Damn. Apple really hit their competitors hard. They now sell the 5 fastest phones on the Market, and are probably ahead on every single hardware component against any single OEM.
Not to mention that iOS keeps getting stronger, with a much stronger ecosystem where users actually experience newer features and great new exclusive or iOS first apps.
best iOS 10 feature, emoji. ("We've asked for flying cars and we got twitter!") Welcome to the world where mobiles phones are becoming boring just like laptops are now. Since most of the low hanging fruits are done, it'll take new/true innovation to take us to the next level.
They are smoking Tim Cook's (insert expletive). When you see someone with a name like MacBAir they are obviously a paid shill and should be ignored. When a "consumer" pretends to get ridiculously excited over an API, and claims they have the best browser (demonstrably false) then you can dismiss their ramblings.
Lol @ anandtech trying to help apple sell old iPhones.
I mean, this is literally, completely an outright sales pitch.
It's funny you can always see a correlation when Apple stock price is falling and all of sudden these types of articles start hitting the web all over the place, panic mode @ Apple and their stock holders.
I really did not expect them to upgrade their entire lineup, only the 7. But was pleasantly surprised when I saw 32GB for the 6s as well.
Yep, it's funny how the A9 blows away all competition in performance and the A10 is supposed to be almost 50% faster...good luck Snapdragon 830 and Exynos whatever-comes-after-8890.
I am with you on this. I own an iPhone SE but don't see it as significantly different from a bunch of Android phones performance wise. I am happy to see Apple pushing hardware to be faster but given that we are entering (or perhaps have already entered) the era of "good enough" on smartphones, faster isn't really a game changer to me.
There's a lot of variables while defining what makes a great camera. Not taking 25h to process one shot, or melting while recording a 4k video is one of them.
Hit hard how? These "price cuts" bring their old models in line with the flagship models from those "competitors", who are honestly more worried about the new Chinese and Korean phones that are offering a lot of the same capability for half the price. Most of the new "capabilities" were tried by at least one of their competitors before, Apple may figure out how to do it better but I wouldn't bet on it, and iOS needs to get better because it's too simple for a world where you're trying to sell iPad Pros as a low end laptop replacement. It's people in a gated community that are amazed by the stuff everyone else already decided they didn't really care about.
* No Headphone jack on iPhone 7. * Only HD and below resolution screens. * Far from having the best camera sensor in a phone. * Expensive. * No MicroSD. * No removable battery. * No full waterproofing. (Only water resistance.)
4K is definitely good for VR, but aside from that it isn't something to brag about unless you have bionic eyes. I have no doubt that Android OEMs will eventually release phones with Dolby surround sound speakers to fire up Android sales and give the uber-nerd crowd another reason to brag to their iPhone owning friends how superior their phones are.
650+ for iphones?? no thanks.. too over priced... i'll stay with my S5, pay half the price.. and grab a micro SD card, say 64 gigs, and STILL have money left over ...
even the SE is too much compared to other options... and some people get new phones EACH year ??? no wonder i have heard rumbles some carriers are thinking about dropping subsidizing new phones and making people PAY for the phone THEM SELF....
Huge issue? Where are all these phone's being totally hacked and screwed with? I don't see them.
I see reports that phones might be vulnerable... but no actual issues occurring.
And I have never had a phone more than 2.5 years.... so I don't really care so much if it gets updates after that... but I agree it'd be nice if Androids would at least guarantee 3y of updates for their phones.
even when androids get updates, it takes months to get to the consumer. sometimes years. iOS updates come out and bypass all that cell carrier red tape. instant upgrades that have a huge impact on the device, and make it feel like a brand new device.
I hear this "I get updates for 5 years" argument but after 5 years of use the battery has what, 25% of it's original capacity? Yay, your 5 year old phone has 30 minutes of SOT and that's worth paying quadruple over a similarly specced phone?
Agreed. Since iOS 7 they really aren't that different. But it sure beats running 2 generations behind the current Android version on your 2 year old phone and getting security updates 5 months after a zero day exploit. But hey, you can always stay on the most current Android version (which is what, Snickers? Fun Dip?) if you buy a new Android phone every year.
You mean besides the massive environmental damage caused by this, adherence to blind consumerism and paying through the nose for incremental changes? Oh, nothing much.
"making payments is still subsidizing". No, it isn't. Once the phone is payed off, the payment goes away, and you're only paying for the service. Before, with contracts, the price of the service absorbed the cost of the device, and the bill didn't go down once the phone was paid off. And you must have good enough credit to qualify for the payment plans. By your definition, any loan would be considered a subsidy - house, car, business, solar... Do you consider your car loan a subsidy? I think not.
The funny thing is I am still on a grandfathered unlimited data plan with AT&T and my plan is still cheaper than the family-share plans that AT&T keeps insisting are cheaper because "you don't pay for the phone in your plan anymore".
I pay exactly $95 + tax for unlimited data and text ($40 talk, $35 unlimited data, $20 unlimited text). The ONLY thing I lose is the ability to tether (although strangely I can tether to my Ram truck and create a hot spot).
The family share plans they tried to get me to switch to (unlimited text and talk): 6 GB - $100 10 GB - $120 16 GB - $130
So basically the carriers are full of cow poo poo IMO as far a single line customers. I guess if you had a family with 3-4 phones it makes sense, but again you are limited by the data.
There will be never a shortage of isheeps out there buying iphones. As for me, the costliest new phone that I brought recently was the Alcatel Onetouch idol 3 for about $200 when it was on sale. Not going to buy in the hype of overpriced phones anymore.
Just like that, Apple dropped the price of the iPhone 6s by $200 or ~24% for the same storage. Today you get 128GB for the same price as 16GB yesterday. Sounds sweet. Tells you something about their insane profit margin.
I saw a recent Apple ad allowing people to upgrade their iPhones each and every year, for the low price of $32 per month. That's $384 per year for a phone! That's absurd! Add that to your AT&T or Verizon bill and you are paying $150 a month for a phone. I have the feeling that Apple's recent sales slide is only going to get worse.
And I do appreciate that they FINALLY lowered the iPhone's price in the form of the SE. Granted you have to be willing to take a smaller screen though, and now it's a year out of date...although that still makes it better than any other phone CPU/GPU, soooo...
That's the same for every smart phone. If you buy a Note 7 on the AT&T next plan it is virtually no different price wise from buying an iPhone Plus size (unless of course you are a typical Android user who finds $2 extra a month an earth-shattering experience).
Is it just me or am I the only one that think it is weird how the new iPad lines have 32 GB as the lowest storage and don't even put in 64 GB? Not that it is a big deal for me since I barely fill up my iPad Mini.
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45 Comments
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MacBAir - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link
Damn. Apple really hit their competitors hard. They now sell the 5 fastest phones on the Market, and are probably ahead on every single hardware component against any single OEM.Not to mention that iOS keeps getting stronger, with a much stronger ecosystem where users actually experience newer features and great new exclusive or iOS first apps.
No explosions needed. That A10.
amdwilliam1985 - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link
best iOS 10 feature, emoji. ("We've asked for flying cars and we got twitter!")Welcome to the world where mobiles phones are becoming boring just like laptops are now.
Since most of the low hanging fruits are done, it'll take new/true innovation to take us to the next level.
MacBAir - Thursday, September 8, 2016 - link
Are you sure that the emergency feature isn't awesome? Or all the new APIs? Or having the best browser engine on the market?Michael Bay - Thursday, September 8, 2016 - link
>best browser engine on the marketAhahahahaha.
>muh apis for the apis god
Jesus, you`re serious!
StevoLincolnite - Friday, September 9, 2016 - link
I want whatever he/she/it is smoking.Probably paid by Apple because no one who is mentally stable is that daft.
fanofanand - Friday, September 9, 2016 - link
They are smoking Tim Cook's (insert expletive). When you see someone with a name like MacBAir they are obviously a paid shill and should be ignored. When a "consumer" pretends to get ridiculously excited over an API, and claims they have the best browser (demonstrably false) then you can dismiss their ramblings.dsumanik - Saturday, September 10, 2016 - link
Lol @ anandtech trying to help apple sell old iPhones.I mean, this is literally, completely an outright sales pitch.
It's funny you can always see a correlation when Apple stock price is falling and all of sudden these types of articles start hitting the web all over the place, panic mode @ Apple and their stock holders.
if you haven't already... Sell sell sell!!!
CloudWiz - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link
I really did not expect them to upgrade their entire lineup, only the 7. But was pleasantly surprised when I saw 32GB for the 6s as well.Yep, it's funny how the A9 blows away all competition in performance and the A10 is supposed to be almost 50% faster...good luck Snapdragon 830 and Exynos whatever-comes-after-8890.
jabber - Thursday, September 8, 2016 - link
And yet when I use a iPhone or top/mid end Android...they both perform the same to my eyes. Never take much stock in canned optimised benchmarks.ingwe - Thursday, September 8, 2016 - link
I am with you on this. I own an iPhone SE but don't see it as significantly different from a bunch of Android phones performance wise. I am happy to see Apple pushing hardware to be faster but given that we are entering (or perhaps have already entered) the era of "good enough" on smartphones, faster isn't really a game changer to me.damianrobertjones - Thursday, September 8, 2016 - link
In that case why hasn't anyone matched the camera in the Nokia 1020?MacBAir - Thursday, September 8, 2016 - link
There's a lot of variables while defining what makes a great camera. Not taking 25h to process one shot, or melting while recording a 4k video is one of them.StevoLincolnite - Friday, September 9, 2016 - link
There are dozens of Phones which have a superior camera to the iPhone.Not all of them have the issues you so eloquently describe, fanboy.
fanofanand - Friday, September 9, 2016 - link
Yes, because so many Android phones take 25 hours to process a shot. Can someone ban this shill?djc208 - Thursday, September 8, 2016 - link
Hit hard how? These "price cuts" bring their old models in line with the flagship models from those "competitors", who are honestly more worried about the new Chinese and Korean phones that are offering a lot of the same capability for half the price.Most of the new "capabilities" were tried by at least one of their competitors before, Apple may figure out how to do it better but I wouldn't bet on it, and iOS needs to get better because it's too simple for a world where you're trying to sell iPad Pros as a low end laptop replacement.
It's people in a gated community that are amazed by the stuff everyone else already decided they didn't really care about.
StevoLincolnite - Friday, September 9, 2016 - link
How to pick an Apple Fanboy who is full of crap.* No Headphone jack on iPhone 7.
* Only HD and below resolution screens.
* Far from having the best camera sensor in a phone.
* Expensive.
* No MicroSD.
* No removable battery.
* No full waterproofing. (Only water resistance.)
Shall I go on?
Donkey2008 - Saturday, September 10, 2016 - link
4K is definitely good for VR, but aside from that it isn't something to brag about unless you have bionic eyes. I have no doubt that Android OEMs will eventually release phones with Dolby surround sound speakers to fire up Android sales and give the uber-nerd crowd another reason to brag to their iPhone owning friends how superior their phones are.zeeBomb - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link
APPLE AT FULL FORCE. As a Canadian, I ain't too worried getting a 32GB iPhone 6S. Than a 16GB the same price a year ago 😁MikhailT - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link
SE 64gb did get a price cut to 450$.Qasar - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link
650+ for iphones?? no thanks.. too over priced... i'll stay with my S5, pay half the price.. and grab a micro SD card, say 64 gigs, and STILL have money left over ...even the SE is too much compared to other options... and some people get new phones EACH year ??? no wonder i have heard rumbles some carriers are thinking about dropping subsidizing new phones and making people PAY for the phone THEM SELF....
michael2k - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link
Some of us are paying for 5 years of os updates. The 2012 iPhone 5 is going to get iOS 10.x updates into 2017.amdwilliam1985 - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link
yeah, amazing new OS versions, the biggest upgrade is probably the number 9 to 10, maybe emojis too. I'm an old school guy, sticking with :) and ;)lurker22 - Thursday, September 8, 2016 - link
That and security updates which you don't get with android after at best 12 months. Face it, its a huge issue for Android...shadarlo - Thursday, September 8, 2016 - link
Huge issue? Where are all these phone's being totally hacked and screwed with? I don't see them.I see reports that phones might be vulnerable... but no actual issues occurring.
And I have never had a phone more than 2.5 years.... so I don't really care so much if it gets updates after that... but I agree it'd be nice if Androids would at least guarantee 3y of updates for their phones.
Morawka - Thursday, September 8, 2016 - link
even when androids get updates, it takes months to get to the consumer. sometimes years. iOS updates come out and bypass all that cell carrier red tape. instant upgrades that have a huge impact on the device, and make it feel like a brand new device.fanofanand - Friday, September 9, 2016 - link
I hear this "I get updates for 5 years" argument but after 5 years of use the battery has what, 25% of it's original capacity? Yay, your 5 year old phone has 30 minutes of SOT and that's worth paying quadruple over a similarly specced phone?Donkey2008 - Saturday, September 10, 2016 - link
Agreed. Since iOS 7 they really aren't that different. But it sure beats running 2 generations behind the current Android version on your 2 year old phone and getting security updates 5 months after a zero day exploit. But hey, you can always stay on the most current Android version (which is what, Snickers? Fun Dip?) if you buy a new Android phone every year.Bluetooth - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link
Whats wrong with new phone every year?Valantar - Thursday, September 8, 2016 - link
You mean besides the massive environmental damage caused by this, adherence to blind consumerism and paying through the nose for incremental changes? Oh, nothing much.ingwe - Thursday, September 8, 2016 - link
I can't agree more. Had my iPhone 5 for four years and plan on sticking with my iPhone SE for at least that.Donkey2008 - Saturday, September 10, 2016 - link
The "massive environmental damage"? That honestly almost made me spit out my coffee with laughter, but whatever you say hipster.Deelron - Thursday, September 8, 2016 - link
"thinking about dropping subsidizing new phones and making people PAY for the phone THEM SELF...."You may be a year or two behind, most "subsidies" now are 24 payments at 0% interest.
Qasar - Thursday, September 8, 2016 - link
Deelron..i meant.. paying for the phone outright at the time you get it.. in way.. making payments is still subsidizing...
bENDEJO - Friday, September 9, 2016 - link
"making payments is still subsidizing".No, it isn't. Once the phone is payed off, the payment goes away, and you're only paying for the service. Before, with contracts, the price of the service absorbed the cost of the device, and the bill didn't go down once the phone was paid off.
And you must have good enough credit to qualify for the payment plans. By your definition, any loan would be considered a subsidy - house, car, business, solar...
Do you consider your car loan a subsidy? I think not.
Donkey2008 - Saturday, September 10, 2016 - link
The funny thing is I am still on a grandfathered unlimited data plan with AT&T and my plan is still cheaper than the family-share plans that AT&T keeps insisting are cheaper because "you don't pay for the phone in your plan anymore".I pay exactly $95 + tax for unlimited data and text ($40 talk, $35 unlimited data, $20 unlimited text). The ONLY thing I lose is the ability to tether (although strangely I can tether to my Ram truck and create a hot spot).
The family share plans they tried to get me to switch to (unlimited text and talk):
6 GB - $100
10 GB - $120
16 GB - $130
So basically the carriers are full of cow poo poo IMO as far a single line customers. I guess if you had a family with 3-4 phones it makes sense, but again you are limited by the data.
Donkey2008 - Saturday, September 10, 2016 - link
Get a better job maybe?Brandon Chester - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link
Good catch. I keep getting pushed back onto the Canadian site so I didn't see it. I've updated the chart.pugster - Thursday, September 8, 2016 - link
There will be never a shortage of isheeps out there buying iphones. As for me, the costliest new phone that I brought recently was the Alcatel Onetouch idol 3 for about $200 when it was on sale. Not going to buy in the hype of overpriced phones anymore.Marlowe - Thursday, September 8, 2016 - link
Just like that, Apple dropped the price of the iPhone 6s by $200 or ~24% for the same storage. Today you get 128GB for the same price as 16GB yesterday. Sounds sweet. Tells you something about their insane profit margin.bENDEJO - Friday, September 9, 2016 - link
Yep, just shows you how much consumers were getting gouged for years.fanofanand - Friday, September 9, 2016 - link
I saw a recent Apple ad allowing people to upgrade their iPhones each and every year, for the low price of $32 per month. That's $384 per year for a phone! That's absurd! Add that to your AT&T or Verizon bill and you are paying $150 a month for a phone. I have the feeling that Apple's recent sales slide is only going to get worse.Wolfpup - Friday, September 9, 2016 - link
You're not forced to do it.And I do appreciate that they FINALLY lowered the iPhone's price in the form of the SE. Granted you have to be willing to take a smaller screen though, and now it's a year out of date...although that still makes it better than any other phone CPU/GPU, soooo...
Donkey2008 - Saturday, September 10, 2016 - link
That's the same for every smart phone. If you buy a Note 7 on the AT&T next plan it is virtually no different price wise from buying an iPhone Plus size (unless of course you are a typical Android user who finds $2 extra a month an earth-shattering experience).Cliff34 - Wednesday, September 14, 2016 - link
Is it just me or am I the only one that think it is weird how the new iPad lines have 32 GB as the lowest storage and don't even put in 64 GB? Not that it is a big deal for me since I barely fill up my iPad Mini.kevinspacy - Tuesday, September 4, 2018 - link
Amazing upgrades and new OS versions. I often visit price worms for knowing the best prices of all smartphones.