Other Why Aren't we Keeping our iPhones for Years?

[Mega ST]

I buy my phones and use them until some replacement is actually needed. No rush to upgrade and no showing off. I wouldn't impress many with my old SE. I had batteries replaced then the phone would be good for more years of use again and feel "new".

 

[Macdctr]

My 13 mini is also my main and only phone. However, I took the risk and went ahead with public beta 27. And so far I recommend it immensely! I haven't used it long enough yet to judge battery life, but it's much faster! Open and close apps feels like it's brand new.

This was my experience when I updated my Green 13 mini to iOS 27 Developer Beta 1 after WWDC in June. I was very impressed by just how well the new iOS ran on my mini. Compared to iOS 26 my mini is now very usable in my day to day use of it. Couldn't be happier with the improved firmware.

 

[azhava]

I kept my XS for 3 years, my 13 Pro for 3 years, and my 16 Pro is about to hit 2 years. I don't plan to upgrade this year based on the rumors of the 18 series so far, so my 16 Pro will probably be at least a 3 year phone as well. There's nowhere that the 16 Pro falls short of meeting my needs, and nothing I've seen about the 18 Pro seems very exciting yet as far as "gotta have it" features.

3 years seems to be the point where I need to decide on a battery replacement (I'm usually at or slightly below 80% battery capacity by then) or a new phone.

I'm well past the age where having a new phone makes me "cool" or conveys any kind of status - and I'm also well past the age of caring what anybody else thinks about what phone I have. 🤣

 

[geta]

The people that upgrade iPhones yearly are in a small minority these days. The iPhone hype isn't what it was during the prime iPhone 3G-7 days when large amounts of people did upgrade yearly. Plus now in 2026 the economy isn't that great so I am sure there will be people holding on to their phones for a few more years.

I typically upgrade every two years (there have been exceptions). But I find that to be a good balance if you use your phone as a tool for creative things like photos and video content. I plan to keep my 17 pro max until next year with the 20th anniversary phone.

Also, there are no major differences between the models from recent years that justify the upgrade/replacement for a new model.

 

[Mega ST]

Actually I am watching camera progress as this might lure me to some bigger model.

 

[UnifiedMelody]

Only reason I'm getting a 18 Pro Max this year [despite price increases] is because my mom is in dire need of a new phone so she'll take my 16 Pro Max and be fine for ages [it's overkill for her, but i cba dealing with trading in at apple or selling second hand]

 

[unkl bob]

There hs never been much of a question between "Should I buy a new iPhone?" or "Should I keep the old one?" I just do both.

 

[sjsharksfan12]

Is there anyone else who doesn’t really care about the camera. It seems like cameras drive whether to purchase a phone or not but for me it was getting back into the Apple ecosystem, and the fact that I fixed my car radio that brought me back to iPhone. I barely use the camera and because of that I’m going to try to keep this one for at least 3 years.

 

[raykv23]

17 pages in and it's been interesting - I think there are way more people who don't upgrade regularly than those of us on Macrumors who upgrade frequently. My wife's work at universities - I see a lot of very old phones there from both students and professors even if they have means (UCLA/Stanford).

We here on Macrumors are a minority... an extreme minority.

I upgraded every 2 years (and for awhile, every year with the iUP plan). Trading in my previous phone helped offset the sting of a new purchase - but it was still a good chunk of change ($300-$500/year - getting more expensive as the years went on).

Now that iPhones are approaching $2000 and we're only getting $750-$550 or so for trade ins... I'm not upgrading every year, let alone every other year.

Like @AppleFanatic10 - I want to move to US Mobile - so that means I can no longer do payment plans? That's going to impact me upgrading as well. Phones just got too expensive. I'd have no problem upgrading if it was $300-$500/year. That's kind of my limit.

Yes, tech advancement has slowed, but price has increased so much. Seems the world is moving back to a terminal server compute environment where all we have are dumb terminals.

I’m a IT major and i still use a iPhone SE 2020 since 2022. Granted it’s what we can afford, but it’s at least good enough for me. I intend to get a newer iPhone, anything from a 15 line and up.

I will not update my SE to iOS 26 and 27. I’m more worried it’ll mess my SE up for good so I’m sticking with iOS 18 for however long it may be until my SE finally dies, gets broken or I get a newer iPhone.

 

[raykv23]

Is there anyone else who doesn’t really care about the camera. It seems like cameras drive whether to purchase a phone or not but for me it was getting back into the Apple ecosystem, and the fact that I fixed my car radio that brought me back to iPhone. I barely use the camera and because of that I’m going to try to keep this one for at least 3 years.

I don’t really care about the camera as long as it’s decent. I rarely take pics anyways.

 

[Homme]

That's quite surprising to hear about the iPhone 14. Specs show that the iPhone 11 and 13 Mini both have 4 GB RAM so I would have expected at least somewhat similar behaviour with iOS 26.

Allegedly iOS 27 was tested with the iPhone 11 also, so I'm hoping that mine will improve. Thus far the feedback of 13 Mini owners on the beta have been quite positive.

It was tested with the 11 Pro Max on OS 27, better than the 11 because the Pro Max one has to deal with like double the pixels and double the resolution than the non pro 11 one

They both have 4GB of RAM but the 13 mini’s one would be more
Optimized though

The A9/A10 devices were obliterated by updates (not so much the A11/A12, not to the same level),

The A12 was also obliterated by updates too. The A11 OTOH was so poorly obliterated by updates that even the A10 of the 6th and 7th gen iPads got iPadOS 17/18 when A11 devices are stuck on iOS 16

And definitely A9/A10/A12 got a lot of updates no matter which iPhone/iPad/Apple TV it came from. Those SoC’s were built to long last ( not the A11

I dont remember 18 being so bad, because 26 was really the lowest of the lows (slow and overheating like crazy), but 27 easily seems like an upgrade over both and the best update in 2 years.

 

[comptr]

So, I used to keep phones for 2 years, and the next year, the 3rd year of ownership, I would upgrade, but in the past few years, I started doing yearly upgrades. I use my phone more and more for taking pictures and videos, so every little change makes it worthwhile for me.

 

[Ashrakal]

I’m keeping my iPhone 16 Pro for as long as I can. The titanium frame is really durable, and while the screen gets scratched every now and then it’s not the end of the world as I could just open up the phone and replace the screen if I wanted to. Same goes for the battery at some point.

So the real question for me would be what it’d take to get a new phone? I honestly don’t know, as at this point the device will remain high end for a very long time.

Previously I had an iPhone 13 Mini, which had a nice form factor, but the battery size was a big limitation even when it was at 100% health. That’s about it.

 

[CC91UK]

I don’t really care about the camera as long as it’s decent. I rarely take pics anyways.

Me neither. My digital camera (a 'bridge camera') has a 65x zoom and a higher resolution, so I use this for when I'm going on trips and want to take a lot of pictures.