Just trying to search for some more info on this… and found this:
Whilst the main article doesn’t really seem to relate to Aussies, there’s a comment, asking
If I go through the process of leaving the public beta and reinstalling iOS 12.1.1 here in Australia I will then be able to use the ecg functionality?
The implication to my ears is - the public beta DOES allow you to use the ECG - even in Australia??
Anyone running the PB able to confirm?
That says Lifehacker Australia, but the article isn’t about Australia I don’t think.
I strongly expect low demand. Low $A combined with incremental update means many of us will skip this and wait on 5G.
I’m running the watchOS 6 beta - ECG not available.
The article you quoted is from the US - ECG is not available in Australia and is limited by the watch sensing where you are and not allowing you to access it.
Apple would be in deep trouble if they allowed it here without regulatory approval.
I was never planning on upgrading from my XS this year. Probably keen for the successor to the iPhone 11 next year.
Might get Apple Watch 5, not now though, maybe before Xmas.
Waiting for AirPods 3 and Apple-branded headphones.
Like many people, I gave the 5G question a bit of thought.
Buying the iPhone X after the iPhone 7 meant that this was a potential upgrade year for me, which I had to weigh against the likely possibility of 5G next year. But thinking about it, I was OK with buying this year, and sitting next year’s 5G upgrade out, all because 5G tech is still in its infancy, at least as far as modems go.
When it comes down to it, even if 5G modems are “good” next year, it’ll likely be another year before it’s in enough places in Australia to make it worthwhile as a potential iPhone selling point.
It’s another point in the “it’s getting harder to sell iPhones” column, as the incremental updates are getting increasingly, uh, incremental each year.
Me, this time last year:
Comparing the iPhone X, the iPhone XS, and iPhone 11 Pro from this year tells a slightly different tale: while there’s still only a handful of differences from the iPhone XS to the iPhone 11 Pro, there’s enough truly new stuff from the iPhone X that make it a worthwhile upgrade.
At least more than the XS was to the X last year, IMHO.
But after we get 5G, what next? What’s the next big upgrade? I don’t know. But I hope someone at Apple does.
My understanding is that the initial roll out of 5G is limited to a frequency band near the band used for 4G. The performance will be better than 4G, but not astoundingly better. The initial modem chips used will be power hungry at first and the coverage patchy at best. Despite this, Telstra plan to charge extra for a 5G plan, because they are Telstra.
In a few years they are supposed to also start using a much higher frequency band that offers a great leap in performance, but a poor range. The signal will not penetrate buildings as well as the signal at the lower frequencies. Again, initial coverage will be patchy, and chips power hungry. 5G phones bought now may not even support those frequencies.
In time, modem chips will be built in to the phone SOC ( system on a chip) providing better performance, power efficiency and space savings.
In short, there does not appear to be much advantage in looking for 5G when selecting a new phone in the next year or two, unless you want to pay extra to be at the bleeding edge.
Another factor to consider is the very small amount of 5G coverage, that’s not going to improve much for at least a couple of years.
I admit, it could be useful at the MCG during finals time when 3G and 4G are congested and the wifi is over subscribed (and similar very limited usage cases) but that’s not really a compelling reason to upgrade (unless you work at the MCG) 
Do we (average consumer) need all this bandwidth?
Riding the wave into clean air space was always nice as an early adptor, but mostly no… unless mobile data is your only source of data, then probably.
Sure. Remember when 640K of RAM was all anyone would ever need?
LOL ok, I asked for that.
Data, it seems, is a gas. It expands to fill its container.
The biggest issue with mobile data isn’t currently the speed, rather it’s the amount of included data with mainstream plans. Only high end plans currently have that.
If 5G allows more data then great otherwise I don’t see the point of chewing up a quota that’s already not enough to stream for long in 4K.
OK?
Did I miss something? I don’t know why we’re having this conversation in the context of new iPhone pre-orders?
Best way to solve the data congestion would be to make advertising JS illegal.
Well, whether or not we ‘should pre order’ depends upon whether or not the 11 phones are a big enough improvement over the 10 series and one of the big reasons not to pre order is no 5G.
I’m not sure if this thread was supposed to be about pre ordering in general or strictly for people who’d already decided to preorder.
I’d assumed the former but if I was incorrect I apologize for the thread side track.
As much as you can say that no 5G is one of the big reasons not to pre-order, my post above earlier says that no 5G was one of the reasons I did pre-order, based on two things:
Even if we take 5G out of the equation, there’s still enough in the 11 Pro that makes me consider it enough of an upgrade over my current iPhone X. I might not have pre-ordered if I already had an iPhone XS, but that probably comes down to me being a guy who hangs onto iPhones for two years, more than it does the 11/Pro not having any compelling features over the XS. (I believe it does, but YMMV.)
I’ll be receiving my Pro Max on Friday! Can’t wait.
My XS Max has been really terrible when it comes to cellular connection. Almost every day it will lose its cellular connection and not load anything, until I restart. Setting aeroplane mode, toggling cellular data on and off will do nothing. It’s incredibly annoying, and even warranted a trip to the Apple store where they replaced the phone on the spot - unfortunately the issue still occurred on the new phone. Even got a new SIM from Telstra to make sure it wasn’t them - but the issue is still occurring. Can’t wait to be rid of it.
I agree with you that the 11 Plus has a number of compelling features over the X (which is really a generation 9 phone despite the naming). Notably the huge difference in battery life. That’d be enough by itself IMO.
I don’t OTOH think the 11 offers enough over the 10R (given that I’m also on a primarily 2 year upgrade cycle) for me to upgrade until next year.
