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iPhone 5 is still useful

Booji

Booji

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 17, 2011
793
519
Tokyo
My wife is certainly no early adopter, so she is very happy with my old gear every time I upgrade.
When I got my 6 plus, she got my 5. Now that i have my 7 plus, she has the 6 plus.

Now I've got the 5 back in my hands, I'm keeping it as a backup. I've been spending some time playing with it, and I find it surprisingly capable considering it is already 4 years old now. Even on iOS 10 it seems to run just fine, with some stutter, but not all that bad. I would have no problem using this on a daily basis still, but recognizing that the 5's days are numbered give the fact that it's the last 32bit iPhone.
 
My dad is still using my old i5. It's on iOS7 and runs like a champ. The battery life was always poor on iOS7 but it flies and has no lag.
 
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Parents are still using iPhone 5 now with iOS 10 (and prior to that with iOS 9 and 8 before that).
 
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Booji said:
My wife is certainly no early adopter, so she is very happy with my old gear every time I upgrade.
When I got my 6 plus, she got my 5. Now that i have my 7 plus, she has the 6 plus.

Now I've got the 5 back in my hands, I'm keeping it as a backup. I've been spending some time playing with it, and I find it surprisingly capable considering it is already 4 years old now. Even on iOS 10 it seems to run just fine, with some stutter, but not all that bad. I would have no problem using this on a daily basis still, but recognizing that the 5's days are numbered give the fact that it's the last 32bit iPhone.
Click to expand...
My Black/Slate iPhone 5, 64GB is used as a media device. Running 9.0.1 jailbroken. Still works great.

Just got my son a 4s a couple weeks ago and he's been using that. I'd have given him my 5, but it's locked to Sprint and we're with T-Mobile now.
 
metzy25 said:
The slate iPhone 5 is still my most favorite iPhone of all time.
Click to expand...

I love the slate too, however mine suffers from a bad case of scuffgate. Even though I've always used a case, just by removing the hard plastic case every now and then to swap a SIM card, the edges still got scuffed.
 
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Booji said:
I love the slate too, however mine suffers from a bad case of scuffgate. Even though I've always used a case, just by removing the hard plastic case every now and then to swap a SIM card, the edges still got scuffed.
Click to expand...

2016-10-11 20.50.06.jpg 2016-10-11 20.51.02.jpg 2016-10-11 20.52.17.jpg 2016-10-11 20.54.07.jpg 2016-10-11 20.51.07.jpg
 
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Still using my 5 and iOS 10, and happy as a clam. Replaced the battery a few months back and it gave it a new lease on life. Very occasionally it resets for not good reason, which I haven't figured out...

Design wise though, the 4 series was my favorite.
 
Booji said:
My wife is certainly no early adopter, so she is very happy with my old gear every time I upgrade.
When I got my 6 plus, she got my 5. Now that i have my 7 plus, she has the 6 plus.

Now I've got the 5 back in my hands, I'm keeping it as a backup. I've been spending some time playing with it, and I find it surprisingly capable considering it is already 4 years old now. Even on iOS 10 it seems to run just fine, with some stutter, but not all that bad. I would have no problem using this on a daily basis still, but recognizing that the 5's days are numbered give the fact that it's the last 32bit iPhone.
Click to expand...

I have an old 5 running ios 8, it's smoother than ios 9 or 10 on the newer phones
 
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Analog Kid said:
Still using my 5 and iOS 10, and happy as a clam. Replaced the battery a few months back and it gave it a new lease on life. Very occasionally it resets for not good reason, which I haven't figured out...

Design wise though, the 4 series was my favorite.
Click to expand...

4 was my favorite too. It looked so premium - like a classic Leica camera. Best thing was the glass back - very easy to go naked or just put a skin on it.
 
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eyoungren said:
Just got my son a 4s a couple weeks ago and he's been using that. I'd have given him my 5, but it's locked to Sprint and we're with T-Mobile now.
Click to expand...

The 4s is still a capable phone as well as the 5, just because its not the latest and the greatest, it doesn't mean its not useful - its all about your needs.
I really don't see the point of getting new phone every single year as long as the correct one in use is fully function. In real life, in my surroundings 99% of the people using "old" phones, they're using them till they're dead, broken or not working for some reason before they buying new one.
 
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My previous i5c was the best of all my iPhones for reception, call and ringer volume. Spoiled with the larger iPhones now and could never go back.
 
geta said:
The 4s is still a capable phone as well as the 5, just because its not the latest and the greatest, it doesn't mean its not useful - its all about your needs.
I really don't see the point of getting new phone every single year as long as the correct one in use is fully function. In real life, in my surroundings 99% of the people using "old" phones, they're using them till they're dead, broken or not working for some reason before they buying new one.
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I agree. If not for circumstances in 2015 my wife and I would still be using our iPhone 5's.

The 4s was perfect for my son's needs (he wouldn't see it that way, LOL). It's an 8GB phone so he has to really think about what he wants on it. That and the fact that it's limited to 4G (not LTE) means less tempation to use the phone when he isn't supposed to (in class). He also has a 2GB data cap so most of his data is on WiFi.

But we can call him and text him which is the main purpose for the phone. Which means his 4s is still relevant.
 
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eyoungren said:
The icon says 4G on my son's phone. We're on T-Mobile.

With T-Mobile there's 4G and then there is LTE. My son does not get LTE because the phone is not capable of it.
Click to expand...

My bad, so im guessing in Euroland its different.
On my 4s i can only 'Enable 3G' under Setting\Cellular, even though my carrier supports 4G\LTE.

PS - So nice to see old iOS (6, right?) :)
 
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