Hacker News Reader

Comment by _bxg1 | Hacker News Reader

When I got my XS ($1000) it was because I planned to keep it for a long time. It's been a year and a half and I have zero complaints of degradation in speed, battery life, etc. Still feels like new. I plan on keeping it for four years at least. Compare that to the $500 phones of the past that would limp across the two-year mark and it's really not unreasonable.

View on HN

Looks like I'm hardly original, but I'm also still using an original SE that I bought 4 years ago. Unlike the other posters here, I'm even rocking my original battery! (it is admittedly on its last legs, though). Spending < $100/yr on fully-supported phones is a pretty tough benchmark to beat. Looks like this new SE will accomplish that task like its predecessor.

I don't think this is the comparison that you're drawing, but I'd like to point out that my current iPhone SE has been doing well for three years (other than a battery replacement), and I think it has at least one more year left in it. So it's not just the top-end phones that have staying power.

That's fair, though I'd think refurbished phones won't do quite as well, but who knows

That depends a lot on what's meant by "refurb". I've had some that had had a screen and battery replacement, and they work and last like new, as they should. I've also had some that were sold as "refurbished" despite having had, at most, a wipe down with Windex to get the fingerprints off. Those don't do so well, but if you're handy, you can do your own refurbs with $80 in parts and an hour or so of work, and get the same like-new result modulo whatever damage exists to the case.

Another dedicated (first-get) iPhone SE reporting in. It did desperately need a battery replacement but it was only $50. I have noticed that increasingly apps and websites aren't designed for such a small screen, even Apple's first-party ones.

Agreed, I upgraded from 7 to XS for the camera upgrade, and I can't really see myself wanting to upgrade again soon. I just paid the XS off and now I just pay for an unlimited plan at $60 a month, it's pretty nice.

Current iPhones still struggle in low light photography but I can't see myself caring enough to upgrade to a new flagship anytime soon just to maybe take better pics at night.

Yeah. I'm not saying there will never be a new feature that inspires me to upgrade early, but there isn't one on the horizon right now. The only things I can think of right now are a foldable version (maybe) or a significantly smaller screen size (SE-size). 5G certainly won't do it.

I agree with the low light photography situation. I have an XR and the only thing that i feel short off is low light photography. I had pixel 2 before this, so low light situation was bit downer. Recently I compared my phone with iPhone 11 from my co-worker, we tried shooting this dark storage location and iPhone 11 definitely is big improvement. But i am planning to keep my phone for at least next 4 years. The rest of the phone is fantastic.

Im going on 5 years on my 6S+

Best iphone i have ever needed.

I'm also still holding on to my 6S+. We upgraded my wife to an 11 and I just don't see anything that I have to have. Eventually, I'll upgrade for a better camera but I'll probably keep using the 6S+ until the battery can't hold a charge

And even then, they replace batteries now on the cheap ($50 I think). I would say the biggest limiting factor would be OS updates; they guarantee updates for 4 years, which is the longest in the industry, but may be shorter than the lifetime of the device would otherwise be

Same here. Recently the camera has started shaking really badly so I'm thinking of finally getting a replacement. I have other cameras though, so the phone camera is just for convenience. It's hard to bite the bullet on a new phone when the one I have is (aside from the camera) in great shape.

My front camera is doing the same thing!

I looked into it a bit, and found that this happens when a piece of dust gets into the lens, which steals the focusing of the camera, so it shakes because it oscillates focus from the field of view and the piece of dust. Sadly the camera module needs to be replaced, which can be purchased cheaply but medium tedious difficulty to replace - or pay to have it done not as cheaply.

I'd still be using my 6S+ if this hadn't happened to me. Apparently there's a software problem with the optical stabilization, and it goes haywire. A fix is to override the stabilization solenoids with a magnet next to the lens. Not happy that Apple never fixed this bug they introduced.

The other thing that went wrong, also apparently in an OS update, is that TouchID won't work anymore. The hardware isn't recognized.

I thought that too with my XS, but it’s been nothing but trouble since day 1. The LTE and WiFi modems (not antennas) just don’t work right, and require a hard reboot occasionally to work correctly.

That sounds like a defect that they might fix for you. I would've taken it in on day 1

I should’ve, but I was both slow in realizing the problem and lazy in fixing it.

For the future, Apple has a short-term return policy (14 days I think) where they'll take a device back for any reason, no questions asked, full refund. So even if it's an intermittent problem that's hard to demonstrate, if you feel like there's something wrong with your device, you can just take it in and get a new one in that time period no matter what.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com