I had a 6S Plus and 7 Plus and really loved the bigger screen size. Bought an X last year thinking it would have a bigger screen than the Plus phones in a smaller package. Well, I was disappointed with the X’s screen size, it felt like a downgrade from the 7 Plus. I kept the X because I loved everything else about it, OLED, pixels per inch, amazing (at the time) camera. But I’ve always missed the bigger screen of the Plus phones.
I bought a Max and it seemed like everything I wanted - all the advantages of the X, plus the bigger screen size of the Plus phones. I was thrilled with it. It was a little heavy - I think it’s about 0.7 ounces heavier than the 8 Plus and nearly 1 ounce heavier than the 7 Plus. 1 ounce doesn’t sound like much but the 7 Plus was already on the heavy side for me.
But I was willing to accept the weight because I LOVED the Max’s display.
And the camera: the X was a big upgrade over the 7 Plus camera, and the Max is a big upgrade over the X’s camera.
Sadly, I had LTE and wifi connectivity issues with my Max. I spent many hours researching these problems, chatting online with Apple tech support reps, and trying different things (resetting network settings, wiping the phone and setting up as a new iPhone, and other things), none of which fixed the problems.
Now, the problems I was having weren’t as bad as some people were describing on the Macrumors forums. Probably 80% of the time i had excellent or at least satisfactory connectivity. .
But I couldn’t live with the possibility that my $1200+ phone would have worse LTE and wifi performance, even just 20% of the time, than my X or any of my previous iPhones.
I think there’s a good chance Apple will address these issues — either with software patches that fix the problems, or by ultimately acknowledging the problem and offering to replace iPhones for the small percentage of units that have problems.
But I didn’t want to take the risk that I’d have to live with a phone that was less than perfect, for the money I paid. So I took it back after about 8 days with the phone, and I’m using my X again.
—
While there seem to be hundreds of people on these forums with problematic XS and Max units, and probably thousands more, I believe they represent a tiny, tiny percentage of the millions of units sold.
And if these issues are fixable, I think it’s likely that they will be fixed in the coming weeks.
So I will try again, and buy another Max.
—
Regarding the price: yes, it seems insane to spend so much on a phone. But here’s how I justify it:
I buy the phone on the iPhone Upgrade Program. In this program, a 256gb Max plus AppleCare is $60/month, or $2/day. I get way more than $2 worth of value from my phone every day.
The IUP gives me the option to upgrade in a year or to keep the phone. If I am concerned about the cost, I can keep the phone for 2 years and it will be fully paid off. (The program charges 0% interest and no fees - it merely divides the cost of the phone + AppleCare into 24 equal payments.). Once the phone is paid off, it’s mine to keep. At that point, I can sell it, it’ll probably be worth 1/3 or at least 1/4 of its initial price. (Based on eBay prices of sold iPhones, iPhones seem to hold better than half of their value after 1 year and about 1/3 of their value after 2 years.).
Of course, your iPhone 8 Plus is still an absolutely great phone and would continue to serve you well for another year. If you could hold out another year, you’d have the option to get whatever iPhone Apple introduces in September 2019, *or* buy a then 1-year-old 2018 Max for a reduced price.
Good luck, and let us know what you decide!
