iPhone 13 Pro Max The iPhone is not worth the price (anymore)

[1BadManVan]

Not sure why you're having these lagging issues with your 13 PM, my wife still uses my old 13 PM and my 2 kids have the regular 13's, all up to date and zero issues. Definitely dont have this experience with iPhones. Even my oldest who just got a 14 for Christmas, was using his 11 and it was now passed on to my mom and it still runs fantastic as well.

 

[Christopher Kim]

I own an Orpheus for starters. If you're familiar with Sennheiser products that might mean something to you. I also have that in many other areas of audio (and a HEAD I bought to argue with others).

Though I use Airpods/Pro often, if I actually decide I want to listen to music properly on the go I'll turn to the JH13 II's - that level of isolation actually starts to make portable lossless something other than placebo (for 16/44.1, let alone anything else), and that's when I'll turn to my jRMC-based self-hosting options to stream me an optimum compromise of my owned high-res music (because you don't necessarily want to store or stream 24/192 or DSD on a phone).

Wow, I got to listen to the Orpheus a number of years back when Sennheiser did an audio tour across North America with it. Alas we couldn't bring our own source, so it was hard to do super critical listening on music I knew well, but it was quite something!

FWIW, I'm also a *relative* audiophile, with a number of nicer headphones (Dan Clark Audio - back when it was MrSpeakers - Ether-C's closed-back, and an Audeze LCD-3 open-back), and a huge FLAC lossless collection that I listen to via Roon, with a Schiit Audio headphone DAC and Amp stack.

I also have Spotify / Sonos speakers throughout my house, and AirPods Pros that I use, for more easy listening (realistically now) the majority of the time. Both have their place and use!

 

[Shanghaichica]

It all depends on what you value. Some people would be ok with a £300 phone and couldn't justify spending £1,000+ on a phone. Then there are others who would not he happy with a £300 phone, would say the build quality isn't good enough, doesn't have a good enough camera, doesn't run fast enough and would be willing to spend £1,000+ to get what they perceive to be a quality product.

 

[Mega ST]

I agree over 1000 bucks is expensive for a device that might get dropped or stolen. I opted for the SE (5G). I think it is a great value and Apple is giving me everything I hoped for at a good price. I don't care about prestige but I like the modern technology inside.

 

[seggy]

Wow, I got to listen to the Orpheus a number of years back when Sennheiser did an audio tour across North America with it. Alas we couldn't bring our own source, so it was hard to do super critical listening on music I knew well, but it was quite something!

FWIW, I'm also a *relative* audiophile, with a number of nicer headphones (Dan Clark Audio - back when it was MrSpeakers - Ether-C's closed-back, and an Audeze LCD-3 open-back), and a huge FLAC lossless collection that I listen to via Roon, with a Schiit Audio headphone DAC and Amp stack.

I also have Spotify / Sonos speakers throughout my house, and AirPods Pros that I use, for more easy listening (realistically now) the majority of the time. Both have their place and use!

Yup.

I like poking the subjective and objective ultimates when it comes to home audio. But at the same time, I'm very aware that a lot of what I own is ultimately techbroniture.

And two can play at condescension as far as Andain's reply to my original post is concerned, but I have a feeling that I just might have the upper hand here.

I retired my Sonos setup a while back, and switched to yelling at random Homepods that I've carpeted my home with for the majority of the time I'm listening to something at home without paying attention. And I've effectively split listening to what I own vs what I subscribe to because I wanted a clearer distinction. Now my other multi-zone setup is jRMC based, mostly because I wanted the insurance of full high-res compatiblity and more capability to fiddle with stuff (and it also allows me to transcode/stream/sync to pretty much anything outside of the network... and if I had that kind of time, even e.g. edit library tags from outside). But you can probably guess I'm using the Homepods far more often.

Anyway, we're getting off topic... in terms of saying Andain may well have his(?) priorities and assumptions skewed.

 

[Downhilltenago]

I agree. I think everyone loves the reliability and stability of the OS. However, they don't have an option I like anymore. There lack of phone design options and features have turned me away.

 

[tarsins]

Are they expensive? Yes, but for most people the expense is worth the quality, reliability, and ease of use.

 

[Abazigal]

Apple was estimated to have sold 8 million more units this year.

Apple Ships More Smartphones Annually Than Samsung for First Time

Apple overtook Samsung as the top global smartphone manufacturer in 2023, according to preliminary data from market research firm IDC. If the data is accurate, it is the first time Samsung has lost the top spot to another company in 13 years. In 2013, Nokia held the number one spot, Samsung was...

forums.macrumors.com

So even as iPhones supposedly get more expensive, more and more people are buying them every year?

 

[seggy]

Apple was estimated to have sold 8 million more units this year.

Apple Ships More Smartphones Annually Than Samsung for First Time

Apple overtook Samsung as the top global smartphone manufacturer in 2023, according to preliminary data from market research firm IDC. If the data is accurate, it is the first time Samsung has lost the top spot to another company in 13 years. In 2013, Nokia held the number one spot, Samsung was...

forums.macrumors.com

So even as iPhones supposedly get more expensive, more and more people are buying them every year?

Across the world, contracts probably leads to "boiling the frog", hiding the real scale of increases for users. In a lot of countries, the majority of users (who qualify for credit) do not pay for the phone outright.

"oh it's $5 more a month on my three-year contract, I can afford that for the new shiny"
- especially when carriers offer more data on the same contract to make it more enticing, etc

 

[LarTeROn]

To me, Android has come on leaps and bounds the last few years. I never switched to iPhone because of the walled garden that IN THE PAST blocked crypto, private comms and payments.
However, my wife has an iPhone and it still seems a bit out of date. Do you have swipe gestures to navigate, or have to reach up to the back function on the top left?

Isn't the iPhone is simply resting on its monopolies of antitrust infrastructure like airdrop, iMessage and the app store to still be able to charge this price? What can an iPhone do that a x4 cheaper Xaiomi can't?

 

[JFLECHUGA]

When I see Android phones for 300,- it does make the iPhone look terribly expensive. The Androids might not be as fast, and the camera might not be as good, but they have 8GB or 12GB of RAM, huge storage, huge displays, and they get all the basics like navigation, web browsing, email and messaging done just as well. An iPhone that costs 4x or 5x as much does not give you a proportionally better experience. Better yes, but not 4x or 5x better.

I don't change the environment or the Apple ecosystem, it's been a long time since I migrated from Windows to Apple (by the 96s) I was saturated with Windows, right now I'm in a much more robust environment, fewer failures and safer.

On the subject of devices, I use each device for its purpose, apart from the communication between them. At last it's an investment (from my point of view)

 

[Basic75]

What can an iPhone do that a x4 cheaper Xaiomi can't?

Respect your privacy?

 

[JFLECHUGA]

What can an iPhone do that a x4 cheaper Xaiomi can't?

Respect your privacy?

 

[Warped9]

People keep saying iPhone is expensive, but Samsung has phones priced in the same range so the complaint is meaningless. I can easily say given my dislike of Android any phone with it is overpriced.

No one will convince anyone of anything otherwise, here.

 

[JFLECHUGA]

People keep saying iPhone is expensive, but Samsung has phones priced in the same range so the complaint is meaningless. I can easily say given my dislike of Android any phone with it is overpriced.

No one will convince anyone of anything otherwise, here.

I totally agree!!!

 

[JFLECHUGA]

I agree. I think everyone loves the reliability and stability of the OS. However, they don't have an option I like anymore. There lack of phone design options and features have turned me away.

At Apple, things are going a little slower than Android, but it's a great environment!!!😄😄😄

 

[JFLECHUGA]

I agree over 1000 bucks is expensive for a device that might get dropped or stolen. I opted for the SE (5G). I think it is a great value and Apple is giving me everything I hoped for at a good price. I don't care about prestige but I like the modern technology inside.

Prestige is what you give yourself, it doesn't give you what you have!! 👍🏻👍🏻

 

[Ctrlos]

This is a genuine question but I've always been curious as to what people with a 256gb+ phone actually stuff it with to require the storage. This isn't a 'I don't need it so why would anyone else?' post: I genuinely want to understand.

 

[Warped9]

This is a genuine question but I've always been curious as to what people with a 256gb+ phone actually stuff it with to require the storage. This isn't a 'I don't need it so why would anyone else?' post: I genuinely want to understand.

I have asked myself the same thing. My previous phone had 64gb and I used maybe half of it. My current phone has 128gb and I know I’ll never use even half that capacity.

Personally I suspect many people are digital pack rats, and I know with certainty many people don’t know how to manage their email and messages and they seem to photograph everything.

 

[JFLECHUGA]

This is a genuine question but I've always been curious as to what people with a 256gb+ phone actually stuff it with to require the storage. This isn't a 'I don't need it so why would anyone else?' post: I genuinely want to understand.

Good question!!, I also want to understand it, in my case I work with the memory of the device (128Gb) + the cloud, everything is managed properly.

 

[JFLECHUGA]

I have asked myself the same thing. My previous phone had 64gb and I used maybe half of it. My current phone has 128gb and I know I’ll never use even half that capacity.

Personally I suspect many people are digital pack rats, and I know with certainty many people don’t know how to manage their email and messages and they seem to photograph everything.

In my case, I went to 128 Gb because of the size of the apps, but not to save. I'm with you, brother!!😉

 

[Shanghaichica]

I have asked myself the same thing. My previous phone had 64gb and I used maybe half of it. My current phone has 128gb and I know I’ll never use even half that capacity.

Personally I suspect many people are digital pack rats, and I know with certainty many people don’t know how to manage their email and messages and they seem to photograph everything.

Whilst I don’t agree with having thousands of unread emails or not deleting emails that you’ve read and no longer need, some people don’t want piles of paper cluttering up their houses. Digital pack rat it is rather than having piles of loose paper.

 

[G5isAlive]

So holding on to your device for longer isn't really going to impact Apple financially the way you think it might. Apple doesn't require people to keep buying their devices. They just need people to keep using them.

and keep paying for those subscription services like extra cloud storage I am not denouncing Apple as evil capitalists, thats just the reality that they are a business and research to improve products cost money.

 

[G5isAlive]

An iPhone that costs 4x or 5x as much does not give you a proportionally better experience. Better yes, but not 4x or 5x better.

What industry scales such that a cost increase yields a commiserate performance increase? Gold jewelry?

For example a kia forte goes for 22k. It has an estimated top speed of 120mph. Price of a Lamborghini is 350 K. a 16 x cost increase. They are both cars. does the lambo have a top speed of 1900 mph? nope. A skilled driver can maybe only get 220 mph. Less than 2x faster. What a rip off!

Quality costs. The more rarified, the more higher that quality is, the more disproportionate higher it's going to cost. This is almost always true.

So in the end it comes down to the individual if its of sufficient value or not.

 

[ctjack]

This is a genuine question but I've always been curious as to what people with a 256gb+ phone actually stuff it with to require the storage. This isn't a 'I don't need it so why would anyone else?' post: I genuinely want to understand.

It depends. At some point i like my music to be available offline and it can take gigabytes depending on albums i download.

Hiking maps of app “maps me” can take tens or hundreds of gigabytes for US depending on which state you download - of course better to have all the states in it if memory allows. It is useful cause when hiking you may not have reception and this maps actually show all hidden trails not available on google maps and etc.

Movies for flights take gigabytes of space.

Good puzzle games take gigabytes of space(room series).

In conclusion you don’t need 256gb but if you are using 120gb out of 128gb available, then your phone starts lagging worse than iphone 4 no matter if it is 14pm or 15pro. That is because ssd in the phone perform at max speed only when 20-40 percent empty.
So even though you might have 128gb of space, realistically usable space is 80-90 gb. And that is when you should jump to 256gb.