What The New York Times got wrong about the iPhone 13
In a piece titled, “Apple iPhone 13 Review: The Most Incremental Upgrade Ever,” Brian X. Chen of The New York Times writes the following:
Innovations on smartphone cameras also appear to be slowing. Apple executives described the iPhone 13 cameras as “dramatically more powerful” and the iPhone’s “most advanced” ever, largely because they can capture more light and reduce noise. But in my tests, the improvements were marginal.
This is all to say the annual phone upgrade, which companies like Apple and Samsung tout with enormous marketing events and ad campaigns to gin up sales for the holiday shopping season, has become a mirage of tech innovation. In reality, the upgrades are now a celebration of capitalism in the form of ruthless incrementalism.
This is a pretty cynical take, which I don’t think properly contextualizes the iPhone 13 for Chen’s readers. I think it’s absolutely fair to use the phrase, “incremental update” to refer to what at the iPhone 13 brings to the table. I’ve done that as well. But it’s an incremental update with respect to what? That’s the important question.
As I said in my piece the other day, if you bought something from the iPhone 12 family of products last year, you probably aren’t going to feel the need to replace it with an iPhone 13 this year. But put yourself in the shoes of someone who has even an iPhone 11 from two years ago. By upgrading to the iPhone 13 you’re going to get a meaningful update in battery life, camera technology, the big form factor change adopted last year, and MagSafe accessory compatibility. That’s a pretty good list of improvements in just two years. And I’ve spoken with several people who are still using an iPhone 7. For them an iPhone 13 will represent a massive update over what they’re currently using.
Sometimes I feel like product reviewers like Chen, who either upgrade their personal devices every year or are at least getting annual review units, forget that most smart phone buyers don’t buy a new device every year. I’d bet the average is three years, and for many it’s four or five.
Chen used the phrase “ruthless incrementalism,” which again strikes me as a really cynical description of reality. Most product improvements happen in relatively small doses on a year-over-year basis in any product category. Look at cars. On a year-to-year basis there’s probably not that big of a change. Most of the time, this year’s Jetta is going to be only marginally different than last year’s Jetta. But every few years they’ll refresh the design. And if you buy a new or a new-to-you car every five-to-ten years, you’re going to find a lot of improvements when you get behind the wheel of your new ride. I recently bought a new-to-me car that is eight years newer than my previous car, and it’s better in many respects to what I had before.
He also called Apple’s events “a celebration to capitalism.” That sounds like he meant it as a pejorative, but to me that sounds pretty great. No economic system is perfect, but capitalism has been the engine that has dramatically improved our way of life over the last 100 years, more so than ever before in human history. The average American today lives a better life in many respects than a king did in 1900. That the iPhone gets better and better every year, even if usually in relatively minor ways compared with the prior year’s model, is pretty amazing actually.
One other bizarre thing from Chen’s piece: he doesn’t seem to think most people care about Night Mode photography. From his piece:
Just how important is night photography? I posed the question to Jim Wilson, a longtime staff photographer for The New York Times, as he was taking pictures of the new iPhones for this review. He said it would be a crucial feature for people like him, but not as important for casual shooters.
I find that a really odd statement. Being able to capture usable, sometimes incredible, images in low-light environments has been one of the best improvements smart phones have received in the last several years. I can’t imagine anyone not appreciating that, even if they’re not conscious of it and just assume that’s the way it should be.