14 DAY TRIAL // A survey conducted by USA Today and SurveyMonkey provided us with a closer look at how iPhone owners hope the device would get improved in the future.
A total of 1,665 adults in the United States were asked to pick the features they want to have on their iPhones, and 75 percent of them called for longer battery life.
Other popular options included a shatter-proof display, expandable storage, a USB-C port instead of Lightning, and faster facial recognition, as the current implementation feels slow for many of them.
While these are without a doubt upgrades that would make the iPhone a better device in many regards, my personal top three most-wanted features are a bit different. But it all starts with a larger battery.
The battery
I must agree with the 75 percent of the people who voted for a larger battery because the iPhone DOES need a larger battery, that’s for sure.
iPhone X comes with 2716 mAh unit that’s supposed to easily get you through the day, but guess what? It doesn’t, and what’s worse, there are moments when I’m running out of battery after less than 15 hours since removing the charger.
Despite the software optimizations that Apple has made to improve battery life, a larger battery is absolutely needed, especially as displays are getting increasingly bigger. The iPhone Xs Max, for example, will launch with a 6.5-inch OLED display, and everyone obviously agrees that a larger battery pack is mandatory.
For what it’s worth, a similarly-sized Samsung Galaxy Note 9 boasts a battery of no less than 4,000 mAh. And the performance it achieves is remarkable, with screen on time of up to 8 hours.
Fast charging
My second must-have feature on an iPhone is more or less related to the one above. Fast charging is a system that has long been ignored by Apple, and although it debuted on the iPhone X and iPhone 8, it’s still not working exactly as expected.
iPhone’s fast charging needs to be faster, and again, Apple would really do itself a favor to look at how things are working in the Samsung world.
The aforementioned Note 9, which comes with a monster 4,000 mAh battery, can recharge from 0 to 100 percent in just 1 hour and 45 minutes. iPhone 8 Plus, on the other hand, needs much more than 2 hours to get a full battery, and a fast charger doesn’t come in the box, but needs to be purchased separately.
Fewer restrictions
I know I’m dreaming big here, given Apple’s obsession for restrictions and for keeping its walled garden untouched, but I can only hope for fewer restrictions in its ecosystem.
And no, I’m not thinking about lifting those limitations that ensure the security of our data, but about updates that could eventually provide us with enhanced functionality.
One of my biggest hopes is that Apple would move faster to bring third-party mapping solutions to CarPlay. Originally announced at WWDC earlier this year, this feature is projected to become available to users sometime after the release of iOS 12, but nobody can tell exactly when this could happen.
Apple letting apps like Google Maps and Waze to be used with CarPlay would finally bring my struggle with Android Auto to an end. Because yes, despite lacking refinements and being rather unstable, Android Auto is my choice behind the wheel, simply because of the restrictions mentioned above and which Apple has implemented to CarPlay.
Whether anything can change still remains to be seen, but without such improvements, I doubt I can stick with the iPhone any longer. And as the USA Today survey pointed out, I may not be the only one thinking of switching to Android full time.