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iPhone 7/Plus Tweens 1st iPhone

Jaz Williams

Jaz Williams

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 9, 2020
4
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Looking for opinions. I have 3 tweens who will be getting their first phones. Our mobile carrier is offering the iPhone 7 for $0 w/ a 2-year service agreement. I’m okay with the service agreement because I don’t plan on switching carriers. However, I’m wondering if I should just bite the bullet and get the SE 2020 for them instead.

I feel like the iPhone 7 would be a good starter device, but I’m not sure.

Thoughts?
 
Jaz Williams said:
Looking for opinions. I have 3 tweens who will be getting their first phones. Our mobile carrier is offering the iPhone 7 for $0 w/ a 2-year service agreement. I’m okay with the service agreement because I don’t plan on switching carriers. However, I’m wondering if I should just bite the bullet and get the SE 2020 for them instead.

I feel like the iPhone 7 would be a good starter device, but I’m not sure.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

I did not have good experiences with the iPhone 7. I feel the SE is way worth the little you will pay monthly for it. It’ll last 4-5 years easy. The 7 maybe another year or 2 on updates. Just my .02 but most carriers are offering the SE pretty well priced. Who are you with?
 
A few years back I got my son his first phone. He would have been 13 I think. It was an 8GB iPhone 4s I got from a member here for $20. He had a 2GB line. Because he handled that well he got upgraded to my wife's old iPhone 5, then I got him an iPhone SE a couple of years ago. That's his current phone.

My daughter got his old iPhone 5 on a 2GB line last year. She promptly lost the phone within the first week to a kid at school. Fortunately, the principal was able to get it back but that is still her current phone.
 
I'm not a fan of the iPhone 7. It has at least one inherent non repairable manufacturing flaw that's a time bomb for a large number of them. When the phone fails, the phone speaker no longer works. Also the affected devices can have connectivity problems.

Google "iPhone 7 loop disease"

Here's one link:

appleinsider.com

iPhone 7 'Loop Disease' audio chip issue targeted in class action complaint | AppleInsider

A new class action complaint seeks damages and a hardware recall from Apple over the so-called iPhone 7 "Loop Disease," an issue that causes audio problems on impacted handsets and can ultimately render the device inoperable.
appleinsider.com appleinsider.com
 
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Never had an issue with my 7, nor had I dropped mine either, but the 7 is the last iPhone with a metal back. Some say it withstands a drop better than the all glass models. So there's that...
 
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We have my daughter my 6s when my wife and I got the new SE. If she does good with it then my wife will pass on her SE while she upgrades to a 12. If she doesn’t do well with it then my wife will just use it as a trade in and we’ll see about passing my SE down next year.
My 6s was only about a year and a half old so it’s fairly new and I kept it in an Otterbox so it’s in good shape.
 
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I would say go with the 7. If they are responsible with that then maybe look at upgrading them later on or passing down your device when you upgrade. What ever you decide I hope they understand how lucky they are to have a parent get that for them.
 
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parker5011 said:
I did not have good experiences with the iPhone 7. I feel the SE is way worth the little you will pay monthly for it. It’ll last 4-5 years easy. The 7 maybe another year or 2 on updates. Just my .02 but most carriers are offering the SE pretty well priced. Who are you with?
Click to expand...
You expect a phone to survive 4 years in a hand of a teenager? Good luck with that :)
 
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Jaz Williams said:
Looking for opinions. I have 3 tweens who will be getting their first phones. Our mobile carrier is offering the iPhone 7 for $0 w/ a 2-year service agreement. I’m okay with the service agreement because I don’t plan on switching carriers. However, I’m wondering if I should just bite the bullet and get the SE 2020 for them instead.

I feel like the iPhone 7 would be a good starter device, but I’m not sure.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Even the iPhone 6s is completely viable for a teenager. If you think about it, the needs should be very minimal with basic communication with texting, emails and obviously any type of ‘social media‘ for outreach.
 
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parker5011 said:
I did not have good experiences with the iPhone 7. I feel the SE is way worth the little you will pay monthly for it. It’ll last 4-5 years easy. The 7 maybe another year or 2 on updates. Just my .02 but most carriers are offering the SE pretty well priced. Who are you with?
Click to expand...
I’m with Verizon.
 
I didn’t see the Walmart sale for $200. Probably missed it. We ahead with the iPhone 7, and we’re gonna hold off on the SE for the moment.

Our eldest is on the fence with the phone. He’d rather have an Apple Watch with a cellular connection. Hoping the watchOS 7 brings some options.
 
Apple Watch with cellular could work very well for a tween (less of a distraction, harder to lose), but it does need to be paired to an iPhone. And not just for initial setup but for the shared phone number as well. So if, for example, you set it up with your own phone, it would still ring when your phone rang, which I assume neither you nor your child would want. As you say, perhaps watchOS 7 will bring more independence from iPhone.

Good call on the 7 imo. It’s still a perfectly good phone. I have one as a personal device and another from my job. Totally sufficient for basically any sort of “normal” usage.
 
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parker5011 said:
The 7 maybe another year or 2 on updates.
Click to expand...

jbachandouris said:
I would open for the SE 2020 as it will be supported for quite some time whereas the 7 is well on it's way to be called 'obsolete' by Apple.
Click to expand...

The iPhone 7 uses the A10 chip, which is the same chip in the current 7th gen iPad that launched last fall. Wouldn’t these devices continue to get iOS updates for more than just a couple of years?
 
I just wiped my wife's 7 for our oldest to use. Its actually not a bad phone. A clean reinstall is a miracle worker. The 7 is a decent phone still, just be aware that it will develop issues with the mics whether you pocket the phone or not. So if you like facetime, those mics will make your voice break up. It really is too bad. We would still be using them if it wasn't for that. I would have paid for new batteries.
 
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