I’m on the iPhone Upgrade Program, I believe the X payments are spread over two years. If I wait this one out, by this time next year my X is paid off, and I own it outright. I can then buy the Whatever ‘19, continue the same payments I’m used to, but have an extra X to do with as I please (sell, give to family, etc). Right?
I'm still on an iPhone 7 Plus and I'm not sure I'm going to update this year even though I paid up my iUP account last month. I checked the price on Gazelle a couple weeks ago and they were willing to give me $330 for it, or about a 1/3 of the price for a 64GB iPhone XS Max. I wouldn't sell to Gazelle, but that was easier than trying to discern an average price on eBay or Craig's List.
EBay is hit or miss. After seeing other AW3's go for close to $300, I listed mine (Nike+, cellular, 42mm, still under warranty, plus two additional bands)...got 258. By the time fees are removed, it comes out to $2 *less* than the Apple trade-in value of $225! Doh....
I haven't used eBay for years to sell anything because of the fees.
I assume they don't accept Apple Pay payments and will probably the longest holdout for major online stores the way Walmart will probably be the longest holdout for major B&M retailers (although I think Walmart takes Apple Pay in their iOS app).
In the past several years, if I was going to sell an Apple product I would usually just do it through Apple. Not the best way to maximize your cash, but since you can do it when you're buying your new iPhone it had a convenience factor that others can't match.
I’m on the iPhone Upgrade Program, I believe the X payments are spread over two years. If I wait this one out, by this time next year my X is paid off, and I own it outright. I can then buy the Whatever ‘19, continue the same payments I’m used to, but have an extra X to do with as I please (sell, give to family, etc). Right?
I'm still on an iPhone 7 Plus and I'm not sure I'm going to update this year even though I paid up my iUP account last month. I checked the price on Gazelle a couple weeks ago and they were willing to give me $330 for it, or about a 1/3 of the price for a 64GB iPhone XS Max. I wouldn't sell to Gazelle, but that was easier than trying to discern an average price on eBay or Craig's List.
EBay is hit or miss. After seeing other AW3's go for close to $300, I listed mine (Nike+, cellular, 42mm, still under warranty, plus two additional bands)...got 258. By the time fees are removed, it comes out to $2 *less* than the Apple trade-in value of $225! Doh....
I haven't used eBay for years to sell anything because of the fees.
I assume they don't accept Apple Pay payments and will probably the longest holdout for major online stores the way Walmart will probably be the longest holdout for major B&M retailers (although I think Walmart takes Apple Pay in their iOS app).
In the past several years, if I was going to sell an Apple product I would usually just do it through Apple. Not the best way to maximize your cash, but since you can do it when you're buying your new iPhone it had a convenience factor that others can't match.
For a while eBay owned PayPal and so both sets of fees went to their same pockets. As I understand they've sold it and are moving toward a Dutch company for auction payments in order to lower fees. I don't get why they couldn't have just lowered fees when they owned the payment processor.
I had gone years without making an eBay purchase until last month when I made two. One for a pair of sunglasses because I wasn't going to be Sunglass Hut $400 for the same pair I can get for $130 on eBay. That took a CC. The other was an iTunes GC that was 15–20% off, but they only accepted PayPal—which I don't have any longer—so I had a friend make the purchase and then reimbursed them via Apple Pay Cash. No idea why that wouldn't take a CC.
I never did check the eBay app for iOS so maybe that would allow Apple Pay. I'll have to remember that the time time I use eBay in the distant future.
The auction for the iTunes GC that you mentioned was likely from Paypal Digital Gifts which frequently puts on these promotions. Naturally, Paypal wants you to use their payment service so that they don't loose any money to fees on a discounted GC.
I'm not a big fan of either eBay nor Paypal, but I do use both of them several times a year. eBay is a good place to buy used or odd items (spare parts, accessories, collectors items, etc.), but it is not as lucrative for selling because of the fees. As @StrangeDays mentioned, it is sometimes hit or miss. I find that you can mitigate some of the misses by clear listings with lots of pictures and selling items (especially Apple items) with all accessories and original packaging. Also, you should start the listing at the lowest price you would take for the item (contrary to the advice eBay gives sellers to start listings at $0.99) in order to assure that you don't take less for an item than you would be happy with figuring the cut fees and so on will take. I find this to have little impact to final sale price (as opposed to items with reserve prices set), YMMV. I only have a Paypal account for eBay as many sellers only accept Paypal. This owing to the close relationship the two companies once had which was once even enforced by eBay mandating that Paypal must be accepted for payment in most auctions (in the US). Now Paypal bought Xoom to get into international payments and I might find some value there for easy international funds transfer, but I plan to use ApplePay through eBay as much as possible when it hits.
After overcoming a couple of migration hiccups going from iPhone 6 Plus to iPhone XS Max I am totally thrilled with the new device. I thought that losing TouchId and the home button would take some getting used to but I'm already past that point in less than 24 hours. I keep thinking that I forgot to set a passcode or set the display timeout too long because the Max is always ready to go as soon as I touch it. The XS Max is one extremely smooth and responsive device.
I laid an Xs Max on top of my 6+ at the Apple Store yesterday and, externally they were almost identical. But the screen on the XsMax seemed closer in size to my iPad Mini. It was incredible. Plus the X, particularly in the gold color was absolutely beautiful. It was VERY tempting!
But, that said, my 6+ is running so darn well under iOS12 that I simply can't really justify spending well over $1K for phone right now.
Wait! OVER $1K? Yeh, even the Xs is well over a grand for me: Base: $1,000
I tried taking a picture with the front-facing camera and noticed that it seems to be applying some kind of "beauty filter" like a lot of the Chinese Android phones have started doing. Under the wrong conditions I look like a wax figure of myself. Using third party camera apps doesn't get rid of it. Apple really needs to turn this crap off.
It is probably a tonal mapping alg that does it. It is part of the process to collapse high dynamic range back into LDR..
I upgraded from my iPhone 6 to a XS and it's a HUGE update. That's what I expect when I upgrade every 4 years. So my next iPhone will be late 2022. I am loving FaceID. I love the larger screen in about the same size overall phone body. I have a 12.9" iPad Pro I got in Nov of last year, so it's not quite a year old and I want to upgrade to a new one with FaceID also. I'm getting used to FaceID on the phone and going back to a button on my iPad is a little jarring. Apple made the right move there. I didn't think I'd love FaceID as much as I do, but as much as I'm using TouchID to gain access to some of my apps, and being able to log into my account on web sites though Lastpass, FaceID just works so well.
Just picked up the XS. came from an S9 Plus and a 7 Plus before that.
I thought id like the MAX , having come from big screen phones prior.
But I didn’t like the feel of it, whereas the XS felt so much lighter and easier on the hand plus the screen seemed a bit brighter on the XS. Pretty much the perfect size.
Plus it helps that the XS has all the goodies that the XS Max has too, and slightly cheaper. Each to their own though. I can understand why people want more screen too.
And the cost thing ... yes it was expensive , but I got more for the S9 Plus on trade in than I expected, so if you are rolling forward with a trade in, probably not as expensive as you think.
I tried taking a picture with the front-facing camera and noticed that it seems to be applying some kind of "beauty filter" like a lot of the Chinese Android phones have started doing. Under the wrong conditions I look like a wax figure of myself. Using third party camera apps doesn't get rid of it. Apple really needs to turn this crap off.
I just did the same thing, and I can assure you that the image was brutally honest. You might try cleaning the screen in front of your front-facing lens. Could be you’ve used your phone as a phone and picked up some oil from your ear. That could result in an effect much like the old Vaseline-on-the-camera-lens trick that Hollywood used back in the 1930s to give their starlets that ‘glow’ for their close-ups.
After overcoming a couple of migration hiccups going from iPhone 6 Plus to iPhone XS Max I am totally thrilled with the new device. I thought that losing TouchId and the home button would take some getting used to but I'm already past that point in less than 24 hours. I keep thinking that I forgot to set a passcode or set the display timeout too long because the Max is always ready to go as soon as I touch it. The XS Max is one extremely smooth and responsive device.
I laid an Xs Max on top of my 6+ at the Apple Store yesterday and, externally they were almost identical. But the screen on the XsMax seemed closer in size to my iPad Mini. It was incredible. Plus the X, particularly in the gold color was absolutely beautiful. It was VERY tempting!
But, that said, my 6+ is running so darn well under iOS12 that I simply can't really justify spending well over $1K for phone right now.
Wait! OVER $1K? Yeh, even the Xs is well over a grand for me: Base: $1,000
256Gb: $150 Applecare $200 Theft & Loss: $100
Sales tax: $100
-----------------------------------
Total: $1,550
If you're happy with your 6 Plus, stick with it. I had mine for nearly 4 years and when the battery puffed up a few weeks ago I got a brand new 6 Plus for $29. My spouse has a 4s, which is somewhat trying to use for anything other than making phone calls. So the ancient 4s gets replaced by a "new" 6 Plus and I get a new XS Max that will last at least 5 years. That's $25 smackers a month for something that I use at least 3-4 hours a day based on the new screen time truth meter. That's 28 cents an hour for actual hands-on and in-my-face usage. The rest of the time it sits on my desk or in my pocket waiting to help me out in innumerable ways and keeping me connected to the rest of the world. My 6 Plus was $949 plus Apple Care and tax, so it was probably around $1100 out the door. So over its time with me it cost me about 33 cents an hour to use, assuming I was using it about 3 hours per day for 4 years. But now it gets handed off to a family member and will last another 2-3 years, further driving its consumption costs down.
When you look at the consumption cost of an iPhone and see it as an appliance that exists solely to serve you, it is incredibly affordable for what it does and for something that is used constantly. Sure, it's not a piece of artwork that just hangs on your wall to elicit a smile or impress visitors or a fancy motorcycle that fancies up your garage and gets ridden once a week but only when the weather is absolutely perfect, so it's intrinsic value as material bling is somewhat limited. But as a service appliance it does a remarkable job for a tiny cost per unit of consumption. If the "tiny cost" isn't tiny enough there are many other alternatives out there that provide similar levels of utility for even less than the 28 cents per hour that I'm shelling out for the XS Max. Heck, the service costs associated with keeping my phone connected to voice, data, storage, entertainment, and streaming music dwarf the cost of the device. Netflix alone costs me about half per month what it costs me to own the XS Max over its expected lifetime and I can guarantee that I do not spend 3 hours per day (or 90 hours per month) using Netflix. Same deal with Apple Music. The only device that I use more intensively than my iPhone is my iMac. Like it or not, we are living in an era where smartphones are probably the single most frequently used personal consumer product that we consume. I've always adhered to a philosophy that investing in great tools is money well spent, and the iPhone has proven to be a great tool.
I’m on the iPhone Upgrade Program, I believe the X payments are spread over two years. If I wait this one out, by this time next year my X is paid off, and I own it outright. I can then buy the Whatever ‘19, continue the same payments I’m used to, but have an extra X to do with as I please (sell, give to family, etc). Right?
I'm still on an iPhone 7 Plus and I'm not sure I'm going to update this year even though I paid up my iUP account last month. I checked the price on Gazelle a couple weeks ago and they were willing to give me $330 for it, or about a 1/3 of the price for a 64GB iPhone XS Max. I wouldn't sell to Gazelle, but that was easier than trying to discern an average price on eBay or Craig's List.
EBay is hit or miss. After seeing other AW3's go for close to $300, I listed mine (Nike+, cellular, 42mm, still under warranty, plus two additional bands)...got 258. By the time fees are removed, it comes out to $2 *less* than the Apple trade-in value of $225! Doh....
I haven't used eBay for years to sell anything because of the fees.
I assume they don't accept Apple Pay payments and will probably the longest holdout for major online stores the way Walmart will probably be the longest holdout for major B&M retailers (although I think Walmart takes Apple Pay in their iOS app).
In the past several years, if I was going to sell an Apple product I would usually just do it through Apple. Not the best way to maximize your cash, but since you can do it when you're buying your new iPhone it had a convenience factor that others can't match.
After overcoming a couple of migration hiccups going from iPhone 6 Plus to iPhone XS Max I am totally thrilled with the new device. I thought that losing TouchId and the home button would take some getting used to but I'm already past that point in less than 24 hours. I keep thinking that I forgot to set a passcode or set the display timeout too long because the Max is always ready to go as soon as I touch it. The XS Max is one extremely smooth and responsive device.
I laid an Xs Max on top of my 6+ at the Apple Store yesterday and, externally they were almost identical. But the screen on the XsMax seemed closer in size to my iPad Mini. It was incredible. Plus the X, particularly in the gold color was absolutely beautiful. It was VERY tempting!
But, that said, my 6+ is running so darn well under iOS12 that I simply can't really justify spending well over $1K for phone right now.
Wait! OVER $1K? Yeh, even the Xs is well over a grand for me: Base: $1,000
256Gb: $150 Applecare $200 Theft & Loss: $100
Sales tax: $100
-----------------------------------
Total: $1,550
If you're happy with your 6 Plus, stick with it. I had mine for nearly 4 years and when the battery puffed up a few weeks ago I got a brand new 6 Plus for $29. My spouse has a 4s, which is somewhat trying to use for anything other than making phone calls. So the ancient 4s gets replaced by a "new" 6 Plus and I get a new XS Max that will last at least 5 years. That's $25 smackers a month for something that I use at least 3-4 hours a day based on the new screen time truth meter. That's 28 cents an hour for actual hands-on and in-my-face usage. The rest of the time it sits on my desk or in my pocket waiting to help me out in innumerable ways and keeping me connected to the rest of the world. My 6 Plus was $949 plus Apple Care and tax, so it was probably around $1100 out the door. So over its time with me it cost me about 33 cents an hour to use, assuming I was using it about 3 hours per day for 4 years. But now it gets handed off to a family member and will last another 2-3 years, further driving its consumption costs down.
When you look at the consumption cost of an iPhone and see it as an appliance that exists solely to serve you, it is incredibly affordable for what it does and for something that is used constantly. Sure, it's not a piece of artwork that just hangs on your wall to elicit a smile or impress visitors or a fancy motorcycle that fancies up your garage and gets ridden once a week but only when the weather is absolutely perfect, so it's intrinsic value as material bling is somewhat limited. But as a service appliance it does a remarkable job for a tiny cost per unit of consumption. If the "tiny cost" isn't tiny enough there are many other alternatives out there that provide similar levels of utility for even less than the 28 cents per hour that I'm shelling out for the XS Max. Heck, the service costs associated with keeping my phone connected to voice, data, storage, entertainment, and streaming music dwarf the cost of the device. Netflix alone costs me about half per month what it costs me to own the XS Max over its expected lifetime and I can guarantee that I do not spend 3 hours per day (or 90 hours per month) using Netflix. Same deal with Apple Music. The only device that I use more intensively than my iPhone is my iMac. Like it or not, we are living in an era where smartphones are probably the single most frequently used personal consumer product that we consume. I've always adhered to a philosophy that investing in great tools is money well spent, and the iPhone has proven to be a great tool.
Solid, solid, logic. Mr Spock would be proud! (and I don't know of any higher compliment!)
@neil, with all the computation that goes into the photos and the fact that you can change the DoF after taking a picture, does it increase the overall size of the images? What happens when you transfer it to Photos on the Mac and then if you export the unmodified original to a folder?
My wholly unscientific test suggests images are notably larger. Random sampling of five HEIC images captured recently on iOS 12:
My observations in migrating from X to XS Max: • Face ID is much faster. Rarely do I even notice it occurring. With the X, it was so slow that my eyes would routinely go to the padlock to make sure Face ID was working. The XS (Max) unlocks so quickly, there's no time to wonder if Face ID worked. • The phone is much more responsive overall. • Color photos have a lot more POP and, as the article mentions, the focus speed and low-light performance are amazing. • 512 GB means I will never have to ponder what to delete. • Even with just 2 bars, LTE upload and download speeds are comparable to my premium cable broadband service. • The "big" keyboard I missed from the Plus phones is back! • Websites are usable with larger fonts from the Plus days again. • Qualitatively, the XS Max battery life is OK but doesn't seem as long as the X (which I found to be amazing).
N.B. After using Face ID, Touch ID doesn't just seem quaint, it seems antique.
Responses to the above: 1) Granted, I enable the "assistive touch" function on my iPhone so as to prolong my home button and assuming this feature is available on X I could see this as a better replacement for TouchID than the new gestures required to close apps etc. 2) I think the phone being more responsive has little to do with A12 vs A11. In the benchmarks the only noticeable improvement was in the metal score. The single and multi-core scores are very similar from A12 to A11. The likely culprit here is iOS12. This has been by far the best release in terms of performance increase that I can remember, dating back to the first iPhone I owned (iPhone 3G). I have a 64GB SE and did a clean install with iOS12 and it's been buttery smooth. I know there've been some other hangups with iOS12 on other phones but in terms of speed on the device iOS12 has been fantastic. 3) 512GB means you just spent a crud ton of money to achieve laptop like storage. While I do lots of videography and can certainly appreciate storage, for the price Apple charges, forget it. I'm with the majority here who says baseline should be 128GB and if that was the baseline, that's exactly where my money would go. Anything beyond that is complete excess given Apple's pricing. Yes, it's NVME storage and it's fast and wonderful, but Apple is still gouging here for memory increase. 4) I'm not sure what your premium broadband service speeds are, but I have fiber and my speeds in home are 100mbps upload and download. Even if the XS has much better LTE capabilities I would be SHOCKED if AT&T had the service to meet it here in Central Florida...or Verizon for that matter. I consistently get about 14-17mbps download/6-10mbps upload here and it's been that way for a long time. Haven't seen 20mbps+ since about 3 months after the 5S came out since these networks clearly have no intention of actually improving backhaul but rather like to publish numbers that are absolutely false in the real world. 5) the big keyboard is a to each his own thing. I went into Best Buy yesterday to handle the XS and it didn't take me 30 seconds to realize how disgustingly large it is. If I have to upgrade it will be from SE to 7. I'm just still holding out my 1/2 ounce of hope Apple might surprise me in a few months with an SE 2. I really wish there would be enough of a cry for that size from the current faithful to make Apple think twice about canning it. Aside from the fact that they make their phones entirely out of GLASS now. Every drop test with these phones shatters them at about 3 feet. Since Apple obviously can't figure out how to make a wireless charger, there's no other reason to be using glass. Bring back metal and stop making the most handled device in people's lives out of the least shatterproof material out there. Would you make a car key out of glass? To me this is an equivalent comparison in proving Apple's stupidity and stubbornness. 6) I'm sure web sites are fantastic on the bigger screen. You know what though? They're even better on an iPad. ...and a laptop is better than that ...and a TV is better than that. As a video guy and a small business owner there's no way on earth a phone will ever replace my computer so rather than glue my head to a mini screen all day, ignoring the roses (and people) around me, I'd rather have the screen be capable of light lifting but be durable and pocketable. We used to make fun of people for having a "Zack Morris Phone" and now we celebrate this? This is progress? 7) No comment on battery life other than Apple thinks good battery life is just getting through the work day. I'd like to come home and have 50% remaining still, at least. Get me through a day and a half in case I forget to charge. In my case I keep chargers in both cars, the office and in my house. Good battery life would eliminate this.
I still think FaceID is a complete gimmick and there should be touch, even if it's just integrated into the screen. They built 9 years of phones on TouchID and taught people how to use that as the primary interface...and then changed it. What's next? Introduction of a physical keyboard as the new standard? The Blackberry people would be happy I'm sure, but the rest of us would be quite confused by Apple's idea of "progress."
Anyway, it's gotten so ridiculous that even an 11 year old can find plenty of ways to roast Apple and the faithful fan boys: https://youtu.be/8tmF2XAWoHg
They built 9 years of phones on TouchID and taught people how to use that as the primary interface...and then changed it.
Touch Id has been around for 5 years, not 9 years.
Face ID is still slower than TouchID was and in my opinion it's still not as secure as TouchID, nor is the lack of a home button a benefit in terms of interface.
You somehow tried and compared Face Id with Touch Id in Best Buy to be able to make such statements?
Another person going on and on about the SE being discontinued. Which is really what your BS rant is all about. Maybe if the XR doesn't do as well as they think.. who knows we could see that smaller size iPhone again.
My observations in migrating from X to XS Max: • Face ID is much faster. Rarely do I even notice it occurring. With the X, it was so slow that my eyes would routinely go to the padlock to make sure Face ID was working. The XS (Max) unlocks so quickly, there's no time to wonder if Face ID worked. • The phone is much more responsive overall. • Color photos have a lot more POP and, as the article mentions, the focus speed and low-light performance are amazing. • 512 GB means I will never have to ponder what to delete. • Even with just 2 bars, LTE upload and download speeds are comparable to my premium cable broadband service. • The "big" keyboard I missed from the Plus phones is back! • Websites are usable with larger fonts from the Plus days again. • Qualitatively, the XS Max battery life is OK but doesn't seem as long as the X (which I found to be amazing).
N.B. After using Face ID, Touch ID doesn't just seem quaint, it seems antique.
Responses to the above: 1) Face ID is still slower than TouchID was and in my opinion it's still not as secure as TouchID, nor is the lack of a home button a benefit in terms of interface. Granted, I enable the "assistive touch" function on my iPhone so as to prolong my home button and assuming this feature is available on X I could see this as a better replacement for TouchID than the new gestures required to close apps etc. 2) I think the phone being more responsive has little to do with A12 vs A11. In the benchmarks the only noticeable improvement was in the metal score. The single and multi-core scores are very similar from A12 to A11. The likely culprit here is iOS12. This has been by far the best release in terms of performance increase that I can remember, dating back to the first iPhone I owned (iPhone 3G). I have a 64GB SE and did a clean install with iOS12 and it's been buttery smooth. I know there've been some other hangups with iOS12 on other phones but in terms of speed on the device iOS12 has been fantastic. 3) 512GB means you just spent a crud ton of money to achieve laptop like storage. While I do lots of videography and can certainly appreciate storage, for the price Apple charges, forget it. I'm with the majority here who says baseline should be 128GB and if that was the baseline, that's exactly where my money would go. Anything beyond that is complete excess given Apple's pricing. Yes, it's NVME storage and it's fast and wonderful, but Apple is still gouging here for memory increase. 4) I'm not sure what your premium broadband service speeds are, but I have fiber and my speeds in home are 100mbps upload and download. Even if the XS has much better LTE capabilities I would be SHOCKED if AT&T had the service to meet it here in Central Florida...or Verizon for that matter. I consistently get about 14-17mbps download/6-10mbps upload here and it's been that way for a long time. Haven't seen 20mbps+ since about 3 months after the 5S came out since these networks clearly have no intention of actually improving backhaul but rather like to publish numbers that are absolutely false in the real world. 5) the big keyboard is a to each his own thing. I went into Best Buy yesterday to handle the XS and it didn't take me 30 seconds to realize how disgustingly large it is. If I have to upgrade it will be from SE to 7. I'm just still holding out my 1/2 ounce of hope Apple might surprise me in a few months with an SE 2. I really wish there would be enough of a cry for that size from the current faithful to make Apple think twice about canning it. Aside from the fact that they make their phones entirely out of GLASS now. Every drop test with these phones shatters them at about 3 feet. Since Apple obviously can't figure out how to make a wireless charger, there's no other reason to be using glass. Bring back metal and stop making the most handled device in people's lives out of the least shatterproof material out there. Would you make a car key out of glass? To me this is an equivalent comparison in proving Apple's stupidity and stubbornness. 6) I'm sure web sites are fantastic on the bigger screen. You know what though? They're even better on an iPad. ...and a laptop is better than that ...and a TV is better than that. As a video guy and a small business owner there's no way on earth a phone will ever replace my computer so rather than glue my head to a mini screen all day, ignoring the roses (and people) around me, I'd rather have the screen be capable of light lifting but be durable and pocketable. We used to make fun of people for having a "Zack Morris Phone" and now we celebrate this? This is progress? 7) No comment on battery life other than Apple thinks good battery life is just getting through the work day. I'd like to come home and have 50% remaining still, at least. Get me through a day and a half in case I forget to charge. In my case I keep chargers in both cars, the office and in my house. Good battery life would eliminate this.
I still think FaceID is a complete gimmick and there should be touch, even if it's just integrated into the screen. They built 9 years of phones on TouchID and taught people how to use that as the primary interface...and then changed it. What's next? Introduction of a physical keyboard as the new standard? The Blackberry people would be happy I'm sure, but the rest of us would be quite confused by Apple's idea of "progress."
Anyway, it's gotten so ridiculous that even an 11 year old can find plenty of ways to roast Apple and the faithful fan boys: https://youtu.be/8tmF2XAWoHg
Progress. It is a difficult concept for some. FaceID is almost "doing nothing". How can you suggest TouchID is better?
XS might be great but Cellular reception on iOS has so far been terrible on 5s and 6s in the family. So bad as to render the phones practically useless outside of wifi range. Can't use Messages, Safari, and any apps that require connection to server. Apple better fix this soon.
Why do you think Apple cares about this? Go tell your Network provider about this.
Unfortunately, like Unbox Therapy said, for the price the iPhone XS is simply just not worth it. If you have the money and are feeling like you would be willing to spend the extra money. sure. But for the average consumer, this just costs too much money to justify what you get. I would consider very carefully this decision despite what this guy says.
Unfortunately, like Unbox Therapy said, for the price the iPhone XS is simply just not worth it. If you have the money and are feeling like you would be willing to spend the extra money. sure. But for the average consumer, this just costs too much money to justify what you get. I would consider very carefully this decision despite what this guy says.
Comments
The auction for the iTunes GC that you mentioned was likely from Paypal Digital Gifts which frequently puts on these promotions. Naturally, Paypal wants you to use their payment service so that they don't loose any money to fees on a discounted GC.
I'm not a big fan of either eBay nor Paypal, but I do use both of them several times a year. eBay is a good place to buy used or odd items (spare parts, accessories, collectors items, etc.), but it is not as lucrative for selling because of the fees. As @StrangeDays mentioned, it is sometimes hit or miss. I find that you can mitigate some of the misses by clear listings with lots of pictures and selling items (especially Apple items) with all accessories and original packaging. Also, you should start the listing at the lowest price you would take for the item (contrary to the advice eBay gives sellers to start listings at $0.99) in order to assure that you don't take less for an item than you would be happy with figuring the cut fees and so on will take. I find this to have little impact to final sale price (as opposed to items with reserve prices set), YMMV.
I only have a Paypal account for eBay as many sellers only accept Paypal. This owing to the close relationship the two companies once had which was once even enforced by eBay mandating that Paypal must be accepted for payment in most auctions (in the US). Now Paypal bought Xoom to get into international payments and I might find some value there for easy international funds transfer, but I plan to use ApplePay through eBay as much as possible when it hits.
Wait! OVER $1K? Yeh, even the Xs is well over a grand for me:
Base: $1,000
Applecare $200
Theft & Loss: $100
came from an S9 Plus and a 7 Plus before that.
I thought id like the MAX , having come from big screen phones prior.
But I didn’t like the feel of it, whereas the XS felt so much lighter and easier on the hand plus the screen seemed a bit brighter on the XS. Pretty much the perfect size.
Plus it helps that the XS has all the goodies that the XS Max has too, and slightly cheaper. Each to their own though. I can understand why people want more screen too.
And the cost thing ... yes it was expensive , but I got more for the S9 Plus on trade in than I expected, so if you are rolling forward with a trade in, probably not as expensive as you think.
When you look at the consumption cost of an iPhone and see it as an appliance that exists solely to serve you, it is incredibly affordable for what it does and for something that is used constantly. Sure, it's not a piece of artwork that just hangs on your wall to elicit a smile or impress visitors or a fancy motorcycle that fancies up your garage and gets ridden once a week but only when the weather is absolutely perfect, so it's intrinsic value as material bling is somewhat limited. But as a service appliance it does a remarkable job for a tiny cost per unit of consumption. If the "tiny cost" isn't tiny enough there are many other alternatives out there that provide similar levels of utility for even less than the 28 cents per hour that I'm shelling out for the XS Max. Heck, the service costs associated with keeping my phone connected to voice, data, storage, entertainment, and streaming music dwarf the cost of the device. Netflix alone costs me about half per month what it costs me to own the XS Max over its expected lifetime and I can guarantee that I do not spend 3 hours per day (or 90 hours per month) using Netflix. Same deal with Apple Music. The only device that I use more intensively than my iPhone is my iMac. Like it or not, we are living in an era where smartphones are probably the single most frequently used personal consumer product that we consume. I've always adhered to a philosophy that investing in great tools is money well spent, and the iPhone has proven to be a great tool.
Touch Id has been around for 5 years, not 9 years.
Face ID is still slower than TouchID was and in my opinion it's still not as secure as TouchID, nor is the lack of a home button a benefit in terms of interface.
You somehow tried and compared Face Id with Touch Id in Best Buy to be able to make such statements?
Another person going on and on about the SE being discontinued. Which is really what your BS rant is all about. Maybe if the XR doesn't do as well as they think.. who knows we could see that smaller size iPhone again.