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

Luftkopf said:
I can't speak personally for anything newer than my iPhone 14, but after watching that video, I can state categorically that outdoors, in perfect conditions, my iPhone 14 takes way better photos than my iPhone 11 does, and the gap just widens when conditions aren't perfect. It was the one big thing keeping me from switching back to the 11 when I broke the screen on my 14.

If new phones are that bad, I wonder when they peaked?
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14 is quite an interesting phone by the way. Only recently I realized that it is not a Quad Bayer iPhone with relatively good sensor (1/1.7), especially comparing to 11. I always thought that it has “48MP” like all the 14 Pro models.

In terms of processing they seem to go back and forth. The Night Mode present in all new iPhones is essentially the same night mode that was first featured in 11 series. And with a tripod it is possible to make very similar night shots on both 11 and 17. But the new phones have kind of tuned it to the extent that it is possible to take better computational night shots without tripod.

Having said that, it is all still computational and not real optical result, so it has artifacts, tons of processing and somehow iPhone is still unable to take real exposures larger than 1 second, despite the fast processor.

In my opinion, it is all practically the same since iPhone 13. Despite 48MP on paper, new phones are not actually shooting in that resolution. In reality jump from 12 to 48 should feel like tectonic shift with 4 times more detail in photos, but in reality it is barely 0.4 times more, as well as in 12 MP (binned mode) it seems to work better.

Apple needs to seriously work on their lens system, it is beyond obsolete, so that’s the main reason why new iPhones are kinda all the same “iPhone X” after so many years
 
The-Real-Deal82 said:
I would confidently say that most iPhone users DO keep their phones for several years. People here on Mac Rumours are small snippet of the consumer base really. Most people are not upgrading their iPhone on an annual basis, even if plenty also do.

I am about to commit to keeping my 16 Pro Max for a third year when my contract is up in September and nearly everybody I know keeps their phones for 3 to 5 years on average. Phones have gotten so expensive, it doesn't make a lot of sense these days to trade in and pay more out for a phone with a slightly faster processor and fractionly better camera after a single year of use.
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Something that you bring up (others have also mentioned it) is many folks get phones on contracts, which can keep people on the same phone for more than a year unless they take advantage of special deals that come up to get bought out of an old phone etc. I started buying my phones unlocked from Apple starting with the XS which is another reason I probably don’t upgrade yearly like I did in the old days. Haven’t been on a carrier contract since 2018.
 
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the last few years I’ve been on iPhone upgrade program. But that’s been discontinued so suspect I’ll stay with my 17 Pro for now.
 
I mostly stopped using my iPhone 4S when 3G service was stopped, but it was hard to use for somethings because of App Store access and security certificate issues. I’ve had to stop using old iPads for the same reasons, or they start getting glitchy. Using these old things just for local media playback at home gets hard because there’s no battery health indication, getting replacements shipped can be difficult, and the work isn’t always easy or worth it. Apple won’t do the work either.
 
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uacd said:
14 is quite an interesting phone by the way. Only recently I realized that it is not a Quad Bayer iPhone with relatively good sensor (1/1.7), especially comparing to 11. I always thought that it has “48MP” like all the 14 Pro models.

In terms of processing they seem to go back and forth. The Night Mode present in all new iPhones is essentially the same night mode that was first featured in 11 series. And with a tripod it is possible to make very similar night shots on both 11 and 17. But the new phones have kind of tuned it to the extent that it is possible to take better computational night shots without tripod.

Having said that, it is all still computational and not real optical result, so it has artifacts, tons of processing and somehow iPhone is still unable to take real exposures larger than 1 second, despite the fast processor.

In my opinion, it is all practically the same since iPhone 13. Despite 48MP on paper, new phones are not actually shooting in that resolution. In reality jump from 12 to 48 should feel like tectonic shift with 4 times more detail in photos, but in reality it is barely 0.4 times more, as well as in 12 MP (binned mode) it seems to work better.

Apple needs to seriously work on their lens system, it is beyond obsolete, so that’s the main reason why new iPhones are kinda all the same “iPhone X” after so many years
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Agreed. From what I gather, the additional pixels with the iPhone cameras simply gives the processing pipeline more data to work with when compositing a final photo. That said, looking back at older photos and video, I much prefer iPhone 12 Pro and newer to the photos and videos prior to that phone. But quite happy with the 17 Pro now especially 4X. I think it may be peak iPhone cameras with current lenses. Variable aperture is likely one of the last things Apple can add before they need to make significant changes to the cameras in order to make a meaningful jump in photo quality.
 
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conmee said:
Something that you bring up (others have also mentioned it) is many folks get phones on contracts, which can keep people on the same phone for more than a year unless they take advantage of special deals that come up to get bought out of an old phone etc. I started buying my phones unlocked from Apple starting with the XS which is another reason I probably don’t upgrade yearly like I did in the old days. Haven’t been on a carrier contract since 2018.
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Thats cool 👍 . I have had phones on 2 year contracts for nearly 20 years as it becomes just another monthly bill for me. If I was buying a £1300 iPhone outright, I probably wouldn't do it and I'd be looking at the cheaper standard iPhones, rather than the Pro models, because I'd question why I was spending so much on a phone when I don't need to lol. My wife bought her 17 Pro outright last year and she'll now keep that until it breaks most probably. The funny thing is I'm 43 years old, have more disposable income now than I've ever had, but my priorities and interests have sort of shifted away from phones in recent years. I'd rather spend more on 3D printers, watches and holidays... Oh and my daughters lol.
 
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ElPaso said:
I'm preaching to myself I guess, but with the high quality of iPhones both in physical build and OS, I'm curious why we move on to a new iPhone after only a year or two of use? With a couple of my old devices, I replaced them after only a year or so of use - the iPhone SE (1st gen) and the 13. But on the other hand, I kept my iPhone 8 Plus for four years, and I was extremely happy with it from day one all the way to the end of its 48 month tenure. I figure I could have squeezed another couple of years out of it, but the thought of a shiny new device (the 13) was too much to take lol. At the end of the 8 Plus' time with me, it seemed just as capable and fast as when I first got it.

With my iPhone 8 Plus experience under my belt, I've decided to keep my 16e, which I've had for only 3-1/2 months, for 5 years. Or at least try for 5 years. Since I'm retired and have limited income, it seems the smart thing to do - especially with the high quality of iDevices I've experienced, and specifically my experience with the 8 Plus.

Who else wants to keep their iPhones for a looooooong time?
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16e is a great phone. It does everything a modern phone should do, and it does it well.

With that in mind, I have had every single model since 3G (sometimes changed between a pro MAX and normal pro in the same year). I’ve had atleast 30 iPhones😅😬
 
Anaxarxes said:
My update cycle is every 4 years (Have a 14 Pro, was waiting to upgrade to 18Pro).

With the market now, I'm thinking of extending one additional year.
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The 14 Pro is not a bad phone to be stuck on for one more year. As long as the battery is holding up. Don’t overlook the 17 Pro though. It had enough cumulative upgrades over my 14 Pro that I upgraded. Not to mention the 18 Pro will cost more and the camera plateau will be even bigger/taller due to the variable aperture. I think the 17 Pro is the phone to get if folks who were waiting for the 18 Pro are now hesitating. If you can wait another year, maybe the 20th anniversary iPhone with redesign will be worth the wait (it will certainly cost more). If you don’t want to wait that long and don’t want to deal with an even costlier iPhone 18 Pro, consider getting the 17 Pro now.
 
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The 13 mini made me realize that things really don’t change much. So I stopped buying each year. Primarily 13 is just a great phone only made me realize the battery and is just made it broken. Hence my air. So I’ll keep my air for 3 yr or more. If they can get a thin phone with a telephoto 8x lens then I’m buying another one. But I don’t think that’s happening.

It’s made me hesitant to upgrade the os frankly. I haven’t updated my iPad mini or Mac and it’s actually fine! I wonder if I am just stay on my current os and be ok with that.
 
I dunno, most people don't have the money or need to upgrade every year. I bought my iPhone 13 Mini in 2024. It works perfectly fine. I plan to keep it for another year.

The only phone that's interesting to me is the 17 Pro, because it has a telephoto lens and ProRes log recording directly to SSD. But that phone is extremely expensive and bulky, so I'm not convinced. I don't find this price justified. It's the same phone with an additional camera and certain features unlocked in software. If it was half the price I'd buy it. For the price of the 17 Pro you can get a used professional camera that's just much better as a camera in every possible way. The other non-pro models are pretty much what I already have just bigger.
 
My upgrade cycle used to be 4 years. Went from the 6 to the XR, then used that for 4 years before upgrading to the 13 Pro. I would still be using that phone today if my dad hadn't broken his so instead of me buying him a new one, he insisted I buy myself a new phone and pass down my current device to him. So I went from 13 Pro to 15 Pro, which I will be using until tomorrow, when I'm going to the store to pick up the 17 Pro Max ordered this morning.

With this upgrade, my next one is planned for 2031. I kept inferior devices for 4 years, but now with this 17PM, the only thing I can see prompting me to upgrade in the next couple of years is damage to the body that I will not want to keep looking at. This new one will have everything - fantastic camera system, best battery life, better thermals, enough RAM for AI, and for the first time I will be trying out the Pro Max form factor, so I will rest easy knowing I have the best battery life available on an iPhone.

Something that my current 15 Pro objectively lacks is thermal performance, that is quite poor and it chews through the battery, which is not great to begin with. So constantly feeling how hot the titanium chassis is, combined with the battery percentage rapidly going down in this heat, I am feeling the downsides of the phone quite a bit and it's exacerbated by the fact I use it caseless so I'm really feeling the heat coming from the phone and it's having a psychological effect, as well. I became more active, going on long walks, hikes etc. and I realized I need better battery life in my phone. I purchased an Anker powerbank, but that isn't the answer if I have to use the phone for navigation or whatever.

The 17PM will address both the thermals and the battery life so with this upgrade I am removing myself from the market as I'm quite irritated by this AI nonsense and the RAM chaos, not interested in that.
 
conmee said:
The 14 Pro is not a bad phone to be stuck on for one more year. As long as the battery is holding up. Don’t overlook the 17 Pro though. It had enough cumulative upgrades over my 14 Pro that I upgraded. Not to mention the 18 Pro will cost more and the camera plateau will be even bigger/taller due to the variable aperture. I think the 17 Pro is the phone to get if folks who were waiting for the 18 Pro are now hesitating. If you can wait another year, maybe the 20th anniversary iPhone with redesign will be worth the wait (it will certainly cost more). If you don’t want to wait that long and don’t want to deal with an even costlier iPhone 18 Pro, consider getting the 17 Pro now.
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I'm not seeing any downgrade on performance and the ios27 will give me the boost I need for a more snappier phone.

Don't care much on device AI as I'm more using OpenAI, CopIlot and Claude for that, plus it sill needs tome maturing to be elemental in iOS system.

100USD battery change and I'll be good for another year for sure.
 
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My first mobile phones were Nokia's (6150, 6310i, E50 without camera). The only ones that could run up to two weeks on one charge, including 20 minutes talk time. I used the 6310i the longest, for 12 years!! Very reliable and useable in both Europe and the US (non-CDMA carriers). At the time I didn't care for "smart" phones at all. Mobile internet was just too slow and expensive for a long time.

It wasn't until 4G became much cheaper when I got my first iPhone. Got the 1st gen SE too - good price and size. Had the 64GB and 128GB model. The first one broke in the first year when I accidentally fell in a pool. That accident also proofed to me that iCloud backup was more than a nice to have. Bought a new SE a few days later and upgraded iCloud to the Family plan with more storage. Repairing the old one was almost as expensive as getting a new one.
That second SE has been used for almost 5 years with one battery replacement - the original battery had been worn significantly by one notorious iOS version, that it caused the phone to suddenly shutdown at random moments. I still have that iPhone as a spare, but it's a bit slow with the last supported iOS.
Mid 2022 I bought the iPhone 13 mini (for its dual SIM/eSIM support) which I still use today and intend to keep using it for several more years. It does need a battery replacement soon though, but that's to be expected with current Li-ion batteries and ever draining iOS versions (average screentime hovers between 50 minutes up to 120 minutes max).
I can only hope that Apple eventually will release the same size iPhone mini again in the future - I don't like the current big sized iPhones that don't fit in my jeans without sticking out.
 
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My 14 Pro Max is starting to have an issue with the thunderbolt port, but as long as wireless charging continues to work just fine I won’t upgrade. Nothing is compelling enough in the iPhone lineup currently, and I did toy around with the idea of a Pixel Fold but decided I didn’t want to go back to Android.
 
For me, it's not about features, it's about reliability. I rely on my phone for so many things in day-to-day-life - I'm happy to keep my iPhone for as long as I feel it is going to give completely reliable performance without dying on me.

For the last several years, for me, this has meant a 2-year lifecycle - but my current iPhone 15 Pro is now into it's 3rd year and still going strong, so I'm thinking of pushing this one to 3 or 3.5 years.

I also have an old iPhone 12 for work, but the perfomance on this is no longer acceptable for normal usage, and I don't trust that it won't die any day, creating a big inconvenience with MFA apps, etc. when it finally does.
 
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Form factor/function drive me, so if there’s a reason something new offers me, and I can afford it, then in I go. I’d replace my 15 Pro with a mini again in a heartbeat if they offered one. Otherwise I don’t see a particular reason to upgrade my least desirable/most functional device. It’s a necessary evil to me and I toyed with the cameras (which is why I have the Pro) but it doesn’t live up to my wants, so likely the last Pro. However, I’m still many years away from replacing it, as a mini is not on the cards, as I understand it.
 
If cameras didn't improve, I'd keep my iPhone for maybe 4 years instead of 2.

I'm taking lots of pictures during vacation (1000-2000/week) and I want cutting edge tech. These become my life souvenirs and they're priceless.
 
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conmee said:
The 14 Pro is not a bad phone to be stuck on for one more year. As long as the battery is holding up. Don’t overlook the 17 Pro though. It had enough cumulative upgrades over my 14 Pro that I upgraded.
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I definitely noticed a difference going from a 14 to the 17. Granted my 14 had battery issues. I didn't really notice much difference going from the 14 Plus to the 17 when it came to screen size.

I don't have a need for the Pro's camera but some people definitely benefit from having the better cameras. My son is a supervisor for a custom cabinet shop and benefits from having better cameras so he went from the Google Pixel to the iPhone 17 Pro. He has been very happy with the 17 Pro.
 
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