aMazon and Flipkart are buzzing with festive sale offers and last year’s top-tier iPhone 13 is hot in everyone’s mind. This comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the much-awaited launch of 5G in the country at the recently concluded Indian Mobile Congress. Its rollout has already been done by telecom operators like Airtel at a lighter speed. In due course of time, Apple launched the latest iPhone 14 models. Similarly, Samsung’s foldable models launched a month back and Xiaomi is also running attractive offers on its six-month-old flagship gadgets. But are you looking to buy a new phone priced above Rs 50,000?
The short answer to the question is no. The more subtle answer is that at this point in time no one should be looking to upgrade to a high-end gadget – especially a smartphone – unless their previous purchase was made before the pandemic. Don’t get me wrong, technology has progressed pretty quickly, but the latest phones have gotten so good that they’ll last you a long time and the incremental upgrades won’t result in tangible benefits.
iphone 14 pro max
Let’s take the example of the big Kahuna of smartphones, the latest iPhone 14 Pro Max, which I’ve been testing for the past two weeks. It looks like the iPhone 12 and 13 except for the smart cut-away in the screen, which Apple calls Dynamic Island. It gets a new color called Deep Purple, which is nice. It has highly advanced cameras with a 48-megapixel primary sensor and a new software trickery makes low-light photos and videos better, but the iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro cameras were already so extraordinary that unless you’re a professional Austin Mannu or imaging hardware specialist dxomark, You will have to work hard to find the difference.
But the new Hero iPhone’s battery life has come down compared to the previous generation – though it’s still more than enough to last a full day on a single charge, perhaps due to new features like an always-on display. While all this happens, Airtel users like me may not get a piece of all the 5G action, as Apple is believed to not push a software update yet.
The performance of the iPhone is legendary and even the latest 16 percent performance increase from the A20 Bionic chipset is not noticeable compared to the iPhone 12 Pro. Apple is very good at what it does and it has become so good that its new phones are an upgrade for first time buyers and for people who have owned an iPhone for the past decade.
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new generation old generation little change
Apple is not alone. On the Android side of the spectrum, Samsung’s Galaxy Fold 4 and Flip 4 phones are very similar to their predecessors. they are only incrementally faster Big Major updates to the camera and better overall durability. I’ve been using both of these phones for a while now, and in the case of the Fold, apart from the initial surprise and the obvious benefit of watching content on a bigger screen, the productivity gains aren’t obvious. The software and operating system are not mature enough. Samsung S22 Ultra looks very similar to its Galaxy Note phone from 2020. It also has an advanced camera system with a 10x zoom lens. But in regular use, it’s not the lens that people will use all the time.
The performance of Samsung and other original equipment makers has been determined by innovations from third parties such as Google and Qualcomm. Everyone gets the same chip – either by Qualcomm or MediaTek – and some are good, some not. For example, the latest Snapdragon 8G that was launched with phones like Samsung Galaxy S22 and Vivo X80 had overheating issues. Hence, Qualcomm came up with another upgrade, called Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 a few months later, which equals better device stability with better thermal efficiency and better battery life on phones like the OnePlus 10T, the new Samsung foldables and the iQOO 9T . ,
Brands like Vivo have resorted to developing their own chip. Vivo’s V1 chip handles the processing for its X80 series of cameras. These phones have great cameras and a micro gimbal, which enables super stable video. But again Vivo is doing a great job with the X70, X60 and X50 models as well. The X80’s camera won’t feel like a dramatic update if you have an X60 or X70.
Google is going to launch Pixel 7 in India later this week which will also have a new chipset, Tensor 2. Reports indicate that it will not include one. significant boost in CPU or GPU performance; Instead, it will focus its innovation on AI, something Google loves to do. But unless the new chip lets its cameras outpace the iPhone 14 Pro Max, Galaxy S22 Ultra or Vivo X80 Pro, will it be worth it?
Some people will be drawn to this as Google hasn’t launched its flagship phone in India since 2018. But that could all go away because Google’s phones are known for having poor customer support. Would you buy a new Google phone that would cost close to a million and have a grueling after-sale?
My advice would be to hold on to your iPhone, Fold, Galaxy or Vivo until they start showing their age. 2023 will be a big year for smartphones – it will be the year for the iPhone 15 with more dramatic changes expected. Samsung’s Fold line will also mature with upgrades and it is expected that Google will launch its own folding phone. Vivo and Xiaomi are expected to enter the foldable phone space in India soon,
Of course, if you want the most luxurious gadget – for iPhone users – the iPhone 14 Pro Max or iPhone 13 Pro Max would be my recommendations. On the Android side of things, I suggest the Vivo X80 Pro or if you want something a little more exotic than the Galaxy Fold 4 or Flip 4, depending on the budget and form factor you prefer,
Sahil Mohan Gupta is a technology journalist based in New Delhi. He tweets at @digitallybones. Thoughts are personal.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)