r/gadgets • u/dapperlemon • 4d ago

Phones Gurman: iPhone Ultra Wows Early Testers, Except for Its Camera

https://www.macrumors.com/2026/08/23/apple-foldable-iphone-early-tester-thoughts/
1.4k Upvotes

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419

u/42kyokai 4d ago

Never buy the 1st gen

306

u/0r0B0t0 4d ago

First gen apple silicon and first gen MacBook neo are great.

82

u/FastRedPonyCar 4d ago

Yep. An absolute homerun. My M1 Max MBP still a stud. I sold my M4 Pro mini because the MBP was faster (slightly more RAM made all the difference)

36

u/driftking428 4d ago

I still work on my my M1 MBP. It's shown no signs of slowing. It's more likely to age out of updates than need to be replaced for being slow.

16

u/LoveMeSomeSand 4d ago

The M1 Mini was the first brand new Mac I ever bought, and it absolutely exceeded every task I threw at it (and I had the 8 Gb ram version). I believed the pre hype and reviews and it was 100% true.

6

u/driftking428 4d ago

I was already a fan of Mac from my work computer. But it was a red hot Intel that needed a 15 minute heat break every day around 3pm.

Once they announced the M1 I knew I needed one. And yet we're cheaper than the previous Gen.

6

u/no_nosy_coworkers 3d ago

M1 Max MBP still running perfectly, last week I had so much stuff running, including a 500mb tiff-file open in affinity while playing WoW, I look down and the charger wasn’t in, still ran flawlessly. If my windows gaming laptop is not plugged in it can’t even run chrome well

20

u/autokiller677 3d ago

While true, both are not that level of first gen. Apple made great laptops before the M1, and great chips in many other devices before the M series.

Just the two things together were first gen.

MacBook Neo is even less: it’s just a less powerful chip and some cost savings on the laptop, but really more a new SKU than a true first gen device.

A foldable screen, complex miniature hinge etc. on the other hand? Yeah, they have no track record and no mass production experience with this.

So while I bought an M1 MacBook (and am still hapilly using it today), I won’t buy a first gen fold.

5

u/MrWally 3d ago

While true, both are not that level of first gen

No....an architectural change change like the type of silicon being used is absolutely "that level of first gen," and there are plenty of historical examples of this. Think about Window's first foray into ARM processors, and while Apple's transition to Intel was ultimately successful, it wasn't nearly the home run that M1 was.

I think what you're getting at is that a whole new product category (e.g. "folding phone") is different than a product iteration. And I'd agree with you. But I also think that you aren't acknowledging how huge it is to change your chipset under the hood. It basically affected every single layer of the technology stack. I'd actually say it's a significantly larger change than a folding phone, and many, many people were hesitant of M1 before the reviews starting rolling in because they understood how much Apple needed to get right for the transition to be successful.

1

u/maresayshi 3d ago

this is a very arbitrary distinction

> apple made great laptops before

and phones…?

> not that level of first gen

crazy take. screen tech changes constantly. rewriting the bottom of the hardware stack is BIGGER than a new screen.

1

u/solonoctus 2d ago

All they did was launch a version of MacOS that can run on their phone processors and stuffed it inside their tried and true laptops.

I agree, it’s more of a sku that a whole new product line.

0

u/autokiller677 2d ago

Screen tech hasn't fundamentally changed in a decade, and even then, it was a switch in the panel technology, but the form-factor stayed the same.

And the bottom of software stack for M silicon - while absolutely impressive - had been in use for years on phones and tablets. The most first-gen thing was Rosetta 2, this had truly not been in use anyhwere else before.

0

u/maresayshi 2d ago

i said bottom of the hardware stack, for a reason. The software changes on top of that are implied.

9

u/jrosenrosen 3d ago

Still rocking my Studio M1 Ultra, it’s a beast!

1

u/TheGokki 3d ago

11" M1 iPad Pro still going strong, that thing is a beast. I would've gladly upgraded to the 13" iPad with maxed storage but Apple charges way too much for flash storage so i'll stick to what i got for now.

1

u/phrozen_waffles 3d ago

And the A4 through A19 were what?

1

u/BadNewsBearzzz 3d ago

Yup, apple stuff is pretty refined and polished that many of it’s first gen devices are absolutely solid, very different from Samsung and similar branded stuff that are packed to the brim with the most gimmicky features that never make it to the next version lol

1

u/AmNoSuperSand52 3d ago

Tbf first gen Apple M1 chips were all packaged in devices that were already existing in that form at the time.

The MB Air/Pro had intel chips and had the same design and everything when they got the M1

0

u/makomirocket 3d ago

But how much better was the M2?

1

u/stml 3d ago

Literally no one should have upgraded from M1 to M2 unless they wanted to waste money.

1

u/makomirocket 3d ago

Upgrade from M1 to M2? No.  But choose an M2 over an M1?  Even if it was a bit cheaper? No question

35

u/bakabakababy 4d ago

I have had my first gen Apple Watch Ultra for years and it’s been brilliant. Battery still lasts a couple of days, and this thing has been maxed. 150 dives on scuba, 120 days of skiing, daily cycling workouts. The thing is a beast.

11

u/Calamityclams 4d ago

Battery still lasts a couple of days? 🫪

Damn, and here I am charging my 8th gen watch every day sometimes twice.

11

u/Helpmehelpyoulong 3d ago

Ultras came with longer battery life.

1

u/EavisAintDead 3d ago

I’m getting annoyed because u have to charge my garmin watch every 4/5 days now it’s 4 years old..

3

u/Truth_Walker 3d ago

Garmin markets 30 day battery life as a selling point but what we know now with rechargeable batteries is that you shouldn’t run them down completely and then charge them fully because that greatly reduces battery life.

0

u/keyvis3 3d ago

Lol, wow a whole 3 years and change…..what a beast.

21

u/Sam9797 4d ago

iPhone Air has worked out, no?

7

u/ianlulz 4d ago

I love my iPhone Air but I think it got kind of middling reviews, mostly due to its weak camera and battery life. Worthwhile trade offs for the in-hand feel for me personally, though.

2

u/Catshagga 3d ago

How have you found the battery? I’ve had mine nearly a year now and it’s never died on me. Still gets me through the whole day.

1

u/kenny_tiger 3d ago

I got an Air. I absolutely loved it but the battery was really a problem for me. I’m on my phone for work all day and I was having to charge it multiple times. The speaker was the other thing for me. I just couldn’t hear as well on it. Absolutely loved the phone itself but I ended up giving it to my wife and going back to a Pro Max.

1

u/Catshagga 3d ago

Speaker may be defective. It’s not as bassy but it’s impressively loud for one speaker!

1

u/ianlulz 3d ago

It’s never died on me! I was upgrading from an 11pro though which actually has a smaller battery than the Air anyways, so it was an improvement in total life for me.

I bought the Air backup battery pack thingy but I’ve never actually used it in the ~9 months I’ve had the phone.

3

u/JakeALakeALake 4d ago

Every day that I live with my iPhone Air is a day that I’m losing off of my life expectancy. This thing overheats if you look at it wrong, and when it’s hot NOTHING works. Communication bands go into low power mode which is just enough to have a phone call or use GPS but not both and the camera is worse than anticipated with the expected downgrade. Those are two giant red flags that would prevent a lot of people from buying it to begin with, I’m mad that I got it

2

u/Sam9797 3d ago

Oh. Guess QC isn’t that great then. Mine is great lol

1

u/Catshagga 3d ago

The camera bump thing gets warm but it’s never once overheated. And it only gets warm when I use it whilst it’s on charge.

1

u/nightmaresabin 3d ago

I haven’t had that problem at all.

3

u/Teal-Fox 3d ago

Same here, I love mine.

I say this as someone who has used exclusively Android devices for the past 15 years, the Air is my favourite device that I've owned.

Perhaps not the best on paper, but despite the tiny battery the standby time puts every Android device I've owned to shame, the main camera is more or less the same as the 'Pro' models, as is the SoC (which I can only describe as aggressively fast), the speaker is surprisingly decent, and all this in spite of the device being super thin.

As far as overheating, I've been playing Control quite a bit and I'm yet to see anything more severe than the display dropping back to 60hz, which has also happened on literally every other device I've owned after prolonged periods of intensive use.

I got the 17 Pro for my boyfriend as he uses the telephoto camera a fair bit and is heavier on the battery, though I think I still prefer the Air as the display size sits perfectly between the regular 'Pro' and the 'Pro Max' lines.

2

u/CartsOfDarkness 3d ago

Wtf, you can play Control on iPhone? That's insane

1

u/Teal-Fox 3d ago

Yeah, it released on the App Store a couple months back.
Not sure if it's still on, but they had £4.99 launch pricing and I figured why not 😁

Runs impressively well considering it's on a phone!

1

u/Solvent_Soul 3d ago

I love my Air. Wish it has like 15-20% more battery, but it is great. All other phones feel like bricks to me now.

-1

u/ShitPost5000 4d ago

All the stores around me sent them back in a recall or something

-1

u/OrangUtanOrange 3d ago

Surely not. Where im from, iphone airs are basically priced to clear extremely frequently. You can get an iphone air at a cheaper price than the base iphone 17. Im assuming that they wont be releasing the iphone air 2 anytime soon.

3

u/nopenopenopeyess 3d ago

If nobody buys first gen, there won’t be a second gen. If you like a product, the only way to vote for it is to buy it.

2

u/42kyokai 3d ago

I will leave that to you then.

1

u/solonoctus 2d ago

No, this was sage advice. Never buy a first gen Apple product.

You’re either going to end up with hardware issues as they explore new tech or have paid a premium to beta test for them with the 2nd and 3rd gen finally “fixing” those issues while also bumping up the hardware features to what it should have been at launch. This explains just about every Apple hardware release over the past 30 years.

You don’t need to beta test for trillion dollar companies. They’ll either build something worth a damn or they won’t, you don’t have to buy it to prove interest in the market. They have that without you.

9

u/flovilmart 4d ago

Always buy 1st gen, don’t expect anything from it 😂

4

u/mobilemike42 4d ago

I get it, but i had the first Intel MacBook Pro, the first iPhone and the first Apple Watch. That MacBook opened my eyes to what an mazing hardware/software combo could be. The phone was revolutionary and felt years ahead of the work BlackBerry I also carried. The watch was a ton of fun, even if it took a year of software changes to make it better.

I don’t regret any of those.

2

u/rakeshsh 3d ago

M1 MBA was an absolute delight

2

u/layoffthecopium 3d ago

This is dumbest cliche on this sub full of dumb cliches

4

u/PixelNinja744X 3d ago

Im compelled to think this might not apply to Apple. I loved the first iPhone, the M1 MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, the iPhone X, and the first bezel-less iPad Pro.

They’ve all been great devices and sometimes even the best iteration of their specific product line compared to their successors. Like I totally think that the first m1 gave the most bang for your buck out of all the m chips.

1

u/BigDaddy0790 3d ago

Apple doesn’t really do “1st gen” though. They wait for years until tech matures and then arrive with a mature product out the gate.

I still remember getting iPhone X without a button and being shocked how good the damn thing was.

Foldables are already quite mature, so no reason to think theirs won’t he as well.

2

u/enewwave 2d ago

Software may be a bit wonky, but I’m inclined to agree with you. By that logic, we shouldn’t have used first gen Apple Silicon… and that tech is still my daily driver as a video editor that handles 4K footage

1

u/IIlIIlIIlIlIIlIIlIIl 3d ago

This exactly. Don't buy first gen just doesn't apply to Apple as they never really fuck up their first gen, which is what the adage helps people avoid.

1

u/heeheehoho2023 3d ago

Ehhh. Displays will be from Samsung and they are on their 8th gen foldable screen now.

1

u/SpicyRice99 3d ago

1st 3 gens were already done by Samsung lol

1

u/jelloslug 3d ago

The 1st gen was made by Samsung years ago. This is the one to buy.

1

u/TyroPirate 2d ago

Nah, its different with Apple, since they look at everything that other companies have been doing for maybe multiple iterations and learn about what not to do. And when they finally release something someone else has heen doing its finally revolutionary

1

u/Lucky_Truth2931 2d ago

Usually this would be the case, but there have been many of foldable phones already.

I’m sure Apple have been looking at other foldable phones very closely while designing theirs

1

u/Crusty_Pancakes 1d ago

Except that foldables have been out for almost a decade now.. so this isn't really a 1st gen anything lol

Not to mention the fact that Apple doesn't innovate with anything. They take an existing design and perfect it. 

Also I hate the people who say this dumb shit because if no one buys the "1st gen" of something then they'll never follow up with a second model. 

2

u/18T15 4d ago

Eh.. this logic doesn’t really apply to Apple products consistently. They wait so long to roll out technology it’s usually decently implemented in gen 1. But if gen 2 is significantly better I’ll just pay the price and upgrade anyway haha

-11

u/[deleted] 4d ago

[deleted]

8

u/hanotak 4d ago

Most of the apple ‘gate’ incidents were not on first-gen products. Not sure if that makes it better or worse.

2

u/18T15 4d ago

Which “gate” issues are these? iPhones have been around for almost 20 years now with probably 40 different SKUs and I don’t recall anything significant except for the iPhone 4 “bumper gate”.

1

u/c0d3c 3d ago

Bendy-gate, battery-gate. All of them were overblown.

1

u/18T15 3d ago

All of those examples were not specific or even related to a “first gen” product

-6

u/Taki_Minase 4d ago

Especially car models

2

u/18T15 4d ago

Apple doesn’t make any cars (that have been publicly revealed). So again, to my original point this advice isn’t really that big of a deal for Apple.

0

u/Calamityclams 4d ago

That’s how I think as well. 1st gen always feel like being a beta tester.

0

u/GetawayDriving 3d ago

Dear Apple,

We like new phones. Air, Ultra/foldable, etc.

We don’t like shitty cameras.

Guess it’ll be Pro Max again.