Apple is undoubtedly one of the biggest tech companies around the world. Its latest product, the iPhone X – even though it is only part of a narrowed family of iPhones – is known and sought after in every corner of the known world. Is it because of the premium quality that customers get? Is it due to the support that is hard to find anywhere else? Could it be just a marketing-strategy-based success? Maybe it’s a combination of factors.
In any case, while most people are willing to pay a month’s salary for the Cupertino giant’s premium devices in a moment’s notice; one would be surprised to find out that there is also a number of solid reasons NOT to do that. Let’s see 5 of those.
1. Price
A flagship smartphone should go for a higher price; that’s a fact. But then again, there are other premium handsets from different makers out there, that have no problem competing with Apple’s iPhone X chest to chest.
The A11 bionic chip with a 2.4GHz clocking speed, face recognition and AI (Artificial intelligence) capabilities are all exciting upgrades from the predecessors; but still, nothing that the Huawei Mate 10 Pro, or the Samsung Galaxy S8 cannot compete with. And both go for a considerably lower price.
In general, it’s quite hard to provide an insight on why Apple keeps the pricing bar so high. Unless you work for the company of course. Judging from the results however we can observe two reasons.
First, it’s the bragging rights that go with the price. In other words, anyone that can afford to pay more than most others for a smartphone, also gets the privilege of belonging to an ‘upper class’, a cult of Apple fans, if you will. After all, it’s not a coincidence that the company’s customers are as loyal as it gets.
Then there is the limited strings of income. Apple may be on the top of the top tech companies. But it manages to stay there despite of its limited number of products. Where other companies have dozens of different series of phones, Apple only makes one series. Same goes for headsets, computers and Apple TVs. So it’s only logical that the smaller the number of products, the biggest the margin of profit needs to be for every product.
Although it may sound interesting, it’s not something that directly affects us customers. All we want at the end of the day is to find the best phone for the lowest price. If that what you want as well, then the iPhone X is definitely not the place to start looking.
2. Bezzels
This one could be a totally different story on its own. Apple fans all around the globe were a tad disappointed by the manufacturer’s choice to put the bezel on the top of the screen in a such a sloppy way.
And at this point usually the debate begins. Others defend the said decision, firmly stating that it’s a matter of taste and that those who don’t like it should simply not buy it. So that’s a reason on its own. But wait, there’s more!
Search the web and look at pictures of Xiaomi’s Mi Mix and Mi Mix 2, I’ll give you some time.
Done? See? If not, then let me explain.
The way that the bezel is put on the iPhone X, causes a major practical issue. Whenever someone views content on full screen, the bezel gets in the way! A solution to that is to arrange the ratio in a way that the left does not include the bezel. If you do that though, you’ll end up losing some noticeable part of the screen. Hence, it’s a lose-lose situation.
The Xiaomi Mi Mix on the other hand – which by the way was the first device a couple of years ago that featured NO BEZELS – proved that the best way to go about this one, is to use a technology known as piezoelectric. The way this works, is the metal at the top uses electricity to vibrate and transfer sound, which makes hearing during phone calls possible. Then, putting the front camera at the bottom proves that there can be a bezel-less design that is fully functional. For more proof, just check the newer Vivo Apex.
No excuses, let’s admit it. Apple messed up on this one.
3. Common software and hardware issues are more common than you think
With every new phone come new issues. That should have been well established and accepted by now. But with the iPhone X, it’s not a matter of a few issues and bugs here and there. Ever since its launch back in October, Apple’s latest flagship has met a series of actual problems both in software and hardware, that cause impractical and difficult situations.
The most famous issue is the one with accidental emergency call shortcut. That one derived from Apple’s ‘bright’ idea to change the way you can force restart your iPhone. For all iPhones up to the 6th generation it used to be the home button and the power button. Then, for the iPhone 7 it was the Volume down button and the power button. So far, so good. Only two buttons to press so it was relatively easy to perform the force restart task.
But with the circulation of the iPhone 8/8 Plus and the commemorative iPhone X, the very same task is now performed by pressing and releasing the Volume Up button, the Volume Down button and then pressing and holding the power button. If you knew that, good. If not, then you’re one of the several millions of users who ended up calling 911.
That, combined with the second most reported issue that Apple is still working on, could cause inability to end any call, therefore having to explain to the emergency service person on the other side of the line that it was an accident and ask them to end the call, if they’re kind enough.
An iPhone X owner specifically twitted: <<So my iPhone X just had a complete fit and dialled 112 emergency services! Cue ‘I’m so sorry....please hang up the call as I can’t’>>.
A quick research on Google is enough to prove that Apple has a number of issues to tackle with its most premium phone. And that number is higher than it is tolerated to be.
4.Apple’s battery and performance scandal
It’s been quite some time since Apple was practically forced to admit that it deliberately slowed down the performance of older iPhones whose battery had been consumed.
Long story short, it turned out that Apple had decided to compromise the performance of a device in the name of making the battery last a bit longer. There is virtually no problem with that. Except the fact that no user was informed about that feature and no user signed up for something like that.
Today we’ve end up with Apple’s public apology and a new pricing strategy on out-of-warranty battery replacement services on all Apple Stores. Again, the issue is virtually resolved; except it’s not.
While Apple is desperately trying to right its wrongs, it has specifically mentioned on its public apology: “Last year we released a feature for iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and iPhone SE to smooth out the instantaneous peaks only when needed to prevent the device from unexpectedly shutting down during these conditions. We’ve now extended that feature to iPhone 7 with iOS 11.2, and plan to add support for other products in the future.”
Inevitably, that feature will be put to work once the iPhone X’s battery is close to being consumed. So once again, the users will have to either settle for that, or get entitled to a future battery replacement.
Now, don’t get me wrong. Changing the battery of your phone, is a good thing. Especially when it costs $25. But having to choose between that or dealing with a slower performance is not ok.
In addition, who’s to say that the price will stay as it is until the iPhone X gets old?
The iPhone X is not a bad phone. It can’t be. It’s Apple’s flagship after all. But if you want to weigh in all the pros and cons before purchasing your new handset, then you should really keep those reasons in mind.
Sources:
https://twitter.com/thatboybon/status/957006256128036864
https://www.phonearena.com/phones/Apple-iPhone-X_id10414/rivals
https://9to5mac.com/2018/01/22/iphone-x-renders-smaller-bezel-and-notch/
