When the new iPhones were announced in September I’m not afraid to say that I was unimpressed. Normally Apple do something with each iPhone announcement that makes me want the phone desperately, so much so that when EE began offering the annual upgrade option last year I jumped at the chance and got my new contract and thought happily that never again would I be in a position where the new toy came out but I was stuck with the old toy and had to fork out a ton of money on it. I was incredibly happy… and then this year happened and I was underwhelmed by the new phones. You can read all about that on other blogs right here.
So, the closer we got to pre-order day for the iPhone X the more I knew I had a decision to make. Was it going to be the iPhone 8? The wireless charging was the big thing for me there. I really wanted the wireless charging and have been wanting it since they didn’t put it in the 7. Was it going to be the iPhone X? I’m not a fan of the fact that they got rid of Touch ID entirely, and that was the biggest thing that I disliked about the iPhone X (although I’m also not crazy about the design). Or, would I stick with the iPhone 7? It’s a nice phone, I really liked the Jet-Black colour, and I had no DESPERATE desire to upgrade it in truth. What would make me upgrade? Well, the prices for one thing. I’m on my EE contract, so what were the prices going to be?
The release of the pre-orders for the iPhone X on Friday made the prices to upgrade official. It would cost me nothing to upgrade to the iPhone 8, and £80 to upgrade to the iPhone X, and if I did either one it would involve trading in my iPhone 7 to get it. If I waited a year, I could sell my iPhone 7 and upgrade to next year’s phones. But… I’ve been paying the little bit extra for the annual upgrade contract SPECIFICALLY so that I could get the new phone when it came out. Did I really want to not take advantage of that?
I went on holiday to Doncaster for my birthday week, and had an absolute blast with my friends, and on Thursday (my birthday) my friend upgraded his phone from the iPhone 6 to the iPhone 8. This pleased him, and we had a little play with the phone, and I loved the wireless charging. Then we talked about it and we both came to the same conclusion: I’m paying the extra for the option to upgrade after just one year, so why would I NOT upgrade after one year? It didn’t make sense to have gone out of my way to get that specific contract only to let it expire. And while the option of selling the iPhone 7 next year was a nice one to have, did I really want to wait all that time just to sell a two-year-old phone at that point? Yes, it would mean a little bit more money, but… was that really worth it? Ultimately it came down to no. Lexy wanted a new phone. So, on Saturday, off we went to EE to get the new iPhone 8. Definitely not going for the iPhone X, so it’ll be the 8. And then the woman in the shop forgot to remove the packaging and check and an opportunity presented itself to make an unboxing video.
It’s not the greatest quality thing you’ll ever watch in your life, but it’s my attempt (with the wonderful Mr Wasley behind the camera and giving a thumbs up at one point) to make a video… and… well, see what you think?