Was going to say 4, but I'm going to go with the 6. It set the standard for the next 6 years, (just look at the SE 2020, same size, almost identical design, refined).
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Other In your view, at what point did the iPhone become “mature”?
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The 6s. Considering that it is still being supported today with iOS14.
The maturity comes with high performance cores (twister), huge jump in GPU (6 cores), the use of ultra fast storage (nvme), and 2GB of RAM. It basically becomes the baseline.
Contrary to popular belief, the iPhone 6 ages really poorly, thus I don't consider it being "mature."
The maturity comes with high performance cores (twister), huge jump in GPU (6 cores), the use of ultra fast storage (nvme), and 2GB of RAM. It basically becomes the baseline.
Contrary to popular belief, the iPhone 6 ages really poorly, thus I don't consider it being "mature."
Probably the 6S+ for me as well. That was the point when subsequent iphone upgrades didn’t feel like direct upgrades to me, and considering how the 6s+ is still supported by iOS 14. The 6S+ ticked off all the right boxes - 2gb ram for longevity, a headphone jack, physical home button, large screen, support for Apple Pay, and I am still largely indifferent to wireless charging, even though I use it every day.
for its time: 3GS, 4, 4S, 5, 6, 6S, SE, 7, XR, SE2
OG and 3G felt like beta's / prototypes albeit OG was a trail blazer and so novel and will always have a special place in my heart
3gs was a much needed SoC boost after two generations of the same internals, notwithstanding the 3g radio.
4 was mind blowing for its design and time and even A4 boost. 4S had that needed speed boost for 4 being long in the tooth by the time it came out, which well exceeded a year that we were used to year over year.
5 with LTE and the light design.
5S felt prototype-y to me too, wasnt worth the outlay of cash too so skipped that one
6 with its new design and expansion to 4.7 and 5.5 offerings (plus) after so long of 3.5 and short run of 4
7 for being water resistant, P3 screen and dual speakers and dual cameras intro on the Plus
X was awesome but felt prototype-y with limited battery and being the first of the new design
XR for being an X, without PWM and amazing battery life and yet another new size
SE's both being the fastest modernized version of their 'retro' counterparts: 5 with A9 on SE1, 6-ish (ok 8 design, but still close to 6 with a glass back) with A13 on SE2.
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for what its worth, I probably had more fun with the prototype-y phones than anything, specifically OG and X, 3G was kind of an upgrade-downgrade with 3g radio but less battery and cheaper design and no processor improvements
5s I skipped all together, knowing I would have Touch ID with my next phone moving forward
OG and 3G felt like beta's / prototypes albeit OG was a trail blazer and so novel and will always have a special place in my heart
3gs was a much needed SoC boost after two generations of the same internals, notwithstanding the 3g radio.
4 was mind blowing for its design and time and even A4 boost. 4S had that needed speed boost for 4 being long in the tooth by the time it came out, which well exceeded a year that we were used to year over year.
5 with LTE and the light design.
5S felt prototype-y to me too, wasnt worth the outlay of cash too so skipped that one
6 with its new design and expansion to 4.7 and 5.5 offerings (plus) after so long of 3.5 and short run of 4
7 for being water resistant, P3 screen and dual speakers and dual cameras intro on the Plus
X was awesome but felt prototype-y with limited battery and being the first of the new design
XR for being an X, without PWM and amazing battery life and yet another new size
SE's both being the fastest modernized version of their 'retro' counterparts: 5 with A9 on SE1, 6-ish (ok 8 design, but still close to 6 with a glass back) with A13 on SE2.
--
for what its worth, I probably had more fun with the prototype-y phones than anything, specifically OG and X, 3G was kind of an upgrade-downgrade with 3g radio but less battery and cheaper design and no processor improvements
5s I skipped all together, knowing I would have Touch ID with my next phone moving forward
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I'm going with the 5S here. By this time, Siri was already out for two years and was no longer a novelty (though far from perfect). The camera was decent, LTE was no longer a new thing, and TouchID came out as the first of many non-password ways to unlock the phone.
It also just felt like a more mature product compared to the 4S I had upgraded from. I think a big part of that was the design change--the space gray and gold just felt more refined than the previous models.
The 5S was the first to ship with the modern OS out of the box in iOS 7. Previous iPhones had to be upgraded, and it completely changed the look and feel of them.
It also launched alongside the 5C, and since then there has usually been some sort of lower-priced, older-tech model alongside the newer one (think SE). By that point, everyone knew it had made it past being a novelty to being a staple in the lineup, and one that will be around for a long time.
I'd argue against the X and 6, as I felt both were more evolutionary than anything. By the time the 6 line came out, people already had an expectation as to what an iPhone was.
It also just felt like a more mature product compared to the 4S I had upgraded from. I think a big part of that was the design change--the space gray and gold just felt more refined than the previous models.
The 5S was the first to ship with the modern OS out of the box in iOS 7. Previous iPhones had to be upgraded, and it completely changed the look and feel of them.
It also launched alongside the 5C, and since then there has usually been some sort of lower-priced, older-tech model alongside the newer one (think SE). By that point, everyone knew it had made it past being a novelty to being a staple in the lineup, and one that will be around for a long time.
I'd argue against the X and 6, as I felt both were more evolutionary than anything. By the time the 6 line came out, people already had an expectation as to what an iPhone was.
I’ll bolster the very correct consensus here: 6s was the pinnacle. 7 was the toy-ification of the platform. A phone without an aux port no longer meets the 3-in-1 promise of Jobs’ introduction to the device. Even today, when I peel the case off my 6s, there’s not a portion of it that doesn’t delight my senses. And I can unlock it without having to look at it.
That said, the more cramped 4, 4s and 5s are masterpieces. Jobs wasn’t wrong about the positive of limiting the screen to one-thumb-range; but he did underrate the counter-positive of exceeding it.
(6-s rather than 6 because of better internals and 4K vid. 5s instead of 5 for Touch ID. 4s had an edge over 4 for a while based on internals, but both are long obsolete in that regard now).
That said, the more cramped 4, 4s and 5s are masterpieces. Jobs wasn’t wrong about the positive of limiting the screen to one-thumb-range; but he did underrate the counter-positive of exceeding it.
(6-s rather than 6 because of better internals and 4K vid. 5s instead of 5 for Touch ID. 4s had an edge over 4 for a while based on internals, but both are long obsolete in that regard now).
I agree the X was the point it became pretty pointless to upgrade for a majority of iphone uses where most are content with the performance and the camera. The battery life good, fast charging, great design that look fresh and modern. Great processor that will last you years. Essentially its the phone the kicked off the modern iphone design that will continue to influence iphones for the next 5 years or so.
I personally went with an 8plus, which had the same camera and processor as the x, as a stop gap when the x upgrade cycle started, knowing the x and its screen was too small for me and I was 100% convinced apple would release a big screen iphone x plus the following year, which they did. I bought an xs max on launch day that i'm hanging on to now. I was super psyched to get the xs max, but looking back the performance and camera of the xs max was not a huge leap compared to my 8 plus. It felt the same really, which is somewhat of a disappointment to me, and it made me realize that upgrading yearly (which I was doing at the time) wasn't going to give me the same feeling of newness; the technology had fully matured. Of course the screen on the xs max was gorgeous. Hence another reason why its difficult to justify upgrading these days since the screen is what you stare at the most and the leaps in improvement is pretty marginal. Like the promotion display on my ipad pro, its not noticeable to me though tech reviewers rave about it.
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I’m a power user and I think iOS is fine and very mature.
Very interesting answers here. as I said before, I think there’s probably a case to be made for almost any generation. I’m definitely surprised by the number saying iPhone X because that suggests that people like me who are still using a 6,7, or 8 as a daily driver have a product that isn’t mature, and I can’t agree with that at all. It seems to me iphone was a fully baked product years before that.
Meh. While I do want FaceID on the 12.9" iPad (often docked), I couldn't care less about it on a device that I'm already holding in my hand while using.
On iPhone, I'd prefer completely notchless with power button TouchID similar to the Air 4.
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And TouchID did not mature until the 6s, when it became super-fast; TouchID on the 5S was good, but still finnicky.
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Wrong. Siri was the main feature with the iPhone 4S.
5S was about 64 bits, Touch ID and full LTE/4G for all countries.
2016 when the OG SE was released. It has been an abject disaster with removing the 3.5mm jack, increasing the weight and lowering sound quality across the entire lineup. A9 was the plateau.
Pretty sure the iPhones after the original SE werent an abject disaster. They seem to have sold really well.
It really surprises me the amount of people that still are annoyed about the head phone jack. It’s dead now time to move on.
It’s like when Apple removed the floppy disk drive. Who uses floppy discs anymore? Technology moves on.
It’s like when Apple removed the floppy disk drive. Who uses floppy discs anymore? Technology moves on.