iPhone XS and XS Max Users Are Reporting Poor Cell and Wi-Fi Reception (theverge.com) 172
Some users who upgraded to an iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max over the weekend have reported poor cell and Wi-Fi reception and noticeably slower speeds when comparing their new phones to their older models. The Verge: According to users on Apple's support forum, MacRumors forums, and Reddit, the issue appears to be widespread across the country and not limited to any specific carrier. It's a frustrating issue, especially considering that the iPhone XS is supposed to have significantly faster data speeds on Wi-Fi and LTE compared to the iPhone X, according to data tests conducted by SpeedSmart. There's even a new antenna line running along the bottom of the phone as discovered by a recent iFixit teardown, which should have helped with reception. Additionally, folks at r/Apple, the most popular subreddit for iPhone and other Apple related discussions on the site, have corroborated the claims.
Apple support: (Score:5, Funny)
Re: Apple support: (Score:5, Informative)
These people had an iPhone with a superior Qualcomm modem before. Now they have a cheaper one from Intel. Enjoy
Re: Apple support: (Score:5, Informative)
It's almost certainly this. If you've never used a phone with an Intel modem you'd be amazed at how bad they are. Anything below two bars might as well be "no signal" because the Intel modem flat-out can't decipher anything that weak. Speed starts dropping precipitously as you move away from the tower. Where a Qualcomm modem might be operating at 90% speed, an Intel modem will have already dropped to 50%. It's really quite impressive how bad they are.
And because Apple is mad at Qualcomm because Qualcomm doesn't like it when Apple steals their technology, iPhone users are stuck with broken Intel modems.
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Intel was GSM only so if you got an unlocked or Verizon phone, you’d get Qualcomm and not intel. If you got an ATT phone then it was intel. Wasn’t luck of the draw that gen.
That can 't be right . . . (Score:2)
I got mine on Friday, and have yet to see the third, let alone fourth, bar . . .
hawk
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I got mine on Friday, and have yet to see the third, let alone fourth, bar . . .
hawk
So if Apple fixes the bar display, you will have better reception?
Re: Apple support: (Score:5, Informative)
These people had an iPhone with a superior Qualcomm modem before. Now they have a cheaper one from Intel. Enjoy,
It's almost certainly this.
https://www.wiwavelength.com/2... [wiwavelength.com]
Apple's decision to forgo Qualcomm this year and source all cellular modems from Intel is not responsible for the RF power output limitations in the new iPhone models. The cellular baseband modem is separate from and well upstream of the amplifiers that generate the conducted power and antennas that generate the radiated power being measured in lab testing.
...where is all that power going? Where is it being diminished? The answer lies in antenna gain.
Indeed, deeper analysis of the FCC OET authorization filings shows the underwhelming EIRP figures to be almost entirely products of negative antenna gain.
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These people had an iPhone with a superior Qualcomm modem before. Now they have a cheaper one from Intel. Enjoy,
It's almost certainly this.
https://www.wiwavelength.com/2... [wiwavelength.com]
Apple's decision to forgo Qualcomm this year and source all cellular modems from Intel is not responsible for the RF power output limitations in the new iPhone models. The cellular baseband modem is separate from and well upstream of the amplifiers that generate the conducted power and antennas that generate the radiated power being measured in lab testing.
...where is all that power going? Where is it being diminished? The answer lies in antenna gain.
Indeed, deeper analysis of the FCC OET authorization filings shows the underwhelming EIRP figures to be almost entirely products of negative antenna gain.
So not only do they have shitty modems (yep, other phones with Intel modems have a lot of problems, I cant believe that they've magically fixed them for Apple but no-one else) but they've also got a shitty antenna design (seems to have become an Apple standard).
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(yep, other phones with Intel modems have a lot of problems, I cant believe that they've magically fixed them for Apple but no-one else)
Well if it's an Apple phone and the issue can be fixed with a firmware update from Intel, then there is at least the possibility of getting it fixed. If it's any other brand you'll probably never even see a security update. That being said, I have no idea if the Intel problems can be fixed with software. Based on the issues they've had with their Puma chipset, my guess would probably be a big fat NO.
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Anything below two bars might as well be "no signal"
Is that how the "bar" is defined in the standard?
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That's immediately what I thought when I saw the title.
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Yup, this. Steve Jobs was a shitlord assclown but he would NEVER have taken Intel's bribe money to use their vastly inferior shit.
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You're holding it wrong
You are *buying* it wrong.
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In Soviet Apple, the phone is holding you wrong.
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That's what Porn Support also told me.
For those that don't get the joke... (Score:5, Informative)
Eight years ago, when Apple debuted the iPhone 4, they re-engineered the antenna, making it into a stainless steel band running around the edge of the phone. But the antenna was actually two separate antennas, with a very narrow gap between them. If anything, including your hand, created enough of a conducting pathway between the two separate antennas, reception and 3G data quality reduced terribly. As this Anandtech article explained [anandtech.com], "Anything conductive which bridges the gap in the bottom left couples the antennas together, detuning the precisely engineered antennas. It's a problem of impedance matching with the body as an antenna, and the additional antenna that becomes part of the equation when you touch the bottom left.
And so, when asked about the problem, Steve Jobs famously said, "Just avoid holding it in that way."
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Also worth mentioning the "solutions" that Apple offered for the iPhone 4 antenna problems.
First was to offer everyone a rubber band to wrap around the phone to prevent shorting the antennas out.
Second was to adjust the signal strength display on screen to give more bars, making people think that their phones had better signal than they actually did.
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"Just avoid holding it in that way."
Yet another thing that Apple did not invent.
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Sounds familiar (Score:1)
I'm sure they're merely holding it wrong. Please consult the manual and hold it only with the specified fingers in the specified manner with the specified pressure in the specified orientation. It's not a design flaw; the design is perfect just like everything that comes out of Apple. Your body is flawed and must adapt to service our engineering.
To the Death! (Score:2, Funny)
Apple Human Shield Centipede Defense Team...ASSEMBLE!
In before, "They're probably just using it wrong."
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I don't know what you're talking about. My Android iPhone works great!
Can confirm (Score:3, Informative)
I can confirm this. I have an iPhone Xs. Used to never have signal problems standing outside when near the wall where the router is.
I now get no signal outside and severely diminished signal if I leave the room with the router. Anything in the way of the router kills the top of three bars of wifi strength. Cellular data will routinely drop out where I'll just stop receiving anything for a bit until I reboot the phone. I have no idea how much of this is iOS 12 (since it comes with the Xs) and how much is just bad design with the Xs. But so far, for a $1000 phone, I'm really unimpressed.
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I'd lean toward saying it's the new phone model then; I have a 6s with iOS12 and no issues; also it's been rock stable ever since I bought it, through several OS upgrades. I might just stick with it a while longer, though I would like a bigger screen.
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Are you using an Apple router and Apple wifi access point device? If not, you may need to replace those with Apple devices. /sarcasm
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Ironically I used to.
Apple finally discontinued them last year (I think) after having not updated their wifi access point since 2012. I remember when my Time Capsule died and I decided to replace it with a newer one and discovering I still had the newest one because Apple hadn't bothered updating it in five years.
The hilarious thing is that with Time Capsule dead, the "wifi backup" feature that macOS still has is effectively useless. It only works on HFS+ disks, and only if they're shared using AFP. (AFP ca
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You've branched into describing Apple desktop features. Apple doesn't stress the desktop anymore. The only essential reason to have an Apple PC is that it's the only way to develop Apple mobile device apps.
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I have a solution for the problem - the video, unfortunately has been banned
in 47 countries so you'll have to do with this explaination -- remember those
selfie-sticks that were popular a while back? Notice, nobody's buying them
like they used to. Notice the threaded hole on the iPhone? Screw the selfie
stick into there (no this isn't the 3.5 mm headphone, Jack) and fully extend the
stick. You should get about 3 feet (that roughly 3 feet to you British users).
Now, extend the arm holding the stick as high as
Not what I'd call an upgrade. (Score:3)
Re:Not what I'd call an upgrade. (Score:4, Informative)
You can totally fix this just by exchanging your Apple iPhone for an Android iPhone.
Apple quality control (Score:2, Interesting)
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Apple is too busy making custom emojis to care about properly testing their phones. Remember this is a trillion dollar company.
To be fair, they needed a product to validate the turd emoji.
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Apple is too busy making custom emojis to care about properly testing their phones.
In all seriousness how does noticeably bad reception make it past QA? And then there's the recurring v.something "causes the battery to run out extra fast" thing that also no one in the testing department ever notices. Does Apple onshore keep forgetting to put items like this in the checklist for offshore QA who never does a thing except exactly what they're told?
Only affects a subset. (Score:5, Funny)
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Lennart response (Score:2, Informative)
Works on my phone. Bug report closed.
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Huge cash-rich businesses don't just wither away. There are jackals deep within any such company itching to rip it apart.
This kind erosion goes hand-in-hand with huge profitable success.
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Huge cash-rich businesses don't just wither away. There are jackals deep within any such company itching to rip it apart.
This kind erosion goes hand-in-hand with huge profitable success.
Interesting observation, but I think Apple has more to fear from external jackals than internal. The amount of trading of AAPL is vast, especially in options. Apple only has to release a few more turkeys like these before their profits slip noticeably, causing their stock price to slip, which could easily precipitate a bloodbath. Which will then have investors howling for Apple to Do Something! Since the reality distortion field is starting to wear off at last, they'd better stop being lazy about testin
I blame iOS 12 (Score:3)
Some users who upgraded to an iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max over the weekend have reported poor cell and Wi-Fi reception and noticeably slower speeds when comparing their new phones to their older models.
I blame iOS 12. I upgraded an iPhone 6S from iOS 11.4.1 to iOS 12 and noticed that Wi-Fi connection speed and reception are worse now.
At the office, I cannot get very good cell reception so I rely on Wi-Fi. When I arrive at the office, I turn on the iPhone's Wi-Fi and then connect to the Wi-Fi network. The time it takes to establish a connect to the network is much slower, and the range appears to be shorter too. Locations where I once was able to receive a solid signal are now dead spots.
XS and XS Max: very interesting names (Score:2)
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And the XR is the X at a Reduced price
"Upgraded" (Score:3, Interesting)
"Some users who upgraded to an iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max over the weekend have reported poor cell and Wi-Fi reception and noticeably slower speeds when comparing their new phones to their older models."
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Technical analysis of new antenna shortcomings (Score:5, Informative)
https://www.wiwavelength.com/2018/09/antennagate-reduxs-if-so-what-can-apple.html [wiwavelength.com]
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Now that is informative! It remains to be seen what Apple can do to correct this, since it sounds like updates may be only able to do so much. Even a very quick hardware revision will take some time though... we'll also see how many people notice a difference, though for sure it seems a significant number are.
Maybe the Apple Watch can start sharing a cellular connection with the phone instead of vice-versa... :-)
HA What a piece of shit apple is (Score:1)
Looks good on all the mindless iSheep that were so eager to drop Qualcomm because apple was to cheap to pay them. Hope all those profits apple made cutting corners helps you get a signal.
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I know you're not talking to me, but the issues to me are twofold:
(a) The company I work for, and come to think of it the previous company and the one before that, have/had standardized on the iphone for a company phone. So I get issued one whether it's actually useful or not. Because it's pretty and slippery and thin and the execs liked that. This is the largest issue.
I'm not an exec, it's not important to me how many aesthetic awards my phone has won, and "keeping up appearances" means nothing to me.
Problem solving. (Score:1)
The message has been receive and a patch will be sent soon enough.
Older models will have their performance decrease so the newer model won't feel so sluggish anymore.
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The message has been receive and a patch will be sent soon enough.
Older models will have their performance decrease so the newer model won't feel so sluggish anymore.
Will the patch also misreport the bars so we think signal strength has improved?
iPhone X WiFi was already bad (Score:2)
Got 2 iPhone X'es in my household and they get the worst WiFi reception out of all devices in the house (Apple banned any apps that will actually show you channels and signal strength, but you can still monitor from the AP side). An iPhone 6 and and iPhone 5S work great where iPhone X loses 5GHz and switches to 2.4GHz as backup. Grabbed an iPhone X and Galaxy S9+ and started walking away from the home, Galaxy got twice as far (by a couple hundred feet) before not being able to stay connected. Sounds like iP
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Got 2 iPhone X'es in my household and they get the worst WiFi reception out of all devices in the house (Apple banned any apps that will actually show you channels and signal strength, but you can still monitor from the AP side). An iPhone 6 and and iPhone 5S work great where iPhone X loses 5GHz and switches to 2.4GHz as backup. Grabbed an iPhone X and Galaxy S9+ and started walking away from the home, Galaxy got twice as far (by a couple hundred feet) before not being able to stay connected. Sounds like iPhone XS is continuing with the decline. Maybe a ploy to sell Apple's WiFi AP products?
*Do* the devices work any better with Apple WiFi access points? That would be a little diabolical, but would at least be a solution.
Because who would expect a phone (Score:2)
to actually be usable as a... well, phone?
Yeah, yeah, but ... (Score:2)
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Don't worry: there's an easy fix: spray-on antennas [slashdot.org]!
p.s. You accidentally signed your name in your sock-puppet account, Super.
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I hope you're happy with yourself, dumbass. - Red Forman.
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That's what we call a dumbass. - Red Forman.
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This is due to the superior antenna in the new models. The users are holding it wrong and this causes the antenna to work sub-optimally.
- SuperKendall
Amazing how the usual Apple astroturfers are completely AWOL from this Apple thread. But the Apple astromods are on the job.
Fix your product Apple. Trolling Slashdot does not fix your product.
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This is due to the superior antenna in the new models. The users are holding it wrong and this causes the antenna to work sub-optimally.
- SuperKendall
Amazing how the usual Apple astroturfers are completely AWOL from this Apple thread. But the Apple astromods are on the job.
Fix your product Apple. Trolling Slashdot does not fix your product.
Neither does Trolling ABOUT Apple.
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So, no interest in fixing your product then. Typical Apple.
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So, no interest in fixing your product then. Typical Apple.
You must have me confused with the REAL Tim Cook.
Where in your Syphilitic, Addled, excuse-for-a-brain do you think that "I" have any more power than YOU to fix this.
Oh, and BTW: I agree it is likely caused by Intel's MODEM chip. I have ALSO said that Qualcomm's core-competency lies in their RF engineering.
Unfortunately, the parents (Apple and Qualcomm) are fighting, and "we children" are having to put up with living with the relatives for right now...
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So you're ok with broken, overpriced Apple products.
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So you're ok with broken, overpriced Apple products.
Of course not. And when I see one, I will be the first to "out" it.
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Sure you will. Meanwhile, Apple squirming uncomfortably over Antennagate II.
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They are! They maybe used to be an engineering company but not any more.
Right.
Because it really doesn't take any ENGINEERING to design and create things like the Apple Watch 4. Those are just Reference Designs by the people who Developed the SoC, right?
Oh, but wait...
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Who the fuck cares about the watch? And if that's the only thing you can come up with to support your point, well, that says a lot really doesn't it. But ok, they still do some engineering, incremental phone updates, the occasional new product, fine but they are all designed with form in mind first and then marketed and priced well above their weight. Apple is way more interested in making money than a good product.
I didn't include anything else because I figured anything I said would be seen as simply "Incremental Improvement". Which, of course, everything after the invention of the WHEEL arguably also falls under that category.
Would you agree that the iMac Pro also took some Engineering? Because if not, then you simply have no grasp of what it takes to actually take a blank computer screen and end up with a workable, manufacture-able PRODUCT.
Oh, and it isn't that Apple cares for form OVER function; the reason it SEE
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You missed by less than 60 seconds!
Re:Brace yourselves... (Score:4, Insightful)
"You're Holding it WRONG!" comments in 3, 2, 1
Right, but in their defense, Apple kinda deserves it.
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(Cr)apple deserves this for trying to sell a $5.00 phone for $1000 to $1200!!!!
It's all about mindshare. I don't begrudge Apple selling mediocre phones at boutique prices. I applaud them for being successful at it.
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Now, to complete the set, you just need the overheating wireless charging accessory.
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Now, to complete the set, you just need the overheating wireless charging accessory.
Hey dumbass: That was a product STILL IN DEVELOPMENT.
Sorry if the importance of that fact eludes you.
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So it does overheat then. In development or not, if you own the can-t-connect iPhone then you obviously need the overheating charger to go with it. To complete the set, you see.
It's beyond belief that Apple can't even design a charger that works.
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So it does overheat then. In development or not, if you own the can-t-connect iPhone then you obviously need the overheating charger to go with it. To complete the set, you see.
It's beyond belief that Apple can't even design a charger that works.
So why don't you call 'em up and show Apple how it's done?
Thought so.
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Apple, if you're listening, you need to get rid of pencil pusher Tim Cook and bring in somebody with a clue. That is, if you don't want your chargers to keep melting.
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Apple, if you're listening, you need to get rid of pencil pusher Tim Cook and bring in somebody with a clue. That is, if you don't want your chargers to keep melting.
Yeah, because Tim Cook PERSONALLY designed the Charger, riiiiight.
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Tim Cook knows how to push a pencil, not how to lead product development. Result: phone that can't phone; charger that can't charge.
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Tim Cook knows how to push a pencil, not how to lead product development. Result: phone that can't phone; charger that can't charge.
Tim Cook isn't the head of New Product Development. He has minions for that.
Try again.
Here, get edumacated on how it REALLY works:
https://www.interaction-design... [interaction-design.org]
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You're right, Tim Cook isn't a leader at all. More like a pencil pusher.
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I’m sticking with my 6S... but that was always the plan.
It also runs extremely well on iOS 12 - I was pleasantly surprised.
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A Galaxy J3 fits that need perfectly. You can get them for $70 or so without even shopping very hard. I upgraded to a J7 last month, which is an expensive phone ($150).
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Welcome to the dark side. We have cookies. (And phones that can make a call.)
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Damn, so much pure hate towards a type of phone. I guess you got butt raped with an iPhone in jail a lot?
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Clearly you've experimented and found an excellent use case for purchasing an iPhone.
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I've found both iOS and Android phones work when butt raping.
Android phone are more flexible in how you use them, but are more likely to "fuck out" on you and ultimately provide a more chaffing experience.
iOS phones just work, but there's less ways you can insert them.
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Now I'm an Android user not an iPhone user (currently, I used to use an iPhone) but come on, Samsung released a phone that quite literally exploded and caused owners' cars and houses to catch fire and people are still buying the successor to that phone. Not sure what leads to perpetuate the moronic view that all people who buy a particular brand/type of phone think the same.
In fairness, we didn't keep buying the model that exploded. (Actually, I just kept my older model, which I still have, but the point still stands.)
You also should mention the first Samsung galaxy, which had defective GPS. As a family we switched to Motorola for years.
What's interesting to me is that even after the problems came out about this particular rather expensive iphone, it was still a hot seller. Clearly there was something else going on besides the mere ability to send and receive calls. Maybe
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I can confirm this has been my experience with one. Also that I was overcharged for minimal improvements and still pissed there's no headphone jack from the company "brave" enough to screw their customers repeatedly. And lack of fingerprint reader is seriously annoying.
So why did you buy one?
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I can confirm this has been my experience with one. Also that I was overcharged for minimal improvements and still pissed there's no headphone jack from the company "brave" enough to screw their customers repeatedly. And lack of fingerprint reader is seriously annoying.
So why did you buy one?
Because it's Apple. Silly person.
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apple makes low quality ; high profit devices. People are just figuring this out?
Pretty though.
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apple makes low quality ; high profit devices.
People are just figuring this out?
Pretty though.
Are they really? Or do we think they're pretty because that's what we're told? Just askin'.