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jcishere93

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 27, 2015
9
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i want to buy the iphone 5 but it is an old phone.... came out in 2012 and now its 2015. will it be like the iphone 5s apple has on its site ??
 
i want to buy the iphone 5 but it is an old phone.... came out in 2012 and now its 2015. will it be like the iphone 5s apple has on its site ??
What do you mean "would it be like the 5s?"

The iPhone 5 is 32bit. The iPhone 5s is 64bit. The iPhone 5 does not have Touch ID. The iPhone 5s does have Touch ID. The iPhone 5 is discontinued. The iPhone 5s is still being made. The iPhone 5 has a Black/Slate color option. The iPhone 5s only has Black/Space Gray. So on and so on.

I love my iPhone 5, but it's only similar to the 5s in shape and size.
 
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It will look very similar to iPhone 5s, but it's not 5s. It doesn't have TouchID, it doesn't have 64-bit architecture and improved faster CPU, support for more LTE bands, and some other changes.
 
i want to buy the iphone 5 but it is an old phone.... came out in 2012 and now its 2015. will it be like the iphone 5s apple has on its site ??

the iPhone 5 is a good choice, if you can get it a reasonable price, and, you understand its problems.

the problems associated with the iPhone 5 are:

- poor battery life
- temperamental sleep/wake / on/off button
- very few LTE bands
- potentially laggish performance on iOS 9
- limited likelihood of being supported past iOS 9
- apple Care warranty paid for repairs probably already run out

a used iPhone 5c doesn't necessarily have any of the above problems and would cost less.

i have an iPhone 5. and am trying to make it last until September 2016 to buy iPhone probably called iPhone 7.
but my battery is lasting about 4 hours now.
and i frequently can't turn it off or on on-demand due to its button problems
(both the battery and the button problems are known issues, and certain serial numbers are available for replacement. but mine is not in the range of serial numbers that were offered replacement, but still has these issues)
 
the iPhone 5 is a good choice, if you can get it a reasonable price, and, you understand its problems.

the problems associated with the iPhone 5 are:

- poor battery life
- temperamental sleep/wake / on/off button
- very few LTE bands
- potentially laggish performance on iOS 9
- limited likelihood of being supported past iOS 9
- apple Care warranty paid for repairs probably already run out

a used iPhone 5c doesn't necessarily have any of the above problems and would cost less.

i have an iPhone 5. and am trying to make it last until September 2016 to buy iPhone probably called iPhone 7.
but my battery is lasting about 4 hours now.
and i frequently can't turn it off or on on-demand due to its button problems
(both the battery and the button problems are known issues, and certain serial numbers are available for replacement. but mine is not in the range of serial numbers that were offered replacement, but still has these issues)

Wouldn't a battery be covered under Apple Care without it being considered an incident?
 
Wouldn't a battery be covered under Apple Care without it being considered an incident?

no. thats the point.
apple care is expired on this phone. the new policy from now is that less than 80% capacity will get the battery replaced, if apple care is not expired.
but before, even with apple care, poor battery life was NOT an incident and therefore always needed to be paid for.
 
i want to buy the iphone 5 but it is an old phone.... came out in 2012 and now its 2015. will it be like the iphone 5s apple has on its site ??
The iPhone 5 is a far worse phone than the 5s. Why?

1. Too little LTE bands compared to the 5s.
2. Worse battery life
3. No 64-bit processor (and hence no Metal support)
4. No Touch ID

Between the 5s and the 6/6+, there wasn't much of a difference (aside from physical size and the way better camera in the 6/6+ due to the superfast phase detection AF).

The 5s will last way longer than the 5 did, solely because of the 64 bit processor. I'll wager that the 5s will see at least 2 more iOS updates compared to the 5.
 
I think it's worth it if you can get it at the right price

I'm currently using an iPhone 5 and it is working well for me. Very smooth on 8.3
 
The iPhone 5 is getting a bit long in the tooth as others have started. Although it is the phone that I currently use and am completely satisfied with it.

But having said that, I would not be paying too much for a (nearly) 3 year old phone that you have no idea what it has been put through. It you could find a brand new iPhone 5 for under $200 I'd go for it!
 
Some already mentioned a few negatives, like the power button and the battery, so I'll focus on some notable positives. The iPhone 5:
  • Introduced support for LTE. (Get the right model for the carrier you want to use.)
  • Was the first iPhone to use a nano-SIM card.
  • Was the first iPhone to have a Lightning port.
  • Introduced the ~16:9 aspect ratio (compared to the 3:2 aspect ratio on the 4S).
  • Was the last iPhone in black/white before Apple introduced silver/gold/space gray.
 
Some already mentioned a few negatives, like the power button and the battery, so I'll focus on some notable positives. The iPhone 5:
  • Introduced support for LTE. (Get the right model for the carrier you want to use.)
  • Was the first iPhone to use a nano-SIM card.
  • Was the first iPhone to have a Lightning port.
  • Introduced the ~16:9 aspect ratio (compared to the 3:2 aspect ratio on the 4S).
  • Was the last iPhone in black/white before Apple introduced silver/gold/space gray.
They are positives as far as comparing to iPhones prior to iPhone 5, but not really to anything after 5, and in particular the 5s that was referenced (short of perhaps that last item, mainly as far as the black color goes, even though it was still a bit off with slate being used there too).
 
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I would advice getting an iPhone 5s instead.

I own an iPhone 5 since 2012. I would love to replace it and get an iPhone 6s, but I probably won't be upgrading my phone until 2016. my iPhone 5 is still very capable, and takes amazing pictures in bright conditions. I would buy a used iPhone 5S on ebay, but it's still pretty expensive. if I sell my iPhone 5, I can probably get 200$ at most.
 
no. thats the point.
apple care is expired on this phone. the new policy from now is that less than 80% capacity will get the battery replaced, if apple care is not expired.
but before, even with apple care, poor battery life was NOT an incident and therefore always needed to be paid for.

The change applies to AppleCare+ purchased for iPhone, iPad, iPod and all Apple Watch models on April 10, 2015 or later.
 
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Some already mentioned a few negatives, like the power button and the battery, so I'll focus on some notable positives. The iPhone 5:
  • Introduced support for LTE. (Get the right model for the carrier you want to use.)
  • Was the first iPhone to use a nano-SIM card.
  • Was the first iPhone to have a Lightning port.
  • Introduced the ~16:9 aspect ratio (compared to the 3:2 aspect ratio on the 4S).
  • Was the last iPhone in black/white before Apple introduced silver/gold/space gray.
Yep - fantastic design - the distance between it and current is so small in real world use, it's silly.
 
I wouldn't buy the 5S/6/6+ now as they are all scuppered by insufficient RAM.
However, if the price was right I would actually prefer the iPhone 5 to any of the aforementioned. Some are saying that the fact it's 32Bit is a hindrance but it actually means you have more available RAM.

It was the last great phone that Apple have made but it is showing its age now in a few areas, namely:

A lack of LTE bands (4G)
Poor battery life
Small screen

It also has no Touch ID or Apple Pay but I don't use either of those features on my 6+ so they wouldn't be even remotely a dealbreaker for me.
 
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