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Comment by n8cpdx | Hacker News Reader

Coming from a still enthusiastic tech person who loves iPhone, I don’t think it’s a you problem. This is clearly another S revision in all but name, for the second year in a row. I want to be excited but there’s nothing particularly compelling unless you’re coming from pre-2020 (or maybe pre-2019). I’m still loving my 12 mini and will probably use it for at least another year, maybe two.

Compelling upgrades would be: another small variant (or smaller than 14 pro at least), something foldable (maybe, if done really really well), significantly improved battery life, bike computer functionality (CarPlay for bikes), or significantly improved performance (in a few years, maybe the 12 mini will be noticeably slow in 2024).

The curse of releasing devices with hardware that’s 3-5 years ahead of the competition in delivered performance (not just feature checklists) is that unless you wait 4+ years, new models don’t always feel like upgrades.

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I have iPhone 11 and I still don't think it is worth upgrading to 14 or 14Pro yet. I consider myself tech savvy person but I don't see a point to buy a new phone if my current phone takes good enough pics for myself and my family and friends to enjoy. Also if the speed of browsing web and opening and using apps is still good enough then what's the point of buying a new phone and polluting environment? As I see it, the latest iPhones are capable of at least 5 years of use and only may need to do is replace the battery once in that life span and I am happy with this approach.

I switched to 13 pro last year, and gave the 11 pro to my girlfriend.

There is a significant difference in cameras between the 11 and 13 - especially during the night photos. To the point where, in our case, I often need to tell my gf to use my camera for a shot when we’re together, because it will be so much better.

If you take a lot of photos then for this reason alone it’s worth to upgrade imho.

One justification that I can see is the trade in values. Here in the US, you can get a "free" iPhone if you're on a specific plan. Might as well take it if you already have the plan.

How are you able to make your battery last so long? I have an iPhone 12, and up until 6 months ago the battery was easily making it through the end of the day, but now with the same usage pattern I’m charging by noon.

That’s the only reason I’m excited for the 14

Batteries are a consumable. If you're happy with the iPhone 12, just get a new battery for $80 and then you're good to go for a few more years.

iPhone 12 battery is $15 if you install it yourself.

That's true, but all the waterproofing makes it such a pain in the ass that I'd rather just pay Apple to do it correctly and warranty the work.

On the note of will it be “noticeably slow in 2024” I have to say you might not even notice.

I’m using an iPhone X here in 2022 and honestly other than the battery life being a bit lower than usual, the phone is super snappy, even on these latest iOS releases.

It’s basically 5 years old and it’s still doing amazingly well.

I have an X myself and decided to throw the towel this year. I'm out of memory with the 64GB and have to keep pushing 5 years worth of photos and messages out. I also had to replace the battery once already and had to replace the camera (wobbly lens, all of the sudden) too.

I had to replace the screen twice (first time under the extended warranty/recall, second time I had to pay; it just becomes unresponsive and you get locked out of the phone). To make matters worse, the new one is arriving on Friday and the screen stopped working again last Monday. More than 90 days passed since the previous repair, so nothing to do and I'm locked out of the phone again because you can only unlock iphones through the touchscreen.

The phone is everything but snappy these days. I don't have tons of apps, but it stutters significantly from time to time.

One detail, phone doesn't have one scratch and is in perfect condition outside. Dropped it very few times and it was always inside a good case.

Wait? That unresponsive time is from the screen?! I get that for a minute or so sometimes but then it goes away. I thought it was the iOS software glitching out. Is it maybe a faulty digitizer?

I luckily have only had to replace the battery once for a small cost out of warranty. My storage is 256 GB, so that isn’t an issue yet.

I’m going to go look into unresponsive iPhone X displays now cause I feel like I’m having the starting signs of this issue with mine. It’s not a huge issue, as it rarely happens, but I’m curious now.

Sorry to hear your phone is super slow. I have a slew of apps on mine and it behaves rather well for me. shrug

Well, the iphone 11’s CPU is roughly on par with the best the Android side can offer today. So it is not that surprising, especially given apple’s care for their older devices. Even an 8 is plenty fast/smooth for usage today.

I’ve leveled with myself that this is the pace of future mobile device hardware releases. “Peak phone” has been a topic of discussion for a while now. Are we there yet? I think so.

Apple has gotten a lot of flack for releasing “new” hardware and software features that aren’t really new or groundbreaking. I’m starting to see the genius in their planning. The slow trickle of improvements (I like how you call them “S revisions”) are for the sake of momentum, the long term survival of the company. Especially when Apple is already battling the longevity of their own products. I’m rounding off Year Two of my iPhone 12 Pro Max and will likely squeeze out a third year.

Not many people upgrade every year. Apple sells a ton of phones but most people keep them for 2 to 3 years, so it’s just a lot of people on a cycle.

If they only introduced a new phone every 2 to 3 years people might be tempted by the new stuff on other phones. Or you could buy a new phone (to you) that is actually a two year old design.

This way you always get the newest thing, even if it’s not significantly better than what you could’ve bought last year. But it’s a nice upgrade if you’ve waited two years, and for people who wait like 5+ years it’s incredible.

It’s been always like that. Every other release of iPhone was called „S” for that reason.

So if there ever was a peak with iPhones, it was with the iPhone 3G, and it just went downhill from there ;)

Pro features in a mini device (specifically, 120hz oled AOD). LiDAR with real applications. Non-emergency satellite use/oceanic connectivity. 30+ hour battery life. Extreme ruggedness (I wouldn't mind "portless" if it meant everlasting 50M waterproofing).

I haven't thought about "carplay for bikes" but as e-bikes get more sophisticated, it may make sense.

I think it’s easy to forget the supply chain challenges and how Apple didn’t really have an issue with them for iPhone.

Wall St demands iPhones. Any trip-up from a supply chain issue would kill the stock. I’m sure the company is being very conservative.

You probably wouldn't want to use an iphone for a bike computer anyway. The vibrations of being mounted to handle bars can apparently damage the cameras. Much better to just spend a small amount on an actual bike computer, these days they all connect to apps on your phone can can make use of real maps navigation and show notifications from your phone.

I’m thinking about the use case for normies who don’t picture anything when you say “bike computer”. There’d need to be solid ecosystem support - the device would need to be vibration hardened (I’m sure they could make $$$$ on that alone), there would need to be great mounting and charging options, a bike version of collision detection, bike-optimized turn-by-turn, and probably integration with bike telematics+rear collision systems, when that inevitably becomes a thing. It should probably double as a dash cam using the cool wide angle stuff they’ve shown with continuity camera.

Wouldn’t it be great if your phone could call 911 automatically when the guy rolling coal on you decides to just run you down?

See that would be an interesting feature to add. They have sensor-shift image stabilization and some sort of focusing, perhaps they could add a feature to lock all of that so it couldn’t be damaged by vibration while riding a bike.

I think it’s probably a case where they’d tell you to use the right tool for the job. The Apple Watch Ultra is their answer for fitness tracking which does everything you need for post ride analysis. It’s just missing all the live info you get from a bike computer.

But bike computers are likely always going to be nicer to use than a phone because part of what makes them good, makes them bad for normal phone usage. Their displays are quite washed out and dull but are extremely visible in direct sunlight while using minimal power.

Why not just get a cheap $20 dollar android? That's what I usually see food delivery drivers use.

Depends if you are delivering food or cycling for sport. The dedicated devices have extremely good battery life (around 20 hours screen on with gps), have connectivity for ANT+ accessories, have large physical buttons designed for use while cycling with gloves, have reflective displays with great visibility in the sun, etc.

Sure, you don’t _need_ them but they don’t cost very much compared to your other gear and the minor improvements stack up.

A reader mode that competes with e-ink would also be worth it

So the new Pro phones are capable of going down to 1 Hz refresh rate. I don’t know if the app has to opt into that but I don’t think so. My guess/hope would be that if you were not changing the image it would just slow down automatically, so perhaps things like the Kindle app would benefit without a change?

They didn’t have to manually opt into the 120 Hz smooth scrolling.

It’s still an emissive screen, but it’s better than an emissive screen that is refreshing 60 times a second.

Using a 11 pro max, is there any legit reason to upgrade?

The usual. Faster, better camera, the various new features like the satellite and emergency communications. The high refresh rate display might be a really good improvement.

The small upgrades build over the years, so you would notice a difference. But it’s nothing massive like when they went from LCD to OLED or added the plus size.

There’s nothing wrong with an 11 Pro. If it’s still working for you it’s perfectly reasonable.

Not that I can really see. I’m still using an iPhone X and don’t really feel a need to upgrade yet.

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