Alger

freediverx said:

I understand the desire to review a new phone as quickly as possible, but why belabor qualitative differences between a just-released Samsung and an 11 month old iPhone while chiding the latter for falling behind? Instead of "Apple very much needs to step up its game", the framing should have been more like "we can't wait to compare the new Samsung models with whatever Apple reveals in a couple of weeks."

Also, I hate to be pedantic, so consider this friendly, constructive criticism... In a piece focusing on camera performance, I think we should make a better effort to get the terminology right. First, lenses don't have "megapixels". If each lens is paired with a separate sensor with different specs, then just say so, or simply refer to the different 'cameras' without conflating the two. And second, when speaking of digital images the term 'grain' shouldn't be used interchangeably with 'noise'. The former is an artifact seen in film while the latter is associated with digital images. 

That was a weird mistake in this review.  Lenses do not have megapixels, cameras do.  And by "camera" we mean the sensor chip.  Do these lenses each have their own sensor chips?  If your capture-file gets blown up by software to imitate more megapixels, that's just enhanced cropping (albeit quite impressive, on those lighthouse shots).  

I would vote in favor of "Apple very much needs to step up its game" - iPhones' camera specs have not improved as much as they should have in recent years; they should never be playing catch-up to the likes of Samsung (>>shudder<<).   Although I would still choose iPhone over these Samsungs by virtue of the color fidelity alone (Samsung is over-saturated/fake, in most of these, in comparison to iPhone - that's where Apple has, astutely, stayed the course).  I have delayed upgrading from my IP6 specifically because I haven't seen enough difference in the cameras' image quality.  (I'm a professional photo editor and I carry around a pocket Sony RX100V if I want an actually-good capture rather than just a snapshot).  Yes, it's gotten better, but not enough to purchase a $1000+ device to replace a device that stills works perfectly well, even on the camera specs alone.  IP12's 5G may push me over the edge, but not if the battery life is downgraded, and I'm not convinced 5G is anything but a marketing gimmick for a few more years.

And all the gushing over "8K" video.  The only people who have any business shooting 8K are the highest-end videographer professionals, for very specific applications, none of them mass-market relevant, much less personal-tech relevant, and you can bet they would use tech with advanced lens specs.  If you shot an 8K video on a phone it would fill up your phone's entire memory card in about 60 seconds (I'm guessing, but still...).  And for what purpose?  Seriously, if someone can enlighten me what possible reason a non-videographer/professional would need to shoot 8K (other than bragging rights), I'm all ears.

canucklehead said:

battlescarred1 said:

Nitpicking here, but isn’t it 50 times, not 50 “X”

No, it’s not nitpicking. It’s accuracy. “X” is a letter of the alphabet (or ten if you go Roman numerals). When referring to lenses, we are talking about a multiplication factor, which is “times”.

Listening to him say “ex“ throughout the video drove me absolutely batty. It’s just simply sounded so unintelligent. not to mention he talks quickly and doesn’t annunciate which makes it really hard to understand what he was saying at times.

I kind of feel if you were going to review photography, you should understand the terminology and what you’re talking about. Can I assume the 5X optical zoom Image is used to get the 50X digital zoom image? In other words, it really is just a 5X image digitally blown up, hence the added resolution. That’s kind of an important thing to point out.

It's called "vernacular"; get used to it.

Been using one of these at work for the past 2.5 years.  The after-images/latent images/ghost images (whatever you're supposed to call them) are growing more pronounced every week, to the point where you literally cannot do Photoshop work on an image (for example) until it has been on screen, stationary, for a couple minutes.

svanstrom said:

It's worrying that Apple keeps investing more and more in a country where the ruling political party just keeps doubling down on ignoring all forms of human rights.

Personally it makes me trust Apple less and less as they keep on having more and more to lose in situations where they must pick between angering the CCP, or assisting the CCP in subjects that might hurt people; or even get them killed. And since I follow what's happening in Hong Kong rn (https://hongkongfp.com/ is a good news source in English) I just keep getting more and more worried about companies that keep getting themselves dependent on the Chinese market. 

Beautiful store, though.

Companies of all shapes & sizes are bending over backwards to align themselves with the movement against police violence against Blacks in the U.S. (as they should), but all of them operating in China are completely silent on the Chinese government's brutal repression of literally hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of Uyghurs (and other political & social minorities), being detained, brainwashed and likely tortured and killed, in the Xinjiang concentration camps.  As capitalists, it's very hard for them to forfeit the quest to capture a market as large as China (and keep local competition in check), but they are ignoring epic-scale repression in one country while proclaiming leadership against repression in the U.S.  It's called hypocrisy.  Corporations were shamed into divestiture from apartheid South Africa; there should be similar efforts regarding the Uyghurs now, and super-rich corporations like Apple should apply the same standards of basic respect for human rights wherever they do business - especially in cases as glaring as this.

rcfa said:

These features may be great, but when a supposedly independent site sounds like a paid-for Apple add, but has amateur production values, it loses any credibility.

Either produce infomercials, but then match or surpass Apple’s production values, or produce a critical video on what’s better, different, and worse; but stop gushing like you’re a high school kid who just won a date with a Playboy model...

Meow.  Jeesh, lighten up.