So it's Halloween. My street already has three houses with a folding table out front, bags of candy lined up so nobody has to touch a bowl a kid just stuck their whole hand into. Weird year. Anyway, not what I sat down to write about.
I've had the iPhone 12 for about a week now, picked up the 128GB in blue, $849, from the Apple Store near me the Friday after launch (the 23rd) because I couldn't be bothered to order online and wait for shipping. First thing I noticed wasn't the 5G, which I can't even use where I live, or the flat sides, which everyone's been talking about like it's 2010 again. It was the box. Thin little thing, no charger, no EarPods, just the phone and a USB-C to Lightning cable coiled up under it.
Apple's line is that this is about the environment: fewer accessories means smaller boxes means more boxes per pallet means fewer shipping trips. Tim Cook said something like this during the earnings call this week too, when reporters asked about it. And look, I don't hate the logic. Most of us have a drawer (I have an actual drawer, bottom one in the kitchen, next to the takeout menus nobody uses anymore) stuffed with old 5W bricks from three iPhones ago. Do we really need another one?
But here's my problem with it: they didn't drop the price. If this was purely an environmental move you'd think there'd be some acknowledgment that you're now buying a phone with less stuff in the box for the same money, or even a couple bucks off. Instead the entry price actually crept up this generation once you account for what used to be included. I ended up buying a $19 Apple 20W adapter separately because my old ones are all 5W and charging a phone this size off a 5W brick is like filling a bathtub with a teaspoon. So the "we're saving the planet" math gets a little less compelling once you're the one driving to Best Buy for a $19 cube.
The MagSafe thing is actually kind of great though, I'll give them that. Little magnetic puck on the back, snaps into place with a satisfying click that reminds me of the old MagSafe laptop chargers from years ago (RIP). I bought the charger separately too, obviously ($39, because nothing is included with anything anymore) and it's genuinely nice to just set the phone down on my desk at an angle without fumbling for the Lightning port in the dark. Whether it's actually faster than a regular cable in real use, I couldn't tell you. Feels about the same to me, but I'm not exactly running lab tests, I'm just a guy who wants his phone charged by morning.
Camera's better in ways I mostly can't articulate: night mode on the wide lens is noticeably improved, especially indoors under bad lighting, which is basically every room in my house. HDR photos look less obviously "processed" than they did on my old XS. That's the upgrade that'll actually matter to me day to day, more than the chip or the 5G modem I'm not using.
One more thing, and this is a small complaint but it's mine: the flat sides look great in photos and feel awful after twenty minutes of scrolling Twitter one-handed. My hand cramps a little in a way it never did with the rounded 11. I know, I know, first world problem of the century. I'm mentioning it anyway because everyone reviewing this phone talks about how "premium" the flat edges feel and nobody mentions that premium and comfortable aren't the same word.
This was also, apparently, a huge week for tech earnings generally — Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook all reported Thursday, and the market didn't love most of it, stocks were down across the board Wednesday on COVID resurgence fears before any of the earnings even came out. I'm not going to pretend I have anything smart to say about any of that. I just bought a phone and I like the camera and I'm annoyed about the charger. That's about the extent of my financial analysis for this week.
Going to go hand out candy now before the good stuff runs out and I'm left with the off-brand lollipops nobody wants.