For many September is the month of autumn leaves, cosy jumpers and pumpkin spiced lattes, in our house it’s the month of the new iPhone. My husband and I love to sit together and watch the Apple launch live on Youtube and then spend all night watching online videos from big tech reviewers all talking about how much they love or loathe the new offerings from Apple.
This year was no exception and there was a lot of hype (in our house anyway) about what they would be launching, rumours of a special edition phone and full screen display. If you’re not into it then I’m sure its frightfully boring but we love it.
Some of you might remember that I upgraded my phone last year before Amelia was born, I was worried about having the larger 6s Plus with a newborn and I wanted the extra memory that was available on the iPhone 7 at the time. When my mum came to me a few months ago complaining that her (ancient) iPhone 5 was full and she couldn’t take any more photos of Amelia we decided to look at upgrading her.
Since she’s just so wonderful she offered to give me her upgrade and she would be happy to use my iPhone 7, to be fair jumping from a 5 to a 7 is a big improvement and she’ll go from a 16gb handset to a 128gb so plenty of space for photos.
Well she didn’t have to ask me twice, I jumped on the offer like a bad rash and three days later my new iPhone 8 Plus arrived; I thought I would share a few reasons why I decided to chose this phone, especially when the special edition iPhone X is just around the corner.
1. Camera
I’m not even going to lie, the camera is 100% the number one reason I wanted to change my phone. Compared to my former iPhone 7, the iPhone 8 Plus has a dual camera system – a 12MP wide-angle camera with optical image stabilization and a 12MP telephoto camera. Together these two cameras enable optical zoom and Portrait mode.
And it is all about that Portrait mode feature and that desire for the perfect Instagram photo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REZl-ANYKKY
When I found out that the iPhone 7 Plus had this extra feature that my iPhone 7 didn’t I was a bit gutted, it made photos look amazing and professional and if I’d had known about it when I upgraded I probably would have gone for the 7 Plus at the time even with the fear of dropping it when carrying the baby.
The new iPhone 8 Plus not only has the Portrait mode but it also has the additional lighting features which I haven’t had a chance to play around with too much yet but I’m so impressed with the camera so far. In addition to Portrait mode, the iPhone 8 Plus now offers Portrait Lighting (though still in beta), which lets you artificially change the light in a photograph. Awesome right!
If this was the only improvement then for me it’s been worth it, my phone is a camera before it’s anything else and I’m snapping pictures all day long. Now they will just look better.
2. Memory
I thought that my 128gb phone would be plenty, I mean who could even use that much space? Turns out when you have a new born that you’re obsessed with taking photos and videos of it can fill up pretty quickly. I wasn’t anywhere near full but I had used a lot more of it than I expected and was a little worried how much space there would be by the end of the contract next year.
Apple did me a favour here because they only released the 8 Plus in a 64gb (nope) or 256gb model, so, I just had to go for the even larger version and now I can snap and film and download to my hearts content.
I am currently 7000 photos and counting…
3. Colour
When I heard there was no more rose gold (let’s be honest, it’s pink) I was a bit put off. I love the pink and have chosen it for the last 3 phones I’ve had. Well now it was gone and part of me was stubbornly hating the new gold that looks more like a champagne colour than the original gold. Then I saw it in person, it’s beautiful. I’m not even mad about the pink anymore.
4. I hate the iPhone X
Loads of people have said why don’t you just wait a month and get the X? It’s the best one; is it though? It’s a completely new design with brand new technology and Apple are well known for their first generation products to be a bit shit. No one wants the first of anything, let them launch it, figure out all the things that are wrong with it, fix it and then I’ll consider it.
I can see issues arising with the full screen display, the facial recognition, the lock button being used to activate Siri…just a whole host of buggy things I’d rather not get involved with.
To be honest, I have no issue with the existing iPhone design, I think it looks lovely. The screen is a good size, the finger print scanner is simple and convenient. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it, but of course they just had to try something else. Just for the sake of it.
In the same way they’re charging over £1000 for it, just because they can. No thanks, I’m good.
Although I am grateful to all those hardcore fans who are holding out for the X, my 8 Plus was in stock and delivered within 3 days – that’s a record I think.
5. I love Apple (just not the iPhone X)
There will be people out there thinking I’m mad, that there are better phones out there with better cameras and if that’s all I care about then why didn’t I get the Google Pixel 2 or Samsung Galaxy Note 8 with their market leading blow your mind cameras – truthfully – I hate Android.
I can’t get my head around it, I’ve tried it in the past with a Samsung Galaxy S4 and hated it so much I ended up buying another iPhone after 6 months. I don’t know what it is about Android that I don’t agree with but it makes my brain hurt. I love the simplicity of Apples’ IOS, I know how to use it, I know what I’m doing. I don’t think there is anything an Android phone could offer that would make me give up my easy Apple life.
So there you go, five reasons why I chose the iPhone 8Plus. I’m absolutely in love with it, the camera is everything I hoped it would be and I’m super excited to use those extra photo features especially for Amelia’s first birthday next week. Sorry in advance for all the spam.
