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Apple Pre-order Thread - iPhone 8, 8+, Watch Series 3, AppleTV 4K

giga

Member
4K BDs are HEVC encoded at a maximum for 100mbps. Normal BDs are encoded at a max of 40mbps. Now a 20mbps encode using HEVC might look competitive depending on the scene but no-one streams at that for 1080p.
Right, but the dude was asking about "regular blu rays" which are still 1080p VC-1/H264 right? So I think he's wondering how a 4K iTunes movie (HEVC) compares to an HD BR. The latter will for sure have a higher bitrate but I'm curious if Apple is opting for smaller file sizes or higher bitrates with HEVC's efficiencies.
 

Futureman

Member
Anyone do T-Mobile's $300 off iPhone deal? Looks like it works on the 7 as well which would make it $250 outright? That's a pretty great deal. I may do it if it works on the two lines unlimited plan for new customers and they pay my Verizon early termination fee.

edit: wait that's only if you trade in a qualifying phone. I guess my Verizon phone wouldn't count...
 

giga

Member
Hdr is supported on iPhone 8 according to the specs page.. The verge said this was exclusive to X?
HDR playback. Meaning it will play HDR files but the display won't necessarily show the full capabilities of an HDR video. The 8 supports wide color but not the dynamic range (shadows to highlights) for HDR.
 

ss1

Neo Member
I currently have an iPhone 6 (128 GB). Head says the iPhone 8 is better value, but heart says go and get the iPhone X.

Decisions, decisions...
 
After thinking about it for a few days I think I'll probably just see if there's a deal or so for the 7+ come the holidays. The 8+ is appealing but no rose gold option, the increases price and while a neat feature, that glass backing just feels like it would be too sleek for my tastes and a fingerprint magnet, not a fan of glossy coats. Plus I've only ever really had my $50 LG Tribute so I'm sure the 7+ will be far more then enough for my needs and far exceed my current phone.

Hopefully this isn't a stupid question but I've seen it a few times in this thread and elsewhere about older models being slowed down with updates when newer phones are released, pardon my complete ignorance in the subject but what does that mean? Is it just older hardware not being able to keep up with more demanding software after a few years? The hardware itself failing after a few years? Apple deliberately slowing down older models to force users to upgrade to the newest phone? Or something else? I apologize for the silly questions but I'm pretty tech illiterate and essentially wanting to make sure that if I were to get a 7+ that it would still be perfectly working/supported for about 2-3 years or so.
 

Pepiope

Member
After thinking about it for a few days I think I'll probably just see if there's a deal or so for the 7+ come the holidays. The 8+ is appealing but no rose gold option, the increases price and while a neat feature, that glass backing just feels like it would be too sleek for my tastes and a fingerprint magnet, not a fan of glossy coats. Plus I've only ever really had my $50 LG Tribute so I'm sure the 7+ will be far more then enough for my needs and far exceed my current phone.

Hopefully this isn't a stupid question but I've seen it a few times in this thread and elsewhere about older models being slowed down with updates when newer phones are released, pardon my complete ignorance in the subject but what does that mean? Is it just older hardware not being able to keep up with more demanding software after a few years? The hardware itself failing after a few years? Apple deliberately slowing down older models to force users to upgrade to the newest phone? Or something else? I apologize for the silly questions but I'm pretty tech illiterate and essentially wanting to make sure that if I were to get a 7+ that it would still be perfectly working/supported for about 2-3 years or so.
You'd be fine with the 7+. It's tech, over time it's just going to get slower, but you're much better off with an older iPhone than an older Android.
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
After thinking about it for a few days I think I'll probably just see if there's a deal or so for the 7+ come the holidays. The 8+ is appealing but no rose gold option, the increases price and while a neat feature, that glass backing just feels like it would be too sleek for my tastes and a fingerprint magnet, not a fan of glossy coats. Plus I've only ever really had my $50 LG Tribute so I'm sure the 7+ will be far more then enough for my needs and far exceed my current phone.

Hopefully this isn't a stupid question but I've seen it a few times in this thread and elsewhere about older models being slowed down with updates when newer phones are released, pardon my complete ignorance in the subject but what does that mean? Is it just older hardware not being able to keep up with more demanding software after a few years? The hardware itself failing after a few years? Apple deliberately slowing down older models to force users to upgrade to the newest phone? Or something else? I apologize for the silly questions but I'm pretty tech illiterate and essentially wanting to make sure that if I were to get a 7+ that it would still be perfectly working/supported for about 2-3 years or so.


All the phones from 6s upwards will be fine for years. The increased ram in particular makes them a new baseline IMO. 6s will be like the venerable iPad 2 in terms of longevity.

8 should be a grippier phone than the fairly slippery 6/6s/7 and you could put a case on or a screen protector on the rear to protect it.
 

truongt

Neo Member
i have an apple watch 1 and i am currently thinking about updating my watch. is it worth it to get the apple watch 3? and is the cellular option worth it?
 
Are 4k streams better than regular bluray? I'm really enjoying 4k streaming on Netflix/Amazon/Vudu because it looks a heck of a lot better than their 1080p option, but haven't really done a comparison.
4K streams favor increased resolution over bitrate at this point in time, providing a higher amount of detail, but a bitrate that isn't quite high enough for the resolution. Essentially, with 4K streams, you're getting a bitrate close to 1080p Blu-ray quality, but a resolution that significantly higher.

Standard Blu-rays are more balanced, providing a bitrate that is generally appropriate for the 1080p resolution.

At the end of the day, trust your eyes. Personally, I have found that 4K HDR streams have hit the point where I don't care about the added quality of UHD Blu-rays. The increased detail and clarity is definitely there, in the small handful of movies actually mastered in 4K, but it's not necessarily worth the purchase.
Right, but the dude was asking about "regular blu rays" which are still 1080p VC-1/H264 right? So I think he's wondering how a 4K iTunes movie (HEVC) compares to an HD BR. The latter will for sure have a higher bitrate but I'm curious if Apple is opting for smaller file sizes or higher bitrates with HEVC's efficiencies.

Let's do this.

In this post, we know that John Wick is 5.39GB in what seems to be either 1080p or 4K HDR. 5.39GB = 43,120Mb.

John Wick's runtime is 1 hour, 41 minutes, or 6060 seconds. Divide 43,120Mb/6060 seconds, and you get an average bitrate of around 7.12Mb/s.

Based off that bitrate, I would have to guess this is a 1080p HDR stream as speculated in that thread. h.265 is capable of bitrates around 50-60% of h.264 at the same quality, so this would be close to a ~15Mbps h.264 bitrate at 1080p.
 
i have an apple watch 1 and i am currently thinking about updating my watch. is it worth it to get the apple watch 3? and is the cellular option worth it?

Cellular would only be worth it if you do a lot of running or stuff where it’s inconvenient to carry your phone but you need a connection. You can load music onto the watch itself if that’s all you’d need cellular for.
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
i have an apple watch 1 and i am currently thinking about updating my watch. is it worth it to get the apple watch 3? and is the cellular option worth it?

What do you use it for? I use my series 0 for passive activities - tracking, notifications etc - and it’s still fine.
 

derek212

Member
I have a question maybe someone could answer ?

If I rent a movie from iTunes on the 8 plus will I get the 4K version or 1080p? I ask this because under the screen specs for 8 plus this is what is there Supports Dolby Vision and HDR10 content. Just wondering
 

Weevilone

Member
Are 4k streams better than regular bluray? I'm really enjoying 4k streaming on Netflix/Amazon/Vudu because it looks a heck of a lot better than their 1080p option, but haven't really done a comparison.

It's great but all the streaming options still throw away too much detail near black. They assume most people don't have displays that can render it well anyways, so they take advantage and throw it out.

That continues to drive me nuts.
 
Blu rays aren't HEVC encoded though. VC-1 and h264 aren't nearly as efficient. Can you download an iTunes 4K title and check what HEVC bitrate it's at?

When iTunes lets us download 4K movies, yes

Let's do this.

In this post, we know that John Wick is 5.39GB in what seems to be either 1080p or 4K HDR. 5.39GB = 43,120Mb.

John Wick's runtime is 1 hour, 41 minutes, or 6060 seconds. Divide 43,120Mb/6060 seconds, and you get an average bitrate of around 7.12Mb/s.

Based off that bitrate, I would have to guess this is a 1080p HDR stream as speculated in that thread. h.265 is capable of bitrates around 50-60% of h.264 at the same quality, so this would be close to a ~15Mbps h.264 bitrate at 1080p.

I’m genuinely curious, can you explain how knowing the average bitrate tells us what resolution it is?
 
I'm genuinely curious, can you explain how knowing the average bitrate tells us what resolution it is?

Because of quality - as an example, Netflix publishes recommended bitrates for decent quality. They recommend 5 megabits for "HD Quality" and 25 megabits for "Ultra HD Quality". If iTunes had a 4k action movie at only 7 megabits, quality would most likely be crap.

Sure, it's possible to do 4k at 7 megabits per second, but in an action movie, that would be noticeably poor and anger people.
 

mcfrank

Member
Because of quality - as an example, Netflix publishes recommended bitrates for decent quality. They recommend 5 megabits for "HD Quality" and 25 megabits for "Ultra HD Quality". If iTunes had a 4k action movie at only 7 megabits, quality would most likely be crap.

Sure, it's possible to do 4k at 7 megabits per second, but in an action movie, that would be noticeably poor and anger people.

But Netflix isn't using h.265 are they? Their bit-rate requirements would be 60% higher if they are using h.264.
 
Because of quality - as an example, Netflix publishes recommended bitrates for decent quality. They recommend 5 megabits for "HD Quality" and 25 megabits for "Ultra HD Quality". If iTunes had a 4k action movie at only 7 megabits, quality would most likely be crap.

Sure, it's possible to do 4k at 7 megabits per second, but in an action movie, that would be noticeably poor and anger people.

Okay, that makes sense. From what I understand Apple recommends 15mbps streaming 4K iTunes movies
 

kaskade

Member
I guess we won’t know what the files look like until someone has the 4K Apple TV? Doesn’t seem like there isn’t any other way to watch those movies in 4K from iTunes.

I find apples quality to be pretty good, don’t the 1080p streams tend to be around 5 GB?

I’m actually more interested in HDR than the resolution bump. I tested John Wick and La La Land on my iPad Pro vs my iPhone 7+ and the difference was pretty big. The image looked more washed out on the iPhone. Colors looked better too, it was pretty evident during the city of stars scene in La La Land at the boardwalk, definitely noticed more color in the gradient of the sky.

I’m assuming rentals for movies in 4K hdr will be streamed that way too. I’m just so glad Apple isn’t screwing us with an up charge.
 
I guess we won’t know what the files look like until someone has the 4K Apple TV? Doesn’t seem like there isn’t any other way to watch those movies in 4K from iTunes.

I find apples quality to be pretty good, don’t the 1080p streams tend to be around 5 GB?

I’m actually more interested in HDR than the resolution bump. I tested John Wick and La La Land on my iPad Pro vs my iPhone 7+ and the difference was pretty big. The image looked more washed out on the iPhone. Colors looked better too, it was pretty evident during the city of stars scene in La La Land at the boardwalk, definitely noticed more color in the gradient of the sky.

I’m assuming rentals for movies in 4K hdr will be streamed that way too. I’m just so glad Apple isn’t screwing us with an up charge.

I don’t think the AppleTV will help, since that’s streaming only, no downloads. So there’s no way to examine the file.

At the bottom of every iTunes page it lists the file sizes for the different qualities, so I’m assuming they’ll add 4K sizes eventually? Right now 1080p is between 3-6GB usually. I’ve never thought that their 1080p streams looked subpar

And yes, rentals will be 4K HDR as well. There’s essentially two qualities in iTunes now, SD and “Higher Quality,” which is either 4K or 1080p, depending on what the movie supports. If the movie offers 4K that’s what you get
 
Upgrading from a 6s to an 8+.

Honestly I'm feeling a little uneasy about the size difference, but I really want that portrait mode and a screen that's bigger than my current one.

I'm worried about how it'll fit in my pockets, taking it to the gym, etc.
 
Upgrading from a 6s to an 8+.

Honestly I'm feeling a little uneasy about the size difference, but I really want that portrait mode and a screen that's bigger than my current one.

I'm worried about how it'll fit in my pockets, taking it to the gym, etc.
I said it earlier in the thread - you'll adjust to the bigger size faster than you think. For the first couple days it looks bigger. Then it just becomes "my phone" and you don't even think about it anymore. And you'll never be able to go back.

Anyone know what the most demanding game I could put on a new 8+ to really push it? As far as graphics I guess. What will really show off what the phone can do?
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
Upgrading from a 6s to an 8+.

Honestly I'm feeling a little uneasy about the size difference, but I really want that portrait mode and a screen that's bigger than my current one.

I'm worried about how it'll fit in my pockets, taking it to the gym, etc.

I said it earlier in the thread - you'll adjust to the bigger size faster than you think. For the first couple days it looks bigger. Then it just becomes "my phone" and you don't even think about it anymore. And you'll never be able to go back.

Anyone know what the most demanding game I could put on a new 8+ to really push it? As far as graphics I guess. What will really show off what the phone can do?

It’s a very personal thing - only you’ll know if it’s right for you. And I don’t think the two week returns period will necessarily be enough to make that call.

I went to a 6s+ and then after about 6 months sold it and downsized to a 6s. Missed the larger size which was great for browsing and watching stuff (barely used my iPad), but it was just too bulky in my pocket and too heavy.

Wanting a larger screen and better camera is the main reason for going for the X
 

Oxn

Member
Anyone gonna create a iphone 8 thread? That gold color is sooo sick, ive just been looping youtube videos of it.
 

Beeks

Member
Just put in a preorder for a 256GB 8 Plus in space gray at T-Mobile. Not a fan of them dropping Touch ID on the X and I prefer the wider screen that the Plus has rather than the skinny and tall screen on the X, so I figure I'll go Plus Club this year and let the X mature for a year or two before I jump to that style of phone - maybe they'll be able to get Touch ID under the screen in a year or two.
 
I'm going from a 7 to an 8+ and while it's reassuring that the bigger screen doesn't take much getting used to, I am somewhat concerned about the weight and size in terms of carrying it around. I hope it fits in the same pockets that my old phones did.

On a related topic, if I back up all of my settings and program data to iCloud, will my two-factor authentication apps still work, for example Google Authenticator or Blizzard's app? I'll have the same phone number.
 

Vuze

Member
I'm going from a 7 to an 8+ and while it's reassuring that the bigger screen doesn't take much getting used to, I am somewhat concerned about the weight and size in terms of carrying it around. I hope it fits in the same pockets that my old phones did.

On a related topic, if I back up all of my settings and program data to iCloud, will my two-factor authentication apps still work, for example Google Authenticator or Blizzard's app? I'll have the same phone number.
I’ve been looking into this as well for banking etc. for google it’s sufficient to set it up on your new device and delete the app on the old one (its codes will be invalid). No idea about blizzard. Make sure to check out the individual sites and follow their instructions and also to have valid backup codes (you should anyway, for all 2FA services you use).
 
You'd be fine with the 7+. It's tech, over time it's just going to get slower, but you're much better off with an older iPhone than an older Android.

All the phones from 6s upwards will be fine for years. The increased ram in particular makes them a new baseline IMO. 6s will be like the venerable iPad 2 in terms of longevity.

8 should be a grippier phone than the fairly slippery 6/6s/7 and you could put a case on or a screen protector on the rear to protect it.

Thank you both for the replies! Will still be thinking about it for a little while longer but it's helpful to know that the 7+ will be more then fine for years to come.
 
Does anyone know how lenient apple store is, if at all, of returning and rebuying a product? Waiting for my credit card to come in so if it doesn't arrive by friday, I wanted to see if I can open and use it and then return and rebuy a couple days later.
 
Does anyone know how lenient apple store is, if at all, of returning and rebuying a product? Waiting for my credit card to come in so if it doesn't arrive by friday, I wanted to see if I can open and use it and then return and rebuy a couple days later.

You can't rebuy the same device you bring in, but if they have stock you can rebuy the same device right there.
 
I’ve been looking into this as well for banking etc. for google it’s sufficient to set it up on your new device and delete the app on the old one (its codes will be invalid). No idea about blizzard. Make sure to check out the individual sites and follow their instructions and also to have valid backup codes (you should anyway, for all 2FA services you use).

OK, thanks. Last year when I upgraded I just temporarily turned off 2FA on everything right before exchanging the phone then setting them all back up first thing. That's a pain and probably not the best security practice, so I hoped for an alternative. I have backup codes for all of the protected accounts but didn't want to rely on those last-resort measures for getting back into my accounts if I didn't have to.
 
Getting the watch, minus cellular. I have been rocking my series zero that I got when the Apple Watch was first introduced. The screen got scratched up in the first 5 months of ownership in a stupid move but otherwise it's been good. Can't wait to replace it
 
Does anyone know how lenient apple store is, if at all, of returning and rebuying a product? Waiting for my credit card to come in so if it doesn't arrive by friday, I wanted to see if I can open and use it and then return and rebuy a couple days later.

You can't rebuy the same device you bring in, but if they have stock you can rebuy the same device right there.

Well, you can, but it’s off the beaten path. I’m also not positive if it works with phones. Should if they’re totally SIM-free and not activated, but activation makes things very weird
 
Well, you can, but it’s off the beaten path. I’m also not positive if it works with phones. Should if they’re totally SIM-free and not activated, but activation makes things very weird

I'll just ask someone when I pick it up. I should hopefully have my card by then but if not I don't mind waiting a day or two and keeping it sealed and then returning and rebuying.
 

Link

The Autumn Wind
I currently have an iPhone 6 (128 GB). Head says the iPhone 8 is better value, but heart says go and get the iPhone X.

Decisions, decisions...
Thigs is the exact situation I find myself in. I figure I'll wait to see more hands-on impressions of the X before I make a decision.
 

Two Words

Member
Are the phones likely to ship tonight if ordered directly from apple? Mine is sitting in preparing to ship status

Mine is too, but I doubt they will be shipping out so soon. They've probably moved their allocations to get ready for release day shipping, but are locking people in a ready to ship state so that they can't cancel it. I'm sure the logistics for moving around millions of phones around the world is a pain already, and letting people cancel at this point is an even bigger pain.
 

Voidance

Member
Are the phones likely to ship tonight if ordered directly from apple? Mine is sitting in preparing to ship status
You may want to try and track it on UPS using your phone number as the reference number. I’m tracking my Watch Series 3 from China using this method although Apple still says it’s preparing to ship.
 
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