Final Fantasy?

I have this conversation from time to time with people when they see the name of my iPhone:

“Final Fantasy?”
“Yeah.”
“What’s that mean?”
“Well, when I got this phone, it completely checked off everything on my whiz-bang gadget list. I don’t have anything else that I really want a phone to do.”

Sometimes I have to explain that there’s a game pun in there, too. So, it’s been almost a year since this iPhone was released, and nine months since I bought it. Has my idea of an ideal changed? Yes and no.

The iPhone 6s Plus is a huge slab of glass, but there are larger ones out there. When I got it, there was a week or so of buyer’s remorse, since the iPhone 5s had been so much smaller. But once I adjusted, I can’t go back.

Part of the reason I’m not itchy to upgrade is the camera, which is not only fast and accurate with colors, but has automatic image stabilization when shooting video.

Another part would be the long battery life. I can easily last a day of normal use without having to plug in. If I do need a top off midday, it charges really quickly, which is great.

The last is the fact that I can see so much on the screen. I’ve been an iPad fan since day one, and still own and use two constantly, but there is rarely a time that I’ve not also got my iPhone sitting there, giving me notifications, or looking up quick bits of info while I write, watch, or play on the larger device. And, as with all phones since the first iPhone, it’s always with me.

The thing that sold me on the first iPhone was standing in an airport security line, getting a call from a client with password issues, logging into our company server, resetting his password, and being done with a trouble ticket before my TSA strip-search. I didn’t have to find a place to sit down, pull out a laptop, find wifi…

With each version, a new feature or processor improvement convinced me I “had” to upgrade. Until now. Yes, My current phone could be faster, but not much. The new version of iOS, due this Fall, will fix the “too-fast touchID” issue (the fingerprint reader is so fast that it turns on and logs you in without showing the lock screen – where your notifications live.)

Yes, the wifi could be more reliable, but is that a phone issue or an infrastructure one? Could the camera be better? Not without better optics, and that’s not going to come without a huge change in digital photo sensors! Or a bending of the laws of physics. If I want it, I have a better camera I can quickly plug in, or I can attach lenses. It’s still the basic phone at the core of it all, and it handles outboard gear with aplomb.

With past phones, I was always just a bit disappointed. I really wanted better low-light photography. Better flash for skin tones. Image stabilization. All-day battery life. And, deep at the roots, I wanted to never think to myself, “I’ll have to wait until I’m back on my Mac to do that.” I hardly ever do that these days. And the fantasy of having a phone, still under AppleCare, paid off, that I don’t really feel a burning itch to upgrade may just come true this time.

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Final Fantasy? originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 28, 2016 at 9:00 am.

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Final Fantasy?