Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have any intention to convince you to buy an iPhone or any luxury product. Instead, I will share the thought process I have gone through, and my feelings/emotions around the decision on buying an iPhone.
I have grown up in a bengali family and inherited the middle-class mentality. Though the term “middle-class mentality” is mostly used in a negative sense, it has a positive aspect which often overlooked. It helps me battle against the impulse of ever growing expensive desires. It forces me to wait and think through, research and validate before pursuing it.
To give you an idea of the mindset I possessed, I never used a phone costlier than ₹15K before, and never replaced it before 3 years (only exception, when the phone was stolen; twice). The decision of buying a ₹~70k phone was a tough call for me. It took me around 6 months of reasoning, research and validation to finally go ahead with the decision; surely after managing an approval from my wife 🤪 which is certainly not an easy job as you might have expected!
The battle between For and Against
For
The Camera Budget
I bought my first camera, a Canon DSLR EOS 550D in 2012 after 3 years into corporate jobs. It cost me ₹34K; no doubt it was very expensive for me at that time. Though over time that investment paid off. With that camera, I learned the fundamentals of photography; playing with light by controlling aperture, shutter speed and iso; explored framing techniques; even got introduced a bit into cinematography etc.. Within a few years I realised, this field is too extensive and people spend their entire life on it. The efforts required on research, experimentation, post processing turns heavy enough to continue it as a hobby to me. I decided to limit myself to only capturing special moments going forward.
Carrying the heavy equipment (camera, lenses, tripod etc.) to wherever we go started adding more headache. The pleasure of sharing those memories are also getting delayed due to post-processing of those RAW photos requires a computer and plenty of time. The result is quite predictable, I haven’t carried the camera on any of my trips since the past 3-4 years.
Over time, the mobile phone camera started picking up. Though, its capability turns out quite limited to me, especially to capture the surroundings to preserve our travel memories. After researching, I came to know about the world’s best mobile phone camera system (in general) in the iPhone. No doubt it is expensive, but upgrading my 10 years old DSLR and lenses would require a similar budget. On top of it, the convenience of carrying an iPhone over camera & lenses, effortless post-processing and sharing are the added advantages that perfectly serves my need of capturing moments.
The Bloatwares & battle with notifications
I really admire the open ecosystem Android has built over the last decade and the value it is contributing to humanity. But the price war among mobile manufacturing companies might have forced them to install many unnecessary apps (bloatwares) that can’t be deleted. The competition over gaining access to our data, our attention is making our life miserable. I was too tired of blocking app notifications, which often go away after the android version update. I was desperately looking for sophisticated tools to gain back control over my phone and in turn my life. What can be better than an iPhone in this regard? (apart from getting rid of a smartphone completely, which I wish I could!)
Commitment towards security update
We rarely can find an android phone that provides android updates and security patches on time beyond 2-3 years. As a software engineer and being in that field I understand how crucial the security patches are. Without that on time, our phones are as vulnerable as an open house without a lock. Unfortunately, we have to keep on upgrading our mobile to the latest model every 2-3 years depending on availability of security patches on that model. Contrary, Apple supports its smartphones for at least five years, sometimes longer. Their privacy policy is also better than android.
Against
The Price
Apple’s products are expensive; no doubt about that. Their accessories, services are even more expensive. Even if I consider using the same iPhone for the next 5-6 years, I have to keep in mind the cost of repair (in case needed). There is also the risk of loss, stolen or damaged.
Unfamiliar iOS
Moving from Android to iOS after spending a decade is not going to be easy. I have to re-learn how things are done on the iPhone. Fortunately, I am familiar with iOS in general as I have been using my office Macbook for the last 8 years. Still, I would have to spend a ton of my time to get used to the iPhone. Those will not be difficult; but just different.
The long wait for the great deal
The research, reasoning and validation took me nearly 2 months to convince me to buy an iPhone. The next 4 months I have waited for a good discount. Does the wait for a deal look odd? Well, there is a strong reason behind it. First of all, I was not in a hurry. The primary reason though, my research suggested that Apple started manufacturing iPhone 13 in India with partner Foxconn and Wistron. Those assembled in India models were getting sold at a similar price compared to the models exported from China. The MRP of both the models (assembled in China vs India) are the same ₹79,999/- as was getting sold at similar price range ₹70K - ₹72K in different e-commerce websites.
When Apple has to pay significantly less tax/duty for phones assembled in India, that should pass on to the customer once the previous stock is reduced. I was expecting an additional ₹5K - ₹10K discount on the assembled in India iPhones.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get that direct discount even after waiting for ~4 months. Instead I got a good exchange price of ₹8K for a 3.5 years old Realme 3 Pro which we bought at ₹11K and a good discount on my Credit card. The neat pay I had to make for the iPhone was ~₹58K.
Hopefully, the price will reduce in sept-oct after the iPhone 14 launch. I couldn’t wait more due to our Nainital-Kausani-Chaukori-Binsar-Mukteshwar trip that I wanted to capture on the iPhone.
After Impression
It has been nearly 4 weeks since I started using the iPhone. I am extremely satisfied with the camera system for the image quality it captures and on the effortless auto-enhance feature. To checkout the quality of images please scroll below or refer to Kumaon 2022: The long trip after a long.
Also, I love the app’s activity tracking blocker and the control over app notifications.
Though, the data migration from Android to iPhone may not be smooth. Infact, WhatsApp does not provide any support to migrate chat history from Android to iPhone. So, I had to sacrifice all my chat history as I haven’t trusted any third party apps that claim to migrate my WhatsApp chat history.
My mind is still trying to take baby-care of the iPhone, as I haven't gotten used to it yet. Feeling cautious to wear tight jeans as the iPhone may not fit well inside the tight pocket. I bought a military grade case and screen protector for the phone, but the glass on the rear cameras are still unprotected and vulnerable to scratches. I couldn’t compromise on the image quality, hence I had to keep it in that way.
I still feel shy to use the iPhone in front of others, as they might misjudge me based on the iPhone's status symbol. I prefer to spend money wisely on a strong purpose rather than for status and that distinction matters to me.
Do I recommend iPhone?
No, in general I would not recommend the iPhone considering its price tag and due to the expensive Apple ecosystem. But if you have a specific need that justifies the cost or the associated cost is insignificant for you, definitely go for it. The quality is unmatched or unparalleled that you can find anywhere else.
Few shots on the iPhone
Note: None of the photos has been edited other than using iPhone’s auto enhance feature.
