Mission accomplished. Picked up Titanium Blue Pro Max at my local Apple Store (only 3 miles away) this morning.
My original order went through at 5:05am on order day so I was able to pick the 8:15am-8:30am window. Store traffic was very manageable, surprisingly so. Not at all the crush and hordes I recall from pre-pandemic. I was out of there by 9:15am. (I did the setup in-store so I could be 100% sure when I let them erase my trade-in 13PM.)
First impressions (coming from 13PM):
- Yes, this phone is really light.
- Also feels, how should I say this... small. Several times today I've picked it up and thought, OMG, did I accidentally order the Pro and not the Max?
- I like the blue well enough. I knew I was going to keep it in a case for most part, so outer color didn't matter as much.
- Still not used to the screen being on all the time. That will take getting used to.
I returned the FW case and FW wallet I'd ordered. They made that easy. I had previously picked them up on Wednesday and looked at them off on and over the last two days. I tried to imagine how I'd feel if I'd kept them. I think if they'd been like $30 I would've kept them. $60 each? No. I ended up getting one of the silicon cases in the darker blue color. I'm happy with that.
For a wallet, I bought a brown leather one on eBay. New and never used. Includes "find my" feature. Got it for $22, so I'm happy with that. It arrives Monday-ish.
Hope everyone else who ordered and received their phone has a good and lucky experience today, especially if you live in lucky places like Las Vegas. Thanks to everyone who contributed and made this an interesting experience.
I leave this week feeling like I know waaaaay more about international shipping logistics than grads of 4-year supply chain programs. Haha.
Best to all.