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iPhone 12 Pro Launch Day XS Max 87% capacity. Can I go another year?

HankHowdy

HankHowdy

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Dec 2, 2012
3,501
392
Victorville CA
Can I wait another year, or should I upgrade? I want a 12 pro Max.

I have Verizon and they will give me $440 for my phone. I doubt if I wait another year that they will still offer that much on trade.
 
Battery degradation is a pretty minor issue and not one I would consider sufficient to justify a new phone, if everything else with your current phone is working well and meets your needs.

My two-year old Xs Max has battery at 84% and I'm having it replaced at the Apple Store - $69.00. (If you don't have a store nearby, there are lots of other places that can do the same thing).

I'm keeping my own Xs Max for as long as it is working satisfactorily. It has just a couple of payments left (AT&T) and I'll welcome the lower monthly payments for my cell plan.

I get the attractiveness of a new phone, but for myself I don't do that much with the camera, so the latest and greatest camera is not going to be a huge deal for me. Likewise my phone has more than enough storage space (256 GB which was more than it turns out I need, by a lot) so I'm not running out of storage.

The phone will loose value in another year and different folks will have different perspectives on the cost-benefit of getting a new phone every 2 years, or even more frequently. There is another thread on the forum here where someone is making the argument that they are better off selling their phone and buying a new one each year.

I'm not sure that I notice any difference in battery life with my own phone at 84%, do you (at 87%)? Apple considers anything above 80% to be fine.

Different strokes for different folks!
 
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HankHowdy said:
Can I wait another year, or should I upgrade? I want a 12 pro Max.

I have Verizon and they will give me $440 for my phone. I doubt if I wait another year that they will still offer that much on trade.
Click to expand...
I have the Xs Max also and I don't think it is worth upgrading to the 12 Pro Max. It is entirely your decision but I believe you can last another year, for me, the 12 pro max isn't appealing enough to spend $1200 bucks on. I would want flagship features and not a reversion to a nicer design.
 
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Phil77354 said:
Battery degradation is a pretty minor issue and not one I would consider sufficient to justify a new phone, if everything else with your current phone is working well and meets your needs.

My two-year old Xs Max has battery at 84% and I'm having it replaced at the Apple Store - $69.00. (If you don't have a store nearby, there are lots of other places that can do the same thing).

I'm keeping my own Xs Max for as long as it is working satisfactorily. It has just a couple of payments left (AT&T) and I'll welcome the lower monthly payments for my cell plan.

I get the attractiveness of a new phone, but for myself I don't do that much with the camera, so the latest and greatest camera is not going to be a huge deal for me. Likewise my phone has more than enough storage space (256 GB which was more than it turns out I need, by a lot) so I'm not running out of storage.

The phone will loose value in another year and different folks will have different perspectives on the cost-benefit of getting a new phone every 2 years, or even more frequently. There is another thread on the forum here where someone is making the argument that they are better off selling their phone and buying a new one each year.

I'm not sure that I notice any difference in battery life with my own phone at 84%, do you (at 87%)? Apple considers anything above 80% to be fine.

Different strokes for different folks!
Click to expand...

I think what bugs me about not upgrading this year is that I might lose out on verizon’s $440 trade in. That would make my payment $26 a month. Plus I have $35 in device dollars. That would make my payment few dollars less.

I payed my XS a few month ago and it was about $45 a month.
 
HankHowdy said:
I think what bugs me about not upgrading this year is that I might lose out on verizon’s $440 trade in. That would make my payment $26 a month. Plus I have $35 in device dollars. That would make my payment few dollars less.

I payed my XS a few month ago and it was about $45 a month.
Click to expand...

Sure, makes sense. Really it is just a question of whether or not you want to go back to monthly payments now, or wait another year and save the money you'd be paying each month.

I am at the point in my own life where I want to have things paid off, and minimize debt and monthly payments. If I was younger, I'd have a different perspective!
 
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Phil77354 said:
Sure, makes sense. Really it is just a question of whether or not you want to go back to monthly payments now, or wait another year and save the money you'd be paying each month.

I am at the point in my own life where I want to have things paid off, and minimize debt and monthly payments. If I was younger, I'd have a different perspective!
Click to expand...

It for me it’s hard to pay for a phone up front. I have to do payments. At least If I trade in my phone now I will get a payment that reduced by half.
 
HankHowdy said:
I think what bugs me about not upgrading this year is that I might lose out on verizon’s $440 trade in. That would make my payment $26 a month. Plus I have $35 in device dollars. That would make my payment few dollars less.

I payed my XS a few month ago and it was about $45 a month.
Click to expand...
U can sell it anytime later via swappa or ebay and get more money
 
HankHowdy said:
It for me it’s hard to pay for a phone up front. I have to do payments. At least If I trade in my phone now I will get a payment that reduced by half.
Click to expand...
That sounds it’s not the right time for a new phone
 
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HankHowdy said:
It for me it’s hard to pay for a phone up front. I have to do payments. At least If I trade in my phone now I will get a payment that reduced by half.
Click to expand...

Well, consider this. If you put the $45/month that you were formerly paying for your Xs Max, into a savings account, then you would save more than $440 in a years time and at that point you could be buying an iPhone 13! Not to mention the trade-in value you would still get for your Xs Max.

Just a thought!
 
I would say you can go another year. A modern iPhone shouldn’t have a mere 2 year life expectancy. My 8 Plus had 84% battery health and can still go an entire day with plenty of use.
 
Phil77354 said:
Battery degradation is a pretty minor issue and not one I would consider sufficient to justify a new phone, if everything else with your current phone is working well and meets your needs.

My two-year old Xs Max has battery at 84% and I'm having it replaced at the Apple Store - $69.00. (If you don't have a store nearby, there are lots of other places that can do the same thing).

I'm keeping my own Xs Max for as long as it is working satisfactorily. It has just a couple of payments left (AT&T) and I'll welcome the lower monthly payments for my cell plan.

I get the attractiveness of a new phone, but for myself I don't do that much with the camera, so the latest and greatest camera is not going to be a huge deal for me. Likewise my phone has more than enough storage space (256 GB which was more than it turns out I need, by a lot) so I'm not running out of storage.

The phone will loose value in another year and different folks will have different perspectives on the cost-benefit of getting a new phone every 2 years, or even more frequently. There is another thread on the forum here where someone is making the argument that they are better off selling their phone and buying a new one each year.

I'm not sure that I notice any difference in battery life with my own phone at 84%, do you (at 87%)? Apple considers anything above 80% to be fine.

Different strokes for different folks!
Click to expand...

But if you have ATT they will give you $800 for it for a trade in, You will never get that much again. It almost make’s more financial sense to pay it off, trade it in and pay $400 for a new phone!
 
Renho said:
But if you have ATT they will give you $800 for it for a trade in, You will never get that much again. It almost make’s more financial sense to pay it off, trade it in and pay $400 for a new phone!
Click to expand...

In a similar discussion on another thread, someone said that they could get $700 for a trade in (Xs Max). Either way, that sounds like a lot to me. Are you sure this is right? It makes me want to go down to our own AT&T store and see what they'll give us for our phones - I'll keep my own, but my wife also has an Xs Max and this might be worthwhile for her.
 
Phil77354 said:
In a similar discussion on another thread, someone said that they could get $700 for a trade in (Xs Max). Either way, that sounds like a lot to me. Are you sure this is right? It makes me want to go down to our own AT&T store and see what they'll give us for our phones - I'll keep my own, but my wife also has an Xs Max and this might be worthwhile for her.
Click to expand...
So the current deal is you get $800 for an iPhone 8 and up!!! So you could actually buy an 8 for $250 trade it in for $800. My daughter had an 8 plus, they gave me $800 in credits. The only thing is you get it spread out over 30 months. If you plan to be with them for that long it’s a great deal. The phone only has to be worth $95 in real street value to qualify for the $800! If it’s worth $35 you only get like $450.
 
Renho said:
So the current deal is you get $800 for an iPhone 8 and up!!! So you could actually buy an 8 for $250 trade it in for $800. My daughter had an 8 plus, they gave me $800 in credits. The only thing is you get it spread out over 30 months. If you plan to be with them for that long it’s a great deal. The phone only has to be worth $95 in real street value to qualify for the $800! If it’s worth $35 you only get like $450.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Interesting. I'll look into that, but we would probably want an iPhone 12 Pro Max to get the larger screen size, will see if they still have that same deal when that model becomes available.
 
Why would you want to upgrade if your device does everything you want it to do. Even if you feel the battery is not up to snuff, you’d be better off getting battery service now and keeping the phone running top notch for another 2 or 3 years.
 
Honestly the trade in offers on these devices seems better than most years because they also aim at current customers, not just new ones. I think if I didn't have the 11 Pro Max, I'd be going for this. I'd do it.

You can always turn off 5G I believe. Aside from a few negative things you'd read here, this is a good year for people with devices older than the 11 series in my opinion.
 
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