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Do you upgrade every year?

Of course that the usage pattern is the key, but with the same usage pattern, battery life WILL plummet if you update far enough.

I received a Release-Day 12 Mini, then upped to a 13 Mini 29 July '23

Had an 8 for a looong time before that, and it was semi-decent.

My 6 was a dog (real turn-off, IMO).

The 5 was so-so.

That's as far back as my iPhone usage goes.

This 13 Mini is a beast :)
 
heh

They do make charging cables!
That's true, I brought the 5W (from SE) and 20W along (DE-AU). Off course the aircraft had USB ports but transit-ing airports with the MagSafe was brilliant (also for charging the APP2) whilst many sat tethered at the lounges...waiting. Used quite the old car at the destination also that had no USB.
 
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Hi guys, I’m currently running 18.3.2 on my 13 mini, would you recommend updating to 18.4?
Any of you with Mini, how it behaves on 18.4?
I’m on an iPhone 12 mini and running iOS 18.4, and I haven’t experienced any problems - or changes in that regard. I wouldn’t hesitate updating.
 
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Carriers really tout their 99%-ish coverage, but it's the little things that make, and break.
I'm currently in DE whose coverage, service and pricing is very poor and incrementally held back to price gouge severely. The Telekom monopoly is unaffordable but the dynamic tower sharing amongst the other telcos makes it difficult to pin point any issue with an actual contracted provider or the device itself as it's not displayed on the phone.

Matter of fact (in my case) it became obvious why I lost 1/3 of the signal strength everywhere when 5G was provided. But this only after digging with ph support for 3/4 hr what they changed w/out transparency but were also unable to revert back to. Thankfully I was past my 2 yrs and could look at another provider going from sub 50 Mbps to 300 +. Also interesting, they (new provider) offered unlimited GB for the first month BUT signal was quite weaker and slower until past that time.

Telco criminals
 
That's true, I brought the 5W (from SE) and 20W along (DE-AU). Off course the aircraft had USB ports but transit-ing airports with the MagSafe was brilliant (also for charging the APP2) whilst many sat tethered at the lounges...waiting. Used quite the old car at the destination also that had no USB.
I'd never put a charging cable with data wires still active into a public usb-port at an airport/airplane, though. That would be a prime spot for intelligence gathering and dropping of mal-/spyware, APTs for state actors (which will probably also affect battery life at the least)
 
I'm currently in DE whose coverage, service and pricing is very poor and incrementally held back to price gouge severely. The Telekom monopoly is unaffordable but the dynamic tower sharing amongst the other telcos makes it difficult to pin point any issue with an actual contracted provider or the device itself as it's not displayed on the phone.

Is this what is meant by MVNO?

Matter of fact (in my case) it became obvious why I lost 1/3 of the signal strength everywhere when 5G was provided. But this only after digging with ph support for 3/4 hr what they changed w/out transparency but were also unable to revert back to. Thankfully I was past my 2 yrs and could look at another provider going from sub 50 Mbps to 300 +. Also interesting, they (new provider) offered unlimited GB for the first month BUT signal was quite weaker and slower until past that time.

Telco criminals

Aye; but, when you need to use that sweet, sweet cellular ;)
 
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That's true, I brought the 5W (from SE) and 20W along (DE-AU). Off course the aircraft had USB ports but transit-ing airports with the MagSafe was brilliant (also for charging the APP2) whilst many sat tethered at the lounges...waiting. Used quite the old car at the destination also that had no USB.

Yes; I have a carry-brick for extended jaunts :)

I use an Otterbox on my Mini, so a lot of accessories just won't work.
 
I'd never put a charging cable with data wires still active into a public usb-port at an airport/airplane, though. That would be a prime spot for intelligence gathering and dropping of mal-/spyware, APTs for state actors (which will probably also affect battery life at the least)
Good point. Cannot recall if the a/Ports had usb hubs or universal power points, as I just breezed past the tethered bodies.
 
It's good enough 99% of the time. In the few cases that battery life is not sufficient (like extended traveling), it's not a fluke that Apple's sadly discontinued MagSafe battery pack is a perfect fit for the 13 Mini and the 13 Mini alone.

Yes I have 3 of those

Snapped up for fractions of MSRP off FBM
 
I'd never put a charging cable with data wires still active into a public usb-port at an airport/airplane, though. That would be a prime spot for intelligence gathering and dropping of mal-/spyware, APTs for state actors (which will probably also affect battery life at the least)
I’m not sure how USB is more likely to have zero-day exploits than Bluetooth/Wi-Fi/cellular. Remember how Apple planned to do OTA software updates for new iPhones in their sealed boxes?

Anyway, one way to lessen the likelihood is to stick a power bank between iPhone and outlet.
 
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I’m not sure how USB is more likely to have zero-day exploits than Bluetooth/Wi-Fi/cellular. Remember how Apple planned to do OTA software updates for new iPhones in their sealed boxes?
They didn’t just plan to, they actually do.
Rolled out to all Apple stores almost a year ago.
 
Yes; I have a carry-brick for extended jaunts :)

I use an Otterbox on my Mini, so a lot of accessories just won't work.
A proper one, yes. I use their (then available) clear case+MagSafe and it's fantastic. I won't lie, the teal clear case + blue Mini are a match made in heaven. Initially bought Apple's iteration and hated it being so slippery and having the exposed lower section didn't instil much confidence.

I did learn from the, then, winding down of SE OG accessories, and bought two blue Apple silicon cases also.
 
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Is this what is meant by MVNO?
Absolutely, even though I admittently had to look the acronym up ;)

Here, there's only Telekom (that owns everything) and Vodafone, that managed to have shocking reception but did gobble up the company Kabel Deutschland, to lay their own glass fibre lines for home use. And it's basically what happened to my provider. They used the company O2 network for LTE whilst trying to put their own 5G towers up. Their LTE switched to Vodafone and suddenly I had little to no reception, with no explanation why. Fibre optics are not yet even widely distributed as the apartment blocks are often from the early 1900's. They reckon last quarter this year to my building, but then the price will be higher vs an already very stable VDSL line.

Germany is quite backward with tech in this regard and still swear by fax machines. The bureaucratic machine is slow, heavy, and soul eating. But now I digress.
 
Not true. I’ve used original iOS versions for years on end and battery life never worsens. I’ve tested two same-model iPhones. One updated with good health and one not updated with poor health. The original version iPhone is infinitely better.

Battery health is irrelevant if the device isn’t updated. Battery life is obliterated by iOS updates.

We can discuss compatibility if you stay behind. We can discuss whether the device isn’t really useful for you if not updated. We can discuss Safari breaking. But not battery life.

Yours is a forever-perpetual myth perpetuated by serial updaters who don’t know any better and tolerate garbage.

Try staying behind once and let me know.
This is absolutely true. I've owned iOS devices for well over a decade and I've been burned too many times by iOS updates to not have identified a pattern (also true for macOS but I digress).

And as if there was any doubt left on the table, my mother recently had her iPhone 7 Plus battery replaced at the Apple Store. Battery life stayed nearly identical. Yes, really. What does that tell you?
 
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This is absolutely true. I've owned iOS devices for well over a decade and I've been burned too many times by iOS updates to not have identified a pattern (also true for macOS but I digress).

And as if there was any doubt left on the table, my mother recently had her iPhone 7 Plus battery replaced at the Apple Store. Battery life stayed nearly identical. Yes, really. What does that tell you?
Yeah, we all learn about it at some point. I was burned twice. I updated an iPod Touch 4G from iOS 4 to iOS 5 (because I didn’t know better) and an iPad 4 to iOS 7 (for compatibility and because I still didn’t know better and hadn’t learned). 2013. That was the last time I updated willingly. Apple forced my A9 devices out of iOS 9, but that wasn’t a deliberate update, Apple literally bricked my devices and I had no choice. And both devices were, of course, significantly affected, with a significant performance decline and a massive battery life impact.

Apart from that, I’ve never updated anything from their factory-installed version. I’m surprised that people keep complaining about this. It’s been almost twenty years!!! You still haven’t learned by now that updates kill devices? Unless you’re a new iOS user, there’s no excuse, imo. If you keep getting burned, it’s on you. Especially considering that there’s no way back.
 
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And as if there was any doubt left on the table, my mother recently had her iPhone 7 Plus battery replaced at the Apple Store. Battery life stayed nearly identical. Yes, really. What does that tell you?
What do you mean battery life stayed the same?
 
A proper one, yes. I use their (then available) clear case+MagSafe and it's fantastic. I won't lie, the teal clear case + blue Mini are a match made in heaven. Initially bought Apple's iteration and hated it being so slippery and having the exposed lower section didn't instil much confidence.

I did learn from the, then, winding down of SE OG accessories, and bought two blue Apple silicon cases also.

One of the (many) draws, for me, to the Mini is that it's incredibly svelte.

I understand that the idea that I might choose to carry an external battery-pack can--in the aggregate--negate such svelteness, but 'The X-Pack' definitely has other uses ;)
 
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