One of the drawbacks to growing older is that there are fewer and fewer things that surprise and delight you as time goes on. When you’re a kid, every Christmas was a time full of anticipation and joy. But as you grow older, you start to lose that sense of wide-eyed wonder and excitement.
That’s one of the reasons why adults become so enamored with their favorite tech companies. It’s one of the few areas where we still get that feeling like we had as impatient 8 year olds waiting to unwrap our gifts on Christmas Eve. And Apple fans have had a great October thus far playing with the amazing new cameras and battery life in the new iPhone 11 Pro or showing off their always-on screens of the new Series 5 Apple Watch.
But even tech companies can let us down from time to time. I thought I’d take a step back and focus on the biggest disappointments I’ve seen come from the tech world in the last decade. The following items were things that everyone in the tech press wished for but which I found to be either disappointing or non-events.
4K Televisions
If you don’t have a 4K television, you’re not missing much. Jumping from a 1080p resolution to 4K is barely noticeable on my 65” HDR TV. In fact, I have to get up out of my chair and walk up to the screen and specifically look at the fine details in the picture to tell if I’m watching a 4K or 1080p stream. I recently downgraded my premium Netflix subscription so that my videos are now in 1080p instead of 4K and no one in my family noticed a difference, including me.
I remember back in the day when the first 720p high definition TVs started coming out. The quality improvement seemed huge and everyone could tell right away. Then 1080p came out and you could still kind of tell that the improvement was there. But 4K? Eh, upgrade if your TV breaks down but it’s not worth going out of your way for it.
OLED Phone Screens
For years, iPhone fans had to listen to Android fans crow about how great OLED phones screens were because “the contrast ratio was out of this world”. Well, now not only do iPhones have OLED screens. IPhones have the best OLED screens of any phone. And I’m ambivalent about it.
I don’t care how deep the blacks are when:
I find OLED screens a big disappointment. To me, screen reflectivity and brightness in the sun are much more important factors. And ironically, Apple LCDs have beat Android OLED screens over the past few years in these areas. That’s probably one of the reasons that Apple fans didn’t seem to mind that they didn’t have OLED screens.
Wireless Charging
I’ve had access to wireless charging since the iPhone X came out but I still barely ever use it. My wife likes wireless charging so we have chargers in various places including our vehicles.
But I only charge my iPhone once a day, at night before I go to bed. So it’s hard for me to get excited about something that I’ll only use once per day and doesn’t even save me any time. I have one of those dock chargers on my nightstand that I can set my iPhone into. I set my iPhone on it at night and lift it out in the morning and that’s it. It doesn’t take any more time than setting my iPhone on a wireless charger. In fact, it may take less time because I don’t have to make sure that it’s situated correctly to receive a charge.
Don’t tell me about wireless chargers until they’ve figured out a way to do it without placing your phone on a puck. Now THAT would be a game changer. In fact, it’s a shame to attach the term “wireless charging” to the current crop of conductive chargers.
The fact that I only need to charge my iPhone at night is the same reason that I’m not excited about the new fast charger that came in the box with my 11 Pro Max. It’s still in the box. If you charge at night, what difference does it make if it charges any faster? In fact, I was taken aback when I first saw it. I thought why has Apple take a step backwards with this big ugly charger when they used to offer the smaller elegant one?
But even tech companies can let us down from time to time. I thought I’d take a step back and focus on the biggest disappointments I’ve seen come from the tech world in the last decade. The following items were things that everyone in the tech press wished for but which I found to be either disappointing or non-events.
4K Televisions
If you don’t have a 4K television, you’re not missing much. Jumping from a 1080p resolution to 4K is barely noticeable on my 65” HDR TV. In fact, I have to get up out of my chair and walk up to the screen and specifically look at the fine details in the picture to tell if I’m watching a 4K or 1080p stream. I recently downgraded my premium Netflix subscription so that my videos are now in 1080p instead of 4K and no one in my family noticed a difference, including me.
I remember back in the day when the first 720p high definition TVs started coming out. The quality improvement seemed huge and everyone could tell right away. Then 1080p came out and you could still kind of tell that the improvement was there. But 4K? Eh, upgrade if your TV breaks down but it’s not worth going out of your way for it.
OLED Phone Screens
For years, iPhone fans had to listen to Android fans crow about how great OLED phones screens were because “the contrast ratio was out of this world”. Well, now not only do iPhones have OLED screens. IPhones have the best OLED screens of any phone. And I’m ambivalent about it.
I don’t care how deep the blacks are when:
- I don’t watch 2 hour movies on my iPhone – I’ll use my TV or iPad Pro
- I don’t look at my phone in a darkened room with all the lights off—I’m not some kid sneaking phone use after bedtime
I find OLED screens a big disappointment. To me, screen reflectivity and brightness in the sun are much more important factors. And ironically, Apple LCDs have beat Android OLED screens over the past few years in these areas. That’s probably one of the reasons that Apple fans didn’t seem to mind that they didn’t have OLED screens.
Wireless Charging
I’ve had access to wireless charging since the iPhone X came out but I still barely ever use it. My wife likes wireless charging so we have chargers in various places including our vehicles.
But I only charge my iPhone once a day, at night before I go to bed. So it’s hard for me to get excited about something that I’ll only use once per day and doesn’t even save me any time. I have one of those dock chargers on my nightstand that I can set my iPhone into. I set my iPhone on it at night and lift it out in the morning and that’s it. It doesn’t take any more time than setting my iPhone on a wireless charger. In fact, it may take less time because I don’t have to make sure that it’s situated correctly to receive a charge.
Don’t tell me about wireless chargers until they’ve figured out a way to do it without placing your phone on a puck. Now THAT would be a game changer. In fact, it’s a shame to attach the term “wireless charging” to the current crop of conductive chargers.
The fact that I only need to charge my iPhone at night is the same reason that I’m not excited about the new fast charger that came in the box with my 11 Pro Max. It’s still in the box. If you charge at night, what difference does it make if it charges any faster? In fact, I was taken aback when I first saw it. I thought why has Apple take a step backwards with this big ugly charger when they used to offer the smaller elegant one?
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