backstreetboy
Honorary Master
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2011
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This is the one. The behemoth. Enjoy!
1. This took longer than expected since I had battery drain issues on my iPhone and Airpods. Factory resetting the airpods seemed to help and after contacting Afrihost my iPhone's battery life improved right away.
2. This will be a review of the cheapest (you can buy new) Apple products since contrary to popular belief, I didn't win the lotto and I want to find out if you really need to sell your house to get into the Apple ecosystem. Although this is not the best approach. More on that later.
AirPods 3
The build quality of them is great and if I turn them 3 'o clock they stay in my ear. I even dropped the left one from shoulder hight and they still work. These things are tiny and slippery. Pairing them is fast and easy as expected. Spatial audio I've turned off because I don't really see it as the next big thing in music and although it sounds fine I don't miss it. The sound quality of the AirPods are great and there's a good amount of bass as well.
TL;DR should you buy them?
At R4k they're expensive so if you can get them for R2k-R3k it's a no brainer. For R4k I'll rather add R2k and just get the Pro's that come with ANC and you can adjust the volume on the stem. Compared to the Huawei Freebirds 4i they sound pretty similar. The Huawei buds feels cheaper though but they come with ANC. They can be had for R999. Personally I like the Airpods and the great build quuality.
iPhone SE 2022
Now the two complaints about the phone is the screen size and battery life. The screen size I've gotten used to just the delete button in messages that gets cut off for some reason. The battery life is incredible. I get 4-6h screen on time. I last charged it yesterday morning. It also charges very fast. Compared to the 2020 version you'll get atleast 1h more SOT which for me is a big deal.
The OS
The setup is similar to Android apart from Siri struggling with my accent. I don't use the lock screen so we'll skip that and go to the home screen. On Android I love Kiss launcher and you can imitate it here on iOS. Basically it's a blank home screen and then you just search for the app you want. On Android there's a search bar at the bottom but here I just swipe down to initiate spotlight search. Works great and no need to install any app. In 2020 Apple finally embraced UX decisions Google made 12 years before and there's an "app drawer" now which is great to see. The wallpaper app also comes with solid colours which I love. On Android I had to install the Google Wallpapers app or have a black image saved on Google Photos. For some strange reason you have to change the wallpaper in the settings though. I found all changes have to be done through settings. I prefer the Android approach here where you can change the wallpaper from the home screen. Control Centre is great and has a few more controls out of the box. One big omission though is accessing settings through it. I've found a workaround and made a Shortcut widget for settings. It works but is suboptimal. Notifications work fine but I don't use it much even on Android so can't comment really. To dismiss a notification you have to swipe from right to left whereas I preferred the Android approach of you can swipe from any direction.
Settings are fine. What I don't like though is raise to wake is on by default but it's simple to turn off. I don't want my screen to go on when I put the phone in my pocket especially on a tiny battery as this one where you're trying to save battery life. For some reason lockscreen notifications also wake up the phone and you have to disable it on a per app basis. Luckily I turn off most app notifications but a global button would be welcome. Another gripe is that all apps you install will be at the bottom of the settings page. A submenu like on Android would be better and welcome. I love the dark mode as well since it's actually dark unlike Android which is more a dark grey
The app store is fine although I found it funny to see sponsored apps at the top. They're easy enough to ignore luckily. I can feel apps are bigger though since they take a bit longer to install. Apps like Whatsapp looks really great and has proper dark mode that turns black and not dark grey like Android. Some local apps like Tymebank feels subpar though. It is white whereas the Android version is black.
Apple pay works fine altough I don't like the double authentication. I've already unlocked the phone when I took it out of my pocket why do I need to authenticate again to make payment? I don't get it. You also need to use Stocard and save your loyalty cards to Stocard and only after can you import them into Apple Wallet one by one as a pass. The Google Wallet approach is simply better and you can add your loyalty cards directly in the app. Hopefully Apple is working on something similar.
Apple music is fine and comes with more music. I've found more obscure albums and EP's on there although I prefer the download section of Youtube Music. When switched on YTM will automagically download your most listened to playlists and albums. I also love the My Supermix playlist. To be fair I'll have to spend more time with Apple music.
The phone itself
I really like the build quality. It doesn't feel like Apple used any cheap components. The A15 Bionic is really fast. The earphone speaker sound really good and the loudpseaker punches above it’s weight and the phone even vibrate if you play music. The proximity sensor works as expected. On cheap Android phones it can be a hit or miss. Also the hardware silent button is a really useful addon. The camera focusses fast and I love it. I don't take much photos so I'm not going to comment on the quality. Daylight photos should be great though. There's even albeit slow 7.5 w Qi wireless charging but with the small battery it's more than fast enough though. All in all it's a really nice package.
TL;DR should you buy one?
Yes if you need a new phone fast then it's a good choice. Just make sure you actually do get the 2022 version. If you have time to wait and can go secondhand then I'd rather look at the iPhone 12. It'll look newer and have better battery life. They go for around R10k now which is around same price. You'll just probably have to replace the battery.
Compared to Android?
Well you can get the Samsung Galaxy A73 or Mi 12 lite for between R8k -R10k. The Samsung will get 4 Android updates so the iPhone should win with atleast 1 more update if not more. Also only the more expensive Xiaomi phones get 3 updates.
Going cheaper?
Well yes you can spend R3k-R5k and then just upgrade every second year but these cheap phones only get 1 or if you're lucky 2 Android updates. So again you'll be short by atleast a year.
Personally I'm happy with my choice.
1. This took longer than expected since I had battery drain issues on my iPhone and Airpods. Factory resetting the airpods seemed to help and after contacting Afrihost my iPhone's battery life improved right away.
2. This will be a review of the cheapest (you can buy new) Apple products since contrary to popular belief, I didn't win the lotto and I want to find out if you really need to sell your house to get into the Apple ecosystem. Although this is not the best approach. More on that later.
AirPods 3
The build quality of them is great and if I turn them 3 'o clock they stay in my ear. I even dropped the left one from shoulder hight and they still work. These things are tiny and slippery. Pairing them is fast and easy as expected. Spatial audio I've turned off because I don't really see it as the next big thing in music and although it sounds fine I don't miss it. The sound quality of the AirPods are great and there's a good amount of bass as well.
TL;DR should you buy them?
At R4k they're expensive so if you can get them for R2k-R3k it's a no brainer. For R4k I'll rather add R2k and just get the Pro's that come with ANC and you can adjust the volume on the stem. Compared to the Huawei Freebirds 4i they sound pretty similar. The Huawei buds feels cheaper though but they come with ANC. They can be had for R999. Personally I like the Airpods and the great build quuality.
iPhone SE 2022
Now the two complaints about the phone is the screen size and battery life. The screen size I've gotten used to just the delete button in messages that gets cut off for some reason. The battery life is incredible. I get 4-6h screen on time. I last charged it yesterday morning. It also charges very fast. Compared to the 2020 version you'll get atleast 1h more SOT which for me is a big deal.
The OS
The setup is similar to Android apart from Siri struggling with my accent. I don't use the lock screen so we'll skip that and go to the home screen. On Android I love Kiss launcher and you can imitate it here on iOS. Basically it's a blank home screen and then you just search for the app you want. On Android there's a search bar at the bottom but here I just swipe down to initiate spotlight search. Works great and no need to install any app. In 2020 Apple finally embraced UX decisions Google made 12 years before and there's an "app drawer" now which is great to see. The wallpaper app also comes with solid colours which I love. On Android I had to install the Google Wallpapers app or have a black image saved on Google Photos. For some strange reason you have to change the wallpaper in the settings though. I found all changes have to be done through settings. I prefer the Android approach here where you can change the wallpaper from the home screen. Control Centre is great and has a few more controls out of the box. One big omission though is accessing settings through it. I've found a workaround and made a Shortcut widget for settings. It works but is suboptimal. Notifications work fine but I don't use it much even on Android so can't comment really. To dismiss a notification you have to swipe from right to left whereas I preferred the Android approach of you can swipe from any direction.
Settings are fine. What I don't like though is raise to wake is on by default but it's simple to turn off. I don't want my screen to go on when I put the phone in my pocket especially on a tiny battery as this one where you're trying to save battery life. For some reason lockscreen notifications also wake up the phone and you have to disable it on a per app basis. Luckily I turn off most app notifications but a global button would be welcome. Another gripe is that all apps you install will be at the bottom of the settings page. A submenu like on Android would be better and welcome. I love the dark mode as well since it's actually dark unlike Android which is more a dark grey
The app store is fine although I found it funny to see sponsored apps at the top. They're easy enough to ignore luckily. I can feel apps are bigger though since they take a bit longer to install. Apps like Whatsapp looks really great and has proper dark mode that turns black and not dark grey like Android. Some local apps like Tymebank feels subpar though. It is white whereas the Android version is black.
Apple pay works fine altough I don't like the double authentication. I've already unlocked the phone when I took it out of my pocket why do I need to authenticate again to make payment? I don't get it. You also need to use Stocard and save your loyalty cards to Stocard and only after can you import them into Apple Wallet one by one as a pass. The Google Wallet approach is simply better and you can add your loyalty cards directly in the app. Hopefully Apple is working on something similar.
Apple music is fine and comes with more music. I've found more obscure albums and EP's on there although I prefer the download section of Youtube Music. When switched on YTM will automagically download your most listened to playlists and albums. I also love the My Supermix playlist. To be fair I'll have to spend more time with Apple music.
The phone itself
I really like the build quality. It doesn't feel like Apple used any cheap components. The A15 Bionic is really fast. The earphone speaker sound really good and the loudpseaker punches above it’s weight and the phone even vibrate if you play music. The proximity sensor works as expected. On cheap Android phones it can be a hit or miss. Also the hardware silent button is a really useful addon. The camera focusses fast and I love it. I don't take much photos so I'm not going to comment on the quality. Daylight photos should be great though. There's even albeit slow 7.5 w Qi wireless charging but with the small battery it's more than fast enough though. All in all it's a really nice package.
TL;DR should you buy one?
Yes if you need a new phone fast then it's a good choice. Just make sure you actually do get the 2022 version. If you have time to wait and can go secondhand then I'd rather look at the iPhone 12. It'll look newer and have better battery life. They go for around R10k now which is around same price. You'll just probably have to replace the battery.
Compared to Android?
Well you can get the Samsung Galaxy A73 or Mi 12 lite for between R8k -R10k. The Samsung will get 4 Android updates so the iPhone should win with atleast 1 more update if not more. Also only the more expensive Xiaomi phones get 3 updates.
Going cheaper?
Well yes you can spend R3k-R5k and then just upgrade every second year but these cheap phones only get 1 or if you're lucky 2 Android updates. So again you'll be short by atleast a year.
Personally I'm happy with my choice.
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