Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Funny short post, but... i can’t decide whether I want 5,4” or 6,1”.
6,1” is quite heavy and big, but what if I will missing bigger screen ? And.. it is pity that pro begins at 6,1”
 
  • Like
Reactions: jbachandouris
Ok to counter OP 1st and super short post, I will counter with a huge novel.

I think if you want a good answer you have to let us know what your use case is.

For me, I really don't think year over year upgrades are worth it anymore for my use case, and look at my signature. I've usually upgraded; the XS max has been my last upgrade. I might hold out another year since I don't think the 12 will fundamentally change how I use the phone. So far when I look at the rumors for the 12 pro max I have to ask myself if it will make a noticeable difference on my day to day use of my iPhone, and for me and what I do, I don't think it will. Its going to get bigger, but that's not really a good thing for me since 6.5 was pretty big already and nowhere have I said jeez they really need to make a bigger iPhone. The screen on the XS max is damn good, I'm not going to notice a 5% increase in whatever quality measure they have improved. The night pics will be better but with COVID I don't foresee traveling oversees in 2020 so to vacation with a nice phone for pictures was one reason I upgrade, and the XS max is pretty good for pictures already, the nighttime is good, but of course I want it to be great. But.... again not going fly oversees for vacation in 2020 its not really a big deal for me. The speakers, that was one reason why I upgrade before because I like listening to loud podcast or loud YouTube videos, again the XS is good already.

Battery life, ok I would like that upgrade, LOL but with fast charging, I don't see the battery life on the XS max a massive inconvenience. I usually drive to work and fast charge it, and that last me the whole day. By 5pm I usually have 50% life left. Then go home and fast charge and come home with 90% battery life. Even now that the battery has degraded to 94%, I've noticed a difference a difference in battery life, fast charging fixes that when I can top off for 20 mins while I shower, or when I drive.

My question to myself on my next upgrade is "will I feel a noticeable difference when the newness wears off." Will I notice a slightly smaller notch on an already great screen on the XS max?

The only think is if I super crack the screen I'll have to debate whether I should upgrade or if I should fix the screen. Right now I have a chip on the right top area of my XS max that is on the bezel. Its not noticeable. I might fix it and give it to family or something the upgrade but its ok for now.

Anyway sorry for the full novel here but TLDR I have to feel the difference.

I just upgraded to a 2019 16in refurbished 1tb 16gb ram mbp. I paid about $2.6k...Anyway, wow what a difference. The 2017 was a good computer for my uses. But man the keyboard, it is super nice, it feels like... the old keyboard, just wonderful to type on and fast. The screen is huge. The speakers are fantastic (listening to an acoustic Alice In Chains song right now). I went from 128gb MBP 2017 to a 1tb, and its nice having my 60gb iTunes collection on my computer again and not on an external. I can't wait to install boot camp on this and loud up games, and of course edit drones footage. So this upgrade was huge for me, and I am looking for the similar type of jump as the iPhone 13 or whatever model I'll go to next.
 
Last edited:
I don’t think most people need a yearly upgrade of the phone hardware.

And once you have to ask others wether or not you should buy something new it indicates to me that you don’t need to make the purchase at all.
 
When it comes to upgrading after 1 year, I will almost always say “no.” I’ve never seen a yearly upgrade that was big enough to make the jump.

For example: iPhone 4S to iPhone 5. The 5 had a new form factor and added LTE. Sounds pretty big, right? Well the next year the 5S came out and included the first mass-production 64bit mobile SoC and introduced TouchID. In hindsight, an upgrade from 4S to 5S is a much better path. No matter which cycle you buy into, it’s been consistently worth it to skip a year. You don’t miss out on much and you get a “better” version of the device the following year anyway.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bethanie21
It's hard to say at this point. Wait & see. One example where upgrading the next year was worth it was the 6S and 6S Plus. That phone was a much better phone than the iPhone 6 & 6 Plus mostly because the ram doubled from 1GB to 2GB.
But RAM strangulation days are over (for a while) with newer phones so it's doubtful the iPhone 12 will offer that kind of obvious improvement over the 11.
 
Any question that includes the phrase “worth it” cannot be answered in the abstract because “worth” depends on a lot of things, including your financial situation, how you use your phone, and how much enjoyment you get from having the newest thing. All of those vary from person to person.
 
It's hard to say at this point. Wait & see. One example where upgrading the next year was worth it was the 6S and 6S Plus. That phone was a much better phone than the iPhone 6 & 6 Plus mostly because the ram doubled from 1GB to 2GB.
But RAM strangulation days are over (for a while) with newer phones so it's doubtful the iPhone 12 will offer that kind of obvious improvement over the 11.

Going from 6/6+ to 7/7+ would have been a “better” path in my mind. That extra RAM wasn’t important until well after the release of the 7. Was there something else the 6S offered that would justify a 1 year upgrade?

RAM will be an issue until a new way of accessing data comes along - which is close with what Sony has done with the SSDs for PS5. That will come to mobile and could eliminate the need for RAM in these devices. But that’s speculation.

I didn’t upgrade my 6+ until the X.
 
If the rumours about the 12 are true, I will be upgrading BUT I have a 5.8" XS and would love to upgrade to the Max size, as I've never had a Plus or Max before. If I end up liking it I could see the 12 lasting me a lot more than 2 years.
 
11 owner here. Based off the rumours, and obviously, they are only rumours, we don't know everything, but based off what we know so far and assuming there isn't other big changes we are unaware about there'd be a 0% chance of me upgrading to the 12 or 12 max. I'd never go below 6.1 inches again, so the 5.4 inch 12 is a no go. And I wouldn't bother with the 6.1-inch max, because the main upgrades are 5g which is almost non-existent in my town, and a boe OLED display which IDC about. Only the 12 pro or pro max would tempt me due to 120hz + 6GB of ram + Lidar.
 
Ok to counter OP 1st and super short post, I will counter with a huge novel.

I think if you want a good answer you have to let us know what your use case is.

For me, I really don't think year over year upgrades are worth it anymore for my use case, and look at my signature. I've usually upgraded; the XS max has been my last upgrade. I might hold out another year since I don't think the 12 will fundamentally change how I use the phone. So far when I look at the rumors for the 12 pro max I have to ask myself if it will make a noticeable difference on my day to day use of my iPhone, and for me and what I do, I don't think it will. Its going to get bigger, but that's not really a good thing for me since 6.5 was pretty big already and nowhere have I said jeez they really need to make a bigger iPhone. The screen on the XS max is damn good, I'm not going to notice a 5% increase in whatever quality measure they have improved. The night pics will be better but with COVID I don't foresee traveling oversees in 2020 so to vacation with a nice phone for pictures was one reason I upgrade, and the XS max is pretty good for pictures already, the nighttime is good, but of course I want it to be great. But.... again not going fly oversees for vacation in 2020 its not really a big deal for me. The speakers, that was one reason why I upgrade before because I like listening to loud podcast or loud YouTube videos, again the XS is good already.

Battery life, ok I would like that upgrade, LOL but with fast charging, I don't see the battery life on the XS max a massive inconvenience. I usually drive to work and fast charge it, and that last me the whole day. By 5pm I usually have 50% life left. Then go home and fast charge and come home with 90% battery life. Even now that the battery has degraded to 94%, I've noticed a difference a difference in battery life, fast charging fixes that when I can top off for 20 mins while I shower, or when I drive.

My question to myself on my next upgrade is "will I feel a noticeable difference when the newness wears off." Will I notice a slightly smaller notch on an already great screen on the XS max?

The only think is if I super crack the screen I'll have to debate whether I should upgrade or if I should fix the screen. Right now I have a chip on the right top area of my XS max that is on the bezel. Its not noticeable. I might fix it and give it to family or something the upgrade but its ok for now.

Anyway sorry for the full novel here but TLDR I have to feel the difference.

I just upgraded to a 2019 16in refurbished 1tb 16gb ram mbp. I paid about $2.6k...Anyway, wow what a difference. The 2017 was a good computer for my uses. But man the keyboard, it is super nice, it feels like... the old keyboard, just wonderful to type on and fast. The screen is huge. The speakers are fantastic (listening to an acoustic Alice In Chains song right now). I went from 128gb MBP 2017 to a 1tb, and its nice having my 60gb iTunes collection on my computer again and not on an external. I can't wait to install boot camp on this and loud up games, and of course edit drones footage. So this upgrade was huge for me, and I am looking for the similar type of jump as the iPhone 13 or whatever model I'll go to next.

This right here is the most sensible and correct answer.
 
When it comes to upgrading after 1 year, I will almost always say “no.” I’ve never seen a yearly upgrade that was big enough to make the jump.

For example: iPhone 4S to iPhone 5. The 5 had a new form factor and added LTE. Sounds pretty big, right? Well the next year the 5S came out and included the first mass-production 64bit mobile SoC and introduced TouchID. In hindsight, an upgrade from 4S to 5S is a much better path. No matter which cycle you buy into, it’s been consistently worth it to skip a year. You don’t miss out on much and you get a “better” version of the device the following year anyway.
Going from the iPhone 3GS to the iPhone 4 was, pardon the pun, an eye opener. It was akin to going from a dot matrix printer to laser.

I used my iPhone as ereader (Stanza) and I just couldn't go back to using the OG iPhone as backup reader (in the evenings when the iPhone 4 was charging). I bought an iPod touch 4th gen just so I could have the same crisp text on my backup device.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mt44
We don't even know what the phone is yet. If you're having these internal debates I recommend getting on the iPhone Upgrade program. If you do and the new phone isn't great then you keep paying for your existing phone and eventually own it. I upgrade on it every year and I love it.
 
I don't think I need 5G right now.


11 Pro or 11 Regular

11 Regular YES
11 Pro- Only if they have Pro Motion
[automerge]1590186460[/automerge]
11 owner here. Based off the rumours, and obviously, they are only rumours, we don't know everything, but based off what we know so far and assuming there isn't other big changes we are unaware about there'd be a 0% chance of me upgrading to the 12 or 12 max. I'd never go below 6.1 inches again, so the 5.4 inch 12 is a no go. And I wouldn't bother with the 6.1-inch max, because the main upgrades are 5g which is almost non-existent in my town, and a boe OLED display which IDC about. Only the 12 pro or pro max would tempt me due to 120hz + 6GB of ram + Lidar.

120 isn’t a gimme
I own 11 PM. I want 12 PM but only if it has pro motion.
 
No it’s not worth it. Keeping a phone for only year with what these things cost isn’t probably going be worth it unless some big feature comes out. That said I will be upgrading but only cause I‘m on IUP. But I’ll probably keep the 12 for a few years. I don’t need 5G and I didn’t need an 11 but my X was messing up. So I used the program to just lease it for the year and not have to deal with selling it. I knew I would just probably want the form of the 12.
 
The iPhone 12 hasn’t even been announced yet, all we’re going on is speculation.
While technically true, the leaks are so accurate these days by March of any year the rumors are exteremly accurate. The designs have leaked because they can’t keep the supply chain secret anymore. The only thing that remains a secret are the hard to tell items. Like in the 2020 iPad Pro, they thought there would be a third camera but it turned out to be lidar. But the square cameras were on point. Even the 11 and 11 pro designed were on point.
 
Unless you are a tech fanatic where you need to upgrade every year maybe not...

I upgrade every year but I do that with my watch as well. I’m not your average tech user though
 
Interesting someone in another thread seemed to think that the difference between 11 and 12 is small compared to XR and 11. That’s clearly crazy seeing as the XR and 11 are exactly the same, apart from the fact the 11 has a slightly better camera and worse colours. The 12 sounds like quite a lot of differences from the 11. Still won’t be upgrading from XR as they’re not likely to do a colour as cool as coral anytime soon

As for the comment earlier in the thread about the 4S/5/5S I would also disagree. When the 5 came out it was a HUGE deal and having one was SICK. THE 5S was a very boring phone in comparison
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.