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Is it too late to buy iphone 5s now?

cktai

cktai

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 19, 2017
24
3
I saw that AT&T sells new iphone 5s for $120! Is it a bad deal in 2017 now? I am a Andnoid user and would like to try my first ios. I use it for facebook, twitter and web browsing mostly and I am fine with 16GB. The only concern I have is battery and I am not sure I can use it for more than 5 hours. Thanks.
 
I have my iPhone 5s since it came out almost 3,5 years ago. It still functions great! The battery life is still very decent after 3,5 years so a new one should be even better. I commute every day for 2 hours (1 to the city and 1 back), while using 3G (surfing & chatting & listening music - all at the same time) and I always make it with my battery life till I'm home at 17:00.

I think, however, that the iPhone SE is a better deal as it has (way) better internals. It has the internals of an iPhone 6s (flagship of last year), which means faster chip, better camera, better screen. If you have some more dollars to spare the iPhone SE comes in at $399 for 32Gb sim-unlocked.
 
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While I agree the SE is a considerably better/more up to date phone the price difference is also considerable $120 vs $399 (3.3x more expensive).

My old 5s is still a decent phone and good enough to use as a daily device (in fact I had to back in December while my original launch day iPhone 7 was sent to Apple for repair), for $120 its worth getting to try out the iPhones/iOS, and if you really like it you can later get one of the more up to date models.
 
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I use a 5s everyday for work and while the battery is a tad weak due to its age, it still hold up to everything I throw at it.

If I didn't enharrit it in an already weakened state from the previous owner, I wouldn't even consider upgrading when the contract is up.
 
My wife and I both just recently upgraded from our 2 year old 5s Iphones to 6s, but the 5s Iphones were both doing just fine with the most recent IOS installed. I will say that they were definitely slower on facebook than our current 6s phones but still the 5s performance was very acceptable. Also, our batteries were still in great shape. I agree that the SE is definitely a faster and more up to date phone but for the difference in cost, the 5s is still a viable option.
 
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I believe walmart sells them new and or refurbished but they are locked to straightalk for a year. They were $150 a year ago but I saw them as low as $99 during the xmas season.
 
If you are wanting to dip your toes in iOS for 12 months the 5S is a good option especially at that price.

Maybe after 12 months or less look to up the model if iOS is for you.
 
Since you mainly wish to try out iOS, iPhone 5s is a pretty good start. Being able to hold one more major iOS upgrade, you could surely count on it to do light daily tasks without much issue.
 
I wouldn't recommend a 5s IMO it isn't very iOS 10 friendly and I'm sure it will be a real dog on iOS 11.
 
I was using an iPhone 5S last spring on iOS 9 and it worked really well. Good battery life and fairly fast, camera still decent. I would recommend one still if you can't afford better, it's essentially as powerful as an iP6/6+ too so it's pretty future proof even now (but Apple may not choose to support it beyond iOS 11).
 
vikingjunior said:
I wouldn't recommend a 5s IMO it isn't very iOS 10 friendly and I'm sure it will be a real dog on iOS 11.
Click to expand...
I disagree mine runs it great.. try a dfu restore set up as new if yours doesn't.

IOS 11 might run like a dog though when that comes out but you don't have to update to it.
 
So...here's my tangent. My wife and I are on Verizon, we're grandfathered in for the upgrade program, but could save money by just paying for phone service.

We're both happy with our two 5S iPhones, at least for the next couple of years, but both are needing a new battery.
Options that come to mind (besides going to the lower-cost, non-upgrade program):
1) Get new batteries put in (I think $80 each at Batteries Plus.)
2) Buy refurb 5S somewhere good, as in having new battery in it.

Other ideas welcomed!

ck
 
MacQork said:
I have my iPhone 5s since it came out almost 3,5 years ago. It still functions great! The battery life is still very decent after 3,5 years so a new one should be even better. I commute every day for 2 hours (1 to the city and 1 back), while using 3G (surfing & chatting & listening music - all at the same time) and I always make it with my battery life till I'm home at 17:00.

I think, however, that the iPhone SE is a better deal as it has (way) better internals. It has the internals of an iPhone 6s (flagship of last year), which means faster chip, better camera, better screen. If you have some more dollars to spare the iPhone SE comes in at $399 for 32Gb sim-unlocked.
Click to expand...

Screen is identical to 5/5s

Not at all improved
 
thadoggfather said:
Screen is identical to 5/5s

Not at all improved
Click to expand...

My bad. Had the 6s in my head instead of the SE. Thanks for pointing this out, they are indeed 100% similar with their screens. I thought they would've increased brightness/color of the SE as well though
 
My wife still uses a 5s, and it's more than fine, even on iOS 10. But, the SE is a pretty big upgrade: camera, processor, RAM, Apple Pay, battery life, etc. I'd go for an SE unless money is a big issue.
 
MacQork said:
My bad. Had the 6s in my head instead of the SE. Thanks for pointing this out, they are indeed 100% similar with their screens. I thought they would've increased brightness/color of the SE as well though
Click to expand...

It's the SE Achilles heel imo. But still a great device
 
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I finally bought 5s yesterday from AT&T for $130. looking forward for my 1st iPhone experience.
 
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cktai said:
I finally bought 5s yesterday from AT&T for $130. looking forward for my 1st iPhone experience.
Click to expand...


Should have got the phone SE with the A9 chip iPhone 5s still has the A7 chip and 1Gb of ram why the SE has 2GB of ram
 
I have a 5s for work that gets daily use. It does work fine, and I enjoy it, but compared to my personal iPhone 7 (I know there's a huge discrepancy in price) the performance difference is astounding (including battery life).

For the cost, as other's have mentioned, it would certainly give you a good feel for iOS. You almost can't go wrong for $120 if you want to see what iOS is like.
 
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