For the past few years, Apple has been making its west coast customers wake up at 5am to pre-order their latest iPhone. I learned my lesson a few years back not to wait until I wake up later because then you can’t get the phone you want on launch day. Then you’re stuck monitoring inventory at your local stores, rushing down to a store in hopes to get the size and color you want. I’m glad I did it again this year though, because a few hours later all the Pro models were already back ordered to mid-October. Ahhh, hell-to-the-no.

But, unlike last year, everything went off without a hitch (at least for me). The store opened about 5:07am and I placed my order a minute later thanks to their feature which allowed customers to set up the order the day before–so when it did come time to order at 5am all you had to do was confirm and be done with it. Last year that feature didn’t work and I had to re-configure (not a big deal) and I believe the wait was much longer due to server issues.

The other cool thing that happened this year is that Apple will ship it to me so it arrives on launch day (Sept 16th). For whatever reason, going through the same process in the past, the only option was to go my local Apple Store to pick it up in person. Ain’t nobody got time for that!

I upgrade my iPhone (almost) every year since the original first generation iPhone in 2007 (15 years ago!) This keeps the trade-in (or eBay sale) value high so the new phone isn’t so insanely expensive. I’m a tech geek, my iPhone is something I rely on constantly, and it’s one of the things I plan on and treat myself to every year. That’s how I justify it anyway :)

My current phone is a 128GB 13 Pro Max. Normally I would keep it at the lowest capacity (still 128GB), however with the massive upgrade in cameras and low light capability, I plan on using it as my primary shooter for producing new video content. I have used previous iPhones for video productions, but mainly for b-roll. So, I bumped up the spec to the 256GB model this year.

For color, I went with the new “deep purple”. Last year they had a blue color, however this year they did not offer any shade of blue for the Pro models (bad Apple!) At first I was going to with space black because there was no blue (silver and gold are not my style), but then when I saw some “hands on” videos of the deep purple color, I was like “dayamn that look sexy.”

Black is such a boring color, but since I normally have Apple’s leather case it doesn’t really matter which color I chose. Speaking of the case, I went with Apple’s leather case and wallet in “Ink” color. Those both arrive today. In photos they look like a dark purple (darker than the deep purple iPhone color) so I think I’ll be happy. But, once again, I’m super-unimpressed with the colors Apple chose for their phones and cases. Whatever color-blind person they have working for them and choosing these barfy colors needs to be let go.

For my thoughts on the Apple event which took place 2 days ago announcing the new phones, watches and AirPods Pro, go here:

chrisduke.tv/my-sept-7-apple-event-summary-review

Can’t wait for next Friday!