot be justified as a 'good thing'.

reidmain 15y ago
You're ignoring the significant downsides to the Android ecosystem. For example, if you purchase apps, you would be better off with an iPhone. Why? Because purchasing those apps on an Android phone means that the associated cost of switching to any other platform increases by the value of those apps. That cannot be justified as a 'good thing'.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- moultano 15y ago
  I'm not understanding what you are saying. Any Android app you purchase can be installed on all of your Android devices. Would you mind rephrasing so I understand?

smackfu 15y ago

OTOH, how many of the people who are watching and commenting on Apple keynotes have even tried the latest Android phones?

nirvana 15y ago
I watched the keynote, and as someone who does almost all his purchasing online, found myself in Best Buy the other day. So we wandered over to the phones and checked out a Windows phone and an HTC which were right next to each other. The windows phone was pretty interesting. It took my partner a couple tries to figure out how to use it (I'd seen demos online so I was more prepared for the UI) but they eventually got it. Still, the UI was broken in some very weird ways-- for instance, going to the datebook app, you could easily scroll from day to day, but what if you wanted to go a year into the future or the past? (The phone was set for last year)... eventually we were able to figure out how to bring up a calendar view that showed months at a time, but tapping on a particular month or day didn't bring you to that particular month or day's agenda! Never did figure that out. I give Microsoft credit here for trying to come up with something new. I think in a couple years, they will have something very usable, and it certainly is very different and potentially innovative. (Didn't get to use the device long enough to see if it was different for difference sake, or if there was a fundamental UI insight behind the way it worked.) Then we picked up the HTC. It was pretty eye opening. I did like the animated background, that's cool. The icons are fugly, though. Its like someone who didn't know what they were doing tried to copy an iPhone. The device was really cheap plastic. The touch screen wasn't very reliable, and the apps were ... poor at best. I was surprised at how fiddly everything was... you couldn't just launch an app and immediately know how to use it. On the iPhone (and windows phone it seemed) there are standard controls and paradigms, like the tab bar and swiping left-right. I'm sure android has these features as well, but they aren't really supposed to be features... they're the common commands that Apps should share so that the user spends time comprehending your app and what it means, not trying to figure out how to get to the next page, or whatever. I don't know, or care, whether this was the "latest" android phone. In fact, replacing an iPhone every 2 years is a much better experience than having to keep up with a marketplace of phones that changes every three months... and given that Apple always delivers a superlative experience, while the android hardware market is competing more on headline features, there's a huge incentive for android makers to put in some feature (like LTE, or a power hungry processor) that undermines a more important, but less exciting capability, like battery life. Trying to keep on top of all that, making sure I'm not getting screwed is more effort than I want to spend when shopping for a phone.... especially when I can just buy the latest iPhone and get the best experience, and know I'm not going to regret my purchase.

CJefferson 15y ago

You really can't imagine why anyone might prefer the Samsung Galaxy S II (for example) to an iPhone? How about (straight off the top of my head) Better Linux connectivity. Ability to easily copy files on and off the phone. Ability to sync podcasts directly on the phone, without having to connect to a computer with iTunes (not used an iPhone for a while, they might have finally fixed this). Ability to run software Apple doesn't like (emulators). We haven't really seen the AI yet, I remain to be convinced, and I don't care about the camera. Also, you mention price point. The iPhone (particularly the 4S) is about the most expensive phone around at the moment. In general of course the most expensive phone with have the fastest processor, that's hardly suprising.

kaylarose 15y ago
All of those are things regular people - i.e. not hacker news readers - don't give a toss about.
- thatjoshguy 15y ago
  But 'regular' people are loving the Galaxy S 2, I guess because of it's large and vibrant screen, and it's thinner (to hold) compared to the iPhone 4[1]. I really like the Galaxy S 2 and I wish so hard that Android was actually polished to the degree that iOS is. My iPhone bores and I love the screen on the Galaxy S, yet I know I will miss out on OS updates and being able to smoothly rotate the screen. The day android is as polished as iOS is is the day I switch. [1] I'm not sure if it is actually thinner than the iPhone 4, but it feels thinner, much in the same way the 2nd gen iPod touch was thinner than the previous gen)
  - eren-tantekin 15y ago
    It is about a milimeter thinner than iPhone.
    - masklinn 15y ago
      0.6mm at its thinnest point, and 0.5mm thicker at its thickest point (the latter being a sticking point, UK's Advertising Standards Authority ruled against Samsung's claim of thinnest smartphone on the market on these grounds)

runjake 15y ago

Different strokes for different folks. The iPhone is a great phone, but it's silly to suggest the iPhone is one size fits all. PS: I chose a Windows Phone. Though, I'd be on an iPhone if Mango (Windows Phone 7.5) wasn't around.

rdtsc 15y ago

> are they actually suggesting someone would be better off with a Android, Blackberry or Windows 7 phone? It seems your comment is based on a flawed assumption that all these consumer devices should be evaluated in a vacuum where price, app markets, & previous corporate adoption doesn't matter. iPhones where historically really expensive devices. And price is one of the features of the device just like camera resolution is. So it is a bit like saying "Can't people see that a Lexus is a much better car than a Honda Civic? Why are reviews for a Honda Civic better sometimes than reviews for a Lexus, I don't get it !?"

BlazingFrog 15y ago
He didn't say it was the best value on the smartphone market. He said it was (in his opinion) the best smartphone. Not sure how price qualifies as a feature considering prices may change based on time, geography, carrier choice and other factors. No matter how you look at it, a Lexus is a better car than a Honda Civic. You, as a customer, may not assign the same value to the actual features as a different customer may is the only difference.
- rdtsc 15y ago
  I just see value as one of the features. Even reviewers who get the device for free will probably have an idea on what it would cost and thus have correspondingly higher expectations of it. To continue with my stupid exampel, if I am asked to review a Lexus, I will end up reviewing it differently perhaps because I expect more. Heated seats not working well enough -- taking points off. Even in a comparison review some of this bias will leak in.
masklinn 15y ago
> iPhones where historically really expensive devices. No. Smartphones are historically really expensive devices. Year before the iPhone was released, I had a Eseries Nokia phone, it was something like 500€ out of carriers (and few carriers had it, Eseries are enterprise/corporate phones), unsubsidized Nseries phones ("comsumer" smartphones, usually with a 10key and more multimedia features instead of the full qwerty keyboard of Eseries) were the same price. When the original iPhone was released, it was not expensive, it was unsubsidized.

rudiger 15y ago

I want a bigger screen :( It's hard to read books on the iPhone, but it's easy on 3.7-4.0" phones, even when they have less pixels.

zmonkeyz 15y ago

I love my Windows phone especially with the new update. The software actually makes up for the substandard hardware. On that note the new Iphone is pretty damn awesome.

majorlazer 15y ago

A few reasons why I prefer my Thunderbolt to the iPhone 4: -Bigger screen -LTE 4G -Tons of different ROMs available -More customization options -I prefer the Android interface It all comes down to your needs. The screen size alone takes the iPhone out of consideration for me.