Harri Cham – Year 10 Student
Editor’s Note: After publishing his excellent debut piece on ‘Why we should all be watching Peppa Pig‘, Harri returns with this very impressive review of the ubiquitous iPhone. Harri has real talent and flair, demonstrating considerable skill in his writing. If you feel inspired by Harri’s efforts, why not have a go at writing an article like this yourself? There are a number of competitions and publishing outlets for student work. In addition, the GSAL English department has a subscription to the English and Media Centre‘s ‘eMagazine‘ and ‘Media Magazine‘, and an awesome publication called ‘Babel‘: you can access all of these via the ‘English Language’ subject page on GSAL World. KLK
A great phone, shockingly overshadowed by an inferior opposition…
Like many, I have grown up in the age of technology. Google, social media and instant gratification have been the focus point of my life.
The defining feature of this generation has been the invention of the smartphone, and has created a competitive market. Unfortunately, some consumers know little about what they are getting for their money and would much rather have the latest iPhone with whatever long string of letters and numbers they’ve slapped after the name this time.
[M]ost people know little about the hardware, and fall for the celebrity backed marketing and buzzwords.
Well, prepare to learn the truth about iPhones. The issue is, that most people know little about the hardware, and fall for the celebrity backed marketing and buzzwords.
The majority of people I know have fully fallen for it. “But the iPhone has the [insert made up name here]!” which is actually something which has been on the market for years, and probably functions just as well, if not better than the Apple branded equivalent. Unfortunately, despite the Samsung S10+ having superior battery life, three rear 24MP cameras and 2 front cameras (before apple did it), a WQHD+ 19:9 power efficient AMOLED display and up to a terabyte of storage at the same price as the iPhone 11, some people with iPhones (who for some reason consistently have utterly obliterated their screens), take this as some sort of symbol of socioeconomic inferiority. Just because my phone doesn’t have an Apple on it means I am instantly branded as the poorest being in the next 7 or 8 star systems.
[T]he iPhone will provide you with a sense of egotistical supremacy as other fans will flock to you as the holder of some sort of incredible “supercomputer”.
Yes, the iPhone will provide you with a sense of egotistical supremacy as other fans will flock to you as the holder of some sort of incredible “supercomputer”. I say “supercomputer”, as the iPhone processors are still based on PowerVR, which is almost solely used for the weak processors in TVs. The poor things have a closed ecosystem, which treats the user like a 3-year-old child, and the technology is enough to make any software engineer cry themselves to sleep for 4 weeks in a row. The lack of customisation features is appalling and the lack of advanced features (such as a real file browser, a pro camera mode or development tools) is absolutely inexcusable in 2020.
Let’s be honest, this phone is almost the same price as the iPhone 11, is built with superior parts, comes from a company who actually builds their own tech rather than contracting others to design it for them, and actually gives the consumer an element of choice in how they want their phone and camera to work.
In a brief moment of respect for the iPhone, they at least used to be technically innovating. However, in recent years they have become anti-consumer, anti-developer and have made their platform little more than a status symbol.
Don’t be a sheep. Don’t buy the iPhone: get a grip and take control of your tech.
Rant over.
Harri Cham (10EMP)
The GSAL Journal 