The original iPhone came out in 2007, but I received mine in 2008 as a birthday gift. Not only was it my first iPhone, but it was also my very first Apple product. But my clumsy little self had a case of the butterfingers one day, and I ended up dropping it on concrete — resulting in a shattered screen. This was just a few weeks before the iPhone 3G was coming out, so instead of just getting the screen replaced, I decided I would upgrade my phone instead. Thus began a new tradition I set for myself — upgrading my iPhone yearly. I’ve had at least one iPhone from every generation that has come out so far, with my latest being the iPhone 14 Pro.
I’ve continued to purchase iPhones over the years because they’ve always been easy choices, with reliable software (for the most part) and great cameras. For most people, I would recommend iPhones because Android was a whole other can of worms that you’d really have to get into the ins and outs of.
But lately, I’ve been feeling that Apple’s hardware hasn’t been up to par with previous years, and the software just feels like it’s on a steady decline. I was excited about the iPhone 14 Pro when it was announced, but now, about eight months later, I am falling out of love with the iPhone — especially after checking out more Android phones these days. Suffice it to say, I’m starting to wish I never bought my iPhone 14 Pro.
- Apple’s losing the camera game – The computational photography and postprocessing ruins most of my images and there is literally no way to turn it off. Smart HDR basically snaps multiple photos of a scene with different settings, then combines the “best” elements of all those images into a single photo.
- It’s lonely on the Dynamic Island – The Dynamic Island is only “dynamic” mostly when I’m using Apple’s native apps, like Music, Wallet for Apple Pay, Face ID, timers, and more. But when it comes to third-party apps, it’s like a ghost town.
- Where are my Live Activities? – Live Activities is great for staying up-to-date on sports scores, getting precipitation alerts, seeing where your Uber is, tracking flights, and more. However, like Dynamic Island, the apps I use daily don’t seem to support this feature either.
- iOS keeps taking steps backwards – Apple made the overall process of customizing your lock screen tedious and cumbersome. I’m often activating the lock screen switcher by accident because it works similarly to the Apple Watch, where you press and hold on the screen to invoke it, and this happens a lot when I don’t intend to do it (taking it out of a pocket or bag, for example)
I really was excited when I bought my iPhone 14 Pro last September, but it’s been a lacklustre eight months with it so far. I’m hoping that Apple can fix some of these problems with the iPhone 15 Pro and iOS 17, but at this point, I won’t hold my breath.
