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I’ve been using an iPhone XR for almost 8 years now. It’s crazy to think about as I bought it back when it first came out, and somehow it’s still chugging along. The battery isn’t great anymore and the camera definitely shows its age, but it still does the job.
With Apple dropping their newest iPhone, I’m finally thinking about upgrading. Part of me feels like I’ve squeezed every drop of life out of this XR, but I’m also not someone who likes upgrading just to have the latest thing.
So I’m curious, how do you handle your phone upgrades? How long do you usually keep your phones?
I’ve always bought unlocked phones, but my wife’s family has been doing Costco’s AT&T deals since they get a lot of money for trade ins.
Feels like I’ve pushed mine longer than most people, but maybe I’m not the only one out here still hanging onto an old device.
I think I have owned four phones, possibly five, starting around 2008. All unlocked Android, like Mark. I want a phone that fits my hand, which limits my choices. I use them almost exclusively for calls, texts and maps. My current phone is a Google Pixel 5a (a year old when I bought it) and I have turned off everything I can find to turn off to limit tracking. At home I use an iPad or a ten year old desktop (past time to replace that). I did make a “tariff buy” back in February and bought a new iPad. The Apple store rejected the old one for trade in, so I now have two. The older one is lighter so I am keeping it for travel.
My old flip-phone was dying and I replaced it in late 2013 with an iPhone 5s. In late 2019 I had the battery replaced. That gave the six-year-old iPhone new life, but it started showing its age in other ways.
I wanted newer technology but was unwilling to pay for a brand new phone, so I bought a used unlocked iPhone 11 Pro with 256 GB of memory in early 2022 (it was a bargain from a reputable online dealer). It was approximately 2-1/2 years old when I bought it, so it’s about six years old right now.
Now the battery life for the 11 Pro is waning. I’m debating (internally) what to do. I might have the battery replaced, but the lightning cable socket is flaky and doesn’t always connect.
Earlier this year my wife purchased an iPhone 16e to replace her very old iPhone 6s – and she’s quite happy with it. I’m thinking I will start checking the prices for used unlocked iPhones (15/16) soon.
We usually keep phones for 3-5 years. Being more frugal than that has diminishing returns and adds risk and usability issues. There are at times chip-level security vulnerabilities found in CPUs, including ARM architecture which Apple uses. These are often mitigated with firmware changes that can cause performance to degrade.
My 8 year-old phone battery is basically cooked, so totally get the usability issues!
With yesterday’s IOS 26 update, a new group of phones have been made obsolete from new features. This would include the XR, that a few of us seem to have. A promise of continuing security updates for some period of time was made by Apple.
I upgrade my iPhone about every three years, which is the point at which I can get an upgrade by trading in my phone and not paying extra for it. I have an iPhone 15 right now. I’m usually one model behind the latest when I trade in.
I’ve found that I start having battery and other issues with the phones if I keep them much longer.
Me too, generally one model behind. Upgrading via our carrier is not expensive. I have my eye on a iPhone 17 as I too have a 15.
My wife and I both purchased the XR not long after it came out. I upgraded mine to a 16 in December. My wife is still chugging along with hers. She will probably keep it until it can no longer run the latest updates from Apple. That was why she had moved to the XR.
Forced obsolescence in the smart phone industry to put it mildly sucks. So many of us try to make our product purchases last. First manufacturers stop the supporting older phones OS. Then Apps stop updating for non-supported OS. Then a final nail in the coffin hits and a new phone is in order. My nail was Ticketmaster. After purchasing tickets on my PC for general admission for 15 of us, just to find out Ticketmaster requires the use of a smart phone to access tickets. Ticketmaster App did not support my 8 year old phone. Now my old phone is a primarily a bedside audio player.
Bogdan, I held onto my flip-phone until my wife bought me an I Phone 6. After the 8s had been out for a couple years, I upgraded for $200. I’d probably still have the 8 if it had a better camera. We recently got good deals on 15s, which may outlive us. I refuse to pay big bucks for the latest and greatest phone.
We keep our iPhones until Apple stops providing security updates.
This is what we do. I had a 4s for many years and it was not going to be supported any more, so I got the 11 when it came out. Spouse upgraded more often when they were working. Chris
We keep them until they die, which usually entails a combination of battery degradation and apps getting slower as software moves on.
We had three iPhone SEs (2020 model) until recently.
I’m still using mine. No issues so far.
My wife’s died last year, and we got the last iPhone SE before the new releases came out.
A couple of months ago, my daughter’s phone had slowed down so much that it was almost unusable, and she decided to go Android. I found a refurbished Samsung Galaxy S24 on ebay, and she loves it.
My phone history seems to follow a predictable pattern: I drop or lose them. My current phone is four years old, a replacement for one that was dropped from a height. Before that, I lost one in Malaysia, and that phone had replaced one I dropped on a tiled floor in Spain. So, my phone-replacement criteria have been consistently simple: they need to replace a broken or lost one. On a side note, they have to be unlocked and reasonably inexpensive android phones as I only use them for calls and the odd picture. And I always break or lose them 😂
Sounds like the best insurance policy would be to stay on your island 😂
I’m not safe to be let out the door with a phone, spend half my day looking for the dam thing 😂
I had a flip phone forever but the leather case to attach it to my belt broke just before I was to going on a business trip. I felt was an omen so bought my first IPhone. My wife had already had one for a few years and when we traveled we just used hers for the smart functions.
My current I phone is also a XR purchased just before the pandemic hit. Still works fine especially because I mostly use my IPad at home for most reading and communication, primarily using the phone just when out of the house.
My wife also purchased her XR at the same time as me. For a year she kept saying she wanted a new phone not for the smart feature, but because of the three lenses on the camera feature. As a result I bought her a new phone for Christmas. I must admit that the three cameras are useful and the pictures are a bit clearer, but that is not a priority for me.
So we are back at the beginning. I have a six year old phone and she has the latest.