Interesting take. How do you like esim support?
I had an iPhone 13 Pro Max and I think it is still one of the best iPhone ever made. That being said I would have liked the camera improvements in the 14 Pro.
I don't see the cutout on the screen as an improvement and I feel like dynamic island is a clever way to cover up an ugly pill shape cutout that really doesn't add any value in terms of screen real estate over the notch and is aesthetically worse. I wish they would have just reduced the notch or used an under display camera setup. Having a completely usable screen would have been really cool.
I don't know why but I really don't like iOS 16. It has ruined the battery life on my 13 Pro Max which used to be a 3 day or longer phone. In fact the 13 Pro Max was the best phone I have ever used in terms of battery life. The Pixel 7 Pro seems to be very close to battery life as the 13 Pro Max now. I find the battery life of the Pixel 7 Pro to be impressive considering the large display.
Also I can't speak to the iPhone 14 display but I am sure it is better than anything else but the Pixel 7 Pro has a surprisingly good display. Color temperature and accuracy are better than any phone I have used. While I am not a fan of curved displays it is in the top 3 phones with Samsung Galaxy s22 ultra and iPhone 14 Pro being better.
The performance and efficiency is surprisingly to hear about from the a16. I expected better. Specifically with battery life but maybe it is software related since my 13 Pro Max is worse with iOS 16 and it doesn't even use the AOD. It might have something to do with stage Manager being baked into the new OS release. Stage Manager is not very good right now and I never thought I would say this as I am not a fan of Dex either but Dex on Samsung seems a lot better.
I will be switching back to Android from iOS after using iPhone since the 11. If T mobile didn't screw me over by refusing to unlock my paid off iPhone which I used for over a year on their network and complied with their own unlock requirements I would have kept it and if Apple would have given me a better trade in value I might have traded it for a new iPhone but alas Google is basically giving me the Pixel 7 Pro as a straight trade in for my locked iPhone I am sticking with Pixel for now. I still wish Apple would have included an option for buyers to get a physical sim card iPhone if they wanted. Hopefully in a year esim support will be better.