The iPhone Sweet Spot (Premium)

Because of my focus on photography, I typically buy the most expensive iPhone every year. But there’s a new sweet spot for 2020. And it’s not the Pro models.

As I wrote previously in Wearable (In)decision (Premium), I go through a see-sawing period of indecisiveness with any purchase, though I’m happy to report that the wearable choice I just made, the Fitbit Versa 3 smartwatch, was the right one for me. It’s so nice to be certain about something like this for a change.

But I also go back and forth on other similar, frequently-used products, like smart speakers/whole house audio---I chose Sonos earlier this year but revisit this decision a lot, most recently with Google’s new Nest Audio speakers, which are excellent---headphones/earbuds, and even tablets, though the iPad is so far ahead of the rest of the industry, it’s not much more beyond idle curiosity. I’d probably do the same with laptops, but I’m lucky enough to have such a steady stream of review units that it’s never been an issue. It absolutely would be otherwise.

And then there are smartphones. This is a weird thing for me to stress over since several handsets, mostly flagships, seem to find their way to my house each year either via review units or purchases. And yet, it’s always a moment of great indecision when certain manufacturers---Google, Huawei, OnePlus, and Samsung, especially---announced new models. Oddly enough, this indecision includes Apple and the iPhone too.

I buy at least one iPhone every year. And I’ve purchased almost every iPhone that Apple has released over the years, with only a  few major exceptions like the iPhone 4 (endemic reliability problems) and the new iPhone SE (too small, dated design). Regardless, I’ve not used an iPhone as my so-called daily driver---I hate that term, but I can’t think of a better one---since 2014-2015 and the iPhone 6 Plus. That handset, incidentally, was Apple’s first phablet, and I’ve been skewing towards larger handsets ever since. But I’ve been using Android, not iPhone, ever since as well.

The reasons for that are obvious enough: I prefer Android to iOS, and while Apple made big leaps in computational photography with the iPhone 11/11 Pro lineups in late 2019, they still lag behind Huawei, Samsung, and Google (roughly in that order though Samsung has made its own big gains this year).

And yet, hope springs eternal. And each year, I’ve purchased whichever iPhone has the best camera system because ... well, you never know. Many seem to think that I “hate” Apple or whatever, but the truth is far more nuanced: No, I don’t like Apple’s smug, marketing-heavy public announcements, but its hardware products, in particular, are almost always excellent and I give them accordingly high marks in my reviews. With iOS 14 finally moving towards fixing my biggest concerns with this platform, I’m poised to return to iPhone if Apple just gets everything else right. And, again, a b...