Almost three weeks now with iOS 11 and just over two weeks with the new iPhone 8 Plus.
There’s a new article or twitter feed almost every day talking about new features or the changes in the new phone and iOS so I thought I would add a few practical points that I’ve found.
Thoughts so far?
Positives
- loving the quality of the display,
- loving the speed,
- loving the screen size on the iPhone 8 Plus
- not noticing the increase in weight too much.
The bigger issue is that it doesn’t fit in my back pocket quite as nicely as my old 6 did, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. In fact I ran a 10km at the weekend and didn’t notice any difference having the larger phone strapped to my arm.
What’s making a bigger difference?
iOS 11!
- Small touches such as the ability to hand draw an image into an email is a great addition.
- Liking the new control centre.
- Like the additional features for adding content to iMessages.
- Files App (though this is long overdue and I think of most benefit to those who also have a Mac laptop or desktop!)
- Loving the new dock on the iPad for quick access to recently used apps.
- Liking the new Quicktype keyboard on a iPad, much easier for entering numbers and symbols, though it does take some getting used to.
Going from a 6 to a 8 Plus?
- I love using ‘Hey Siri”; especially useful when changing the music in the car.
- I’m struggling with the emergency call feature when I’m putting the larger phone into my current car holder, I keep pressing the side button and a volume button at the same time (learn more about the emergency SOS feature)
As always there are the reports about battery drain but I haven’t noticed it, and as always you can tweak your settings to help, for instance you can adjust the displays brightness.
Other changes I’ve had to make since moving to iOS 11:
- Moved to Outlook iOS app for Office365 email accounts due to an initial issue that iOS11 had with Office365 accounts. It’s not a bad thing in that Outlook has a lot of nice features. One thing that it does not do though is suggest where you want to move an email to. Each time I want to file away an email I have to scroll through my folder list. iOS’s native mail app has always been very good at suggesting where you want to move messages to.
- The move to only 64bit apps has made me tidy up my app list. Again not a bad thing and there’s only one app that I miss and that is simply because the provider has chosen to produce a new 64bit but it misses one major feature
Disappointments?
Major one is the lack of native support for the Apple Pencil on the iPad Pro. Finding that OneNote is my best app for using the pencil and fitting in with my current usage, rather than having to start using a new app and working how to integrate it with usage patterns. Anyone else find it strange that Microsoft have the better writing app on an iOS device?
Accessories
As with every new gadget there’s always the accessories. So far I’ve also had to buy, or am looking to buy, the following:
- new case
- new running arm band
- new wireless charging mat to make use of the wireless charging
- new wireless charging mat and phone holder to make use of the wireless charging in the car and still be able to use the phone for Sat Nav
- new headphones
I’ve now moved to wireless headphones given the larger phone and the lack of headphone jack. In the end I went for AirPods rather than Beats, but that was a personal choice given the circumstances I use headphones in (generally only one headphone in place for running, and a need to use the microphone). Read this great article about Beats versus AirPods. What’s taking some getting used to is the interaction between the phone, the watch and the AirPods, but that’s a learning curve which I’m gradually making my way round.
All in all?
Loving my iPhone 8 Plus, yes its costly and there is no cheaper middle ground with a 128Gb version, but it’s a great phone.
Will I regret not waiting for the X? Time will tell. But I love the Touch ID, and from what I have seen about the facial recognition it’s not there yet for me. If I could unlock the phone with facial recognition and then get to the homescreen using Siri then I may have waited, but I still have to have my thumb on the screen to go to the Home screen, and in the summer I like to wear shades so facial recognition just wouldn’t work for me!
Timbuk 3 were right when they said “The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades“, its just in this case Apple weren’t listening 😉