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Other Rank Your Favorite iPhones of All Time
- Thread starter Simmias
- Start date
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From a hardware design, aesthetic, and build quality perspective only:
1. 4… remains the best piece of portable electronics I have ever owned. Edit: all things in brackets (more an objet d’art and jewelry than a piece of tech.)
2. 5… more practical but less luxurious than the 4. (5S brining in touchID was excellent)
3. 12 mini… probably the ideal iPhone in use, for me. (13 mini was far superior but the 12 did the things first)
4. Air… maybe? Shouldn’t really talk about things I don’t use daily. My 15Pro doesn’t really enter into it. (If it still exists when I replace the 15Pro it’ll likely be a top contender)
1. 4… remains the best piece of portable electronics I have ever owned. Edit: all things in brackets (more an objet d’art and jewelry than a piece of tech.)
2. 5… more practical but less luxurious than the 4. (5S brining in touchID was excellent)
3. 12 mini… probably the ideal iPhone in use, for me. (13 mini was far superior but the 12 did the things first)
4. Air… maybe? Shouldn’t really talk about things I don’t use daily. My 15Pro doesn’t really enter into it. (If it still exists when I replace the 15Pro it’ll likely be a top contender)
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- iPhone 17 Pro Max - Cosmic Orange: battery, camera, speed, RAM; a great device overall. Nice finally moving away from lightning to USBC. Orange is still fun after a couple months. I’ll probably use this one for 3 years like the 14PM.
- iPhone 14 Pro Max - Deep Purple: The battery on this was great and it was the first phone I kept more than 2 years. 4th iteration of iPhone Pro with colorful options and finally something that wasn’t blue or green.
- iPhone XS Max - Space Gray: nice solid feel. Great battery. Gorgeous device overall. Picked this up with my first Apple Watch and it was a fantastic combo.
- iPhone 7 Plus - Black: camera upgrade! I took some amazing pics with this thing. Was fast too, and he battery life was great. 3D touch was a great feature.
- iPhone 12 Pro Max - Pacific Blue: FINALLY SOME COLOR. Triple camera was a nice upgrade over previous models. Unfortunately, the battery life wasn’t great. The move from 3D Touch to Haptic Touch was not smooth and didn’t work well for the first few months.
- iPhone 5s - Space Gray: screen was too small but a nice speed bump over the 4s. Moving away from the dock connector to lightning was nice too.
- iPhone 4s - White: screen too small but it was fast and the camera was a huge upgrade over the 3GS.
- iPhone 3GS - White: first iPhone and great for the time, but the screen was too small and the battery life wasn’t great.
- iPhone 6 Plus - Space Gray: this thing was underpowered, didn’t have enough RAM and was overall a bad experience. I had 3 warranty replacements in the first 6 months. Never had any issues with bending though.
Nothing will ever match the excitement of the Wild West frontiers of the original. Back then it was a heck of a novelty being able to do something simple like email myself an image of a class discussion on the whiteboard to continue the following week. Once the App Store hit, every new app felt like something truly innovative. Man, when Eliminate Pro dropped…. It was so cool having all of your devices converged into one.
Now phones of all types are endemic they’re just part of life, still useful but unexciting across the board. Ironically I now find myself missing the days of having separate tech for everything I might carry. (Nikon D50, PSP, Nokia 6280, Sony W50 compact, 2.5kg MacBook! Er, maybe not)
At least I thought this until I bought the iPhone Air. It feels like a proper successor to the 4 and a solid antidote to the kitchen sink maximalism that plagues modern handset and software design.
Now phones of all types are endemic they’re just part of life, still useful but unexciting across the board. Ironically I now find myself missing the days of having separate tech for everything I might carry. (Nikon D50, PSP, Nokia 6280, Sony W50 compact, 2.5kg MacBook! Er, maybe not)
At least I thought this until I bought the iPhone Air. It feels like a proper successor to the 4 and a solid antidote to the kitchen sink maximalism that plagues modern handset and software design.
- iPhone 5c - even though it has a plastic/polycarbonate body, it has stainless steel frame inside
- iPhone SE 2016 - despite having the almost the same battery life as its predecessors, it has the compact size of its predecessors and the performance and camera of the iPhone 6s
- iPhone 5s - the first iPhone with a Touch ID sensor and 64-bit processor [or system on a chip]
- iPhone 5 - the best color of the early 2010's which is Black and Slate and also the perfect mix of software [iOS 6] and hardware
- iPhone 4s - the best 3.5" display iPhone but should have never been allowed to upgrade to iOS 9.x
- iPhone 4 - the first Retina display iPhone but should have never been allowed to upgrade to iOS 7.x
Apple should allow downgrading the old iPhone models to older iOS versions.
- iPhone 4 - iOS 6.1.3
- iPhone 4s - iOS 6.1.3 and iOS 8.4.1
- iPhone 5 - iOS 6.1.3 and iOS 8.4.1
- iPhone 5c - iOS 8.4.1
- iPhone 5s - iOS 8.4.1 and iOS 10.3.3
- iPhone SE 2016 - iOS 9.3.5 and iOS 10.3.3
3GS - UI was amazing
4
4s
6 - horrible design, kept dropping it. Also bendgate!
iPhone SE - original. Nice but let down by screen too small & iOS was becoming garbage, lots of annoyances. iTunes constant trying to play music not on phone 🤬
11 - nice big screen but camera lens protrusion a pita! Software getting worse imho.
13PM - 9/10 design except stupid camera lense protrusion. With silicon case it pulled everything out pockets & after 2 years felt too large. iOS getting worse. iTunes & CarPlay junk. Camera good for low light but huge battle trying to focus on stars. Got much worse on recent iOS (16?)
17 - great design except camera lenses protrusion. Perfect size for candy bar design. Current ios easily worst iOS (I like glass but functionality of iOS just 🐶💩). Can’t pick it up without it turning on torch, locking, taking a pic etc. camera button now disabled.
Current iOS has far too many swipes up down left right down from corner etc for functions. Pretty much unusable & predictive text is constantly unreliable.
If I hadn’t got an AWU 3 after my 17 in October I’d of returned my 17 & got a galaxy flip.
Will hold onto 17 to see if a flip design comes but not in a hurry.
A phone should be a phone & nothing more.
An iPad should be an iPad (does more than an iPhone).
Apple - focus on software please 🙏
4
4s
6 - horrible design, kept dropping it. Also bendgate!
iPhone SE - original. Nice but let down by screen too small & iOS was becoming garbage, lots of annoyances. iTunes constant trying to play music not on phone 🤬
11 - nice big screen but camera lens protrusion a pita! Software getting worse imho.
13PM - 9/10 design except stupid camera lense protrusion. With silicon case it pulled everything out pockets & after 2 years felt too large. iOS getting worse. iTunes & CarPlay junk. Camera good for low light but huge battle trying to focus on stars. Got much worse on recent iOS (16?)
17 - great design except camera lenses protrusion. Perfect size for candy bar design. Current ios easily worst iOS (I like glass but functionality of iOS just 🐶💩). Can’t pick it up without it turning on torch, locking, taking a pic etc. camera button now disabled.
Current iOS has far too many swipes up down left right down from corner etc for functions. Pretty much unusable & predictive text is constantly unreliable.
If I hadn’t got an AWU 3 after my 17 in October I’d of returned my 17 & got a galaxy flip.
Will hold onto 17 to see if a flip design comes but not in a hurry.
A phone should be a phone & nothing more.
An iPad should be an iPad (does more than an iPhone).
Apple - focus on software please 🙏
1. 11 Pro (Midnight Green) - The best colour ever made in my opinion. Felt expensive, great build quality. No complaints.
2. X - Felt like true innovation having FaceID for the first time. The glass back, the build quality, again it felt expensive and a luxury item.
3. iPhone 5 (Black & Slate) - Second best colour ever made. Really solid phone, again no complaints.
2. X - Felt like true innovation having FaceID for the first time. The glass back, the build quality, again it felt expensive and a luxury item.
3. iPhone 5 (Black & Slate) - Second best colour ever made. Really solid phone, again no complaints.
I've only owned two, the 3Gs and my current 16PM. I loved the size and the "wow" factor of the 3Gs when I got it, but the 16PM is so ridiculously capable as a computing/camera/video/commications device for its size, I'd have to give the nod to it over the 3Gs.
iPhone 6
It's still around at home, and even today, I get surprised how well it feels in hand, no other iPhone was so close. Perfect size, and loved that screen aspect ratio that gives you more sense of space than my iPhone 12 mini screen.
iPhone 5
Never had one as main driver, but my wife had one and I loved how slick and solid was.
It's still around at home, and even today, I get surprised how well it feels in hand, no other iPhone was so close. Perfect size, and loved that screen aspect ratio that gives you more sense of space than my iPhone 12 mini screen.
iPhone 5
Never had one as main driver, but my wife had one and I loved how slick and solid was.
1. Air
2. 6s Plus
3. 11
4. 15 Plus
5. 13
6. 16 Pro
7. 4s
I use my wife's old iphone 7 as an ipod. If I added it to the list I would rank it #3 and move the rest down one number.
2. 6s Plus
3. 11
4. 15 Plus
5. 13
6. 16 Pro
7. 4s
I use my wife's old iphone 7 as an ipod. If I added it to the list I would rank it #3 and move the rest down one number.
While I agree with you, it will (probably) never happen. Apple has too much self-interest involved to ever allow this.
First, it fights jailbreaking - which they hate because it allows you to do things outside of their control.
Second, it creates (for them) a support nightmare. Having most users on the same version of iOS (or close to it) allows for smoother heterogenous support. Apple doesn't have to troubleshoot issues on a wide range of devices and versions of iOS. They can focus on supporting a very narrow range.
Third, Apple is (they say) all about security. Allowing users to downgrade means less security (to Apple).
Fourth, it looks good for Apple to say "X amount of users are using iOS version X".
Fifth, they are a hardware company. Selling you a new device with a newer version of iOS is preferable to them then allowing you to continue using an older device on an older version of iOS.
Some have suggested that Apple could allow downgrading by providing a warning, thus making any issues or problems solely the user's responsibility - no support. Again, Apple won't do that because people don't consider things like that as any sort of legal barrier towards suing Apple. Or in seeking support from Apple anyway.
Apple isn't into allowing the customer full control of their device. We don't even have ownership of our own copy of iOS. It's not how they operate. They want the experience they want to give you to happen according to their rules. That can't happen if you're not within their control.
Apple has been forced to do something against their will:
- switching from Lightning to USB Type C
- introducing Battery Health in iOS after being caught throttling performance to prevent sudden shutdowns
I'd love for deeply obsolete devices to have their boot-loaders unlocked so they can be put to new purpose. I still have my 1st gen iPad! It would be nice for it to be more usable.
It's not going to happen, but I can dream!