I downgraded to an iPhone 11 Pro Max – and there’s not much I’m missing

“I was extremely worried about downgrading to a phone from four years ago, but it turns out I’m totally fine (…)”

Whenever I read stuff like this I really wonder who these people are. Are you using your phone to host your billion dollar AI startup? To fold enzymes in real time so you can finally put an end to some disease? What do you worry about (extremely!) when you consider an older phone?

My iPhone 6s is still working fine after 7th year birthday. It had under warranty battery + screen replacement at the end of 2nd Year, followed by a battery swap at 4th year. Around 2% pixels are dead, but the phone still works as expected. It has 4G, so data speed is also not an issue. No lag whatsoever. All my apps continue to work. I have come across only ONE generative-image app, which failed to install claiming need iOS 16+.

Now I am actively waiting for this hardware to FAIL so I can justify myself buying a latest model. :)

IIRC only version 15 has USB-C support, so you're missing being able to charge (... without having to carry around a separate charger that is incompatible with everything else out there. And you'll need to take a charger with you everywhere as the battery on a 3 or 4 year old phone is probably at or close to 1000 cycles)

I am still using the iPhone 11 Pro Max and haven't felt motivated to upgrade yet. Other than the battery life, which drops to around 20% after a day of normal usage, everything else still works flawlessly. I feel like I've saved a lot of money and have been able to spend it elsewhere :-D

I’m surprised that nobody mentioned satellite SOS on iPhone 14 and presumably newer. One would be my next upgrade when the iPhone 8 quits. It won’t take ios17 for better or worse, and still takes very fine 28mm equivalent photos, some of my nicest, despite all my camera gear. Right place, right time. I DO carry an 8X zoom lumix almost all the time. It’s smaller than a phone except for thickness, a BIG DEAL with phones. I have “deep pockets” in the non-money sense.

And, I often carry the old coolpix, with 24-1000mm equivalent focal length. Just not in the car during the summer, for the same reason you don’t leave CD’s sitting on the dashboard when parked.

A family was hiking nearby in hot weather. Despite being experienced hikers (or perhaps overconfident because of their experience) they needed rescue. Cellular signal was absent, and a satellite SOS probably would have saved them. Lesson learned.

Nobody uses CB or FRS, though less the satellite capability, leaving one the ranger and taking the other is better than nothing, perhaps.

I remember playing phone tag many times, with public phones. Cellular has saved vast amounts of anxiety and frustration. IMO, satellite SOS, when you’re out of range of cell coverage (which is much of where I live) is the next game changer, not AI processing of photos, nor other doodads.

Zoom is relative to the “normal” wide 24mm equivalent, so for lots of extra money, (pro) you can get “3X” or 77mm or for tons of extra money, (max) you get 5X or 120 mm. equivalent.

Finally, cameras are generally made to last, and not be flipped every few years.

Usb-c has been the most exciting and most impactful to my daily usage change for this device since probably going back as far as the 4S or 7.

It’s wild to think this would have shipped with lightning without government pressure.

Still prefer the size and shape of the 11 Pro to my 13 Pro. The only reason I upgraded was because Verizon gave it to me during a 5G upgrade promotion. 5G is really nice for use as a hotspot, but otherwise, I would probably still have the 11 Pro (which is the first iPhone that had an acceptable camera in my opinion).

First generation iPhone SE here. It makes calls and does a bunch of other stuff too! Nice and small, headphone jack.

Recently had the battery replaced for $49.

I just upgraded from an iPhone 11 (non Pro) to 15 Pro. Doesn’t feel much different at all but I appreciate the better camera and usb-c charging. The screen and refresh rate are nice but it’s something I only really feel when I go back to the old phone. Overall it’s a smaller difference than any previous upgrade I’ve made; it’s not like the early days when every iphone was much better than the last. Previously I’ve owned the original, 3G, 3GS, 4, 4S, 6S+ and 11. Aside from wanting usb-c, I could have waited until current version ios support ended and even then, upgraded to a 2 year old model.

A similar thing happened to me a year ago when buying an iPhone for a relative who valued battery life. The obvious choice was the new iPhone SE, but because of the better chips and display, the battery life was 3h59m, compared to 6h41m for a boring old iPhone 12 from 2 years' prior!

Intentionally seeking an old iPhone felt unintuitive at the time, but the hour or two's research paid massive dividends - the older model iPhone is perfect for the user; the extra 2h40m battery makes a massive difference day to day.

I've stuck with my iphone 11 forever now because I was hoping newer iphones would have slimmer camera lenses. Doesn't look like they'll ever go back unfortunately.

Still using an 1st-gen SE and dreading the upgrade as it means my phone will get ~30% bigger and heavier.

In the past year (singular) it has become infuriatingly slow to a point where even music will stutter when multitasking (!!!) and i really hate the ios product managers for this intentional breakage. But it has a headphone jack that nobody else has :)

I guess the camera quality will noticeably improve.

I was surprised at how similar the new 15 Pro looks and feels to the 11 Pro I used to carry. I also miss the gold color way of the 13 Pro.

I just upgraded to a 15 Pro but have my past 3 iPhones in reaching distance: 12 Mini, XS, SE. The 12 Mini is/was great for portability. But the small screen bugged me enough over time (cramped typing/reading) to move forward with an upgrade. Also, my increasingly bad eyes prefer some extra real estate!

Authors Conclusion: If upgraded hardware features are not for you then there is no point upgrading.

A lot of the apps I use will not work on older iPhones. I have no doubt in my mind that every app on my iPhone 12 could work on an iPhone 6, but Apple has pushed and forced those developers to make the support of older phones obsolete.

i buy the cheapest android phone every 5 years, i get to keep my headphone jack too

I make multiple PPTs per day from my iPhone while on teams calls most of the day, remote into other simulation computers, and edit video compilations, etc..

Every upgrade makes this ‘work from phone’ life easier to digest.

I am using my Samsung Note 8 while my Fold 4 has the fluff in the hinge extracted. It works ok but the storage memory is an issue.

The 120 Hz refresh is something I slightly noticed and did appreciate when upgrading. Now when going back to an older device 60 Hz is jarring.

For probably most people, other than those who just like to have the latest, these are the reasons that probably drive most upgrades from a still working phone:

1. They want more storage.

2. They want a wireless technology that their old phone lacks, such as 5G or newer WiFi or Bluetooth features.

3. They want a better camera.

4. They want a higher resolution screen.

5. They want longer battery life.

6. They want a different size.

7. They want different SIM options.

8. They want different biometrics.

9. They want more speed.

10. They want to get an OS upgrade and the OS upgrade requires a newer phone.

11. They want to get a new app and the new app requires a newer phone, or requires an OS that requires a newer phone.

For many of these we are fast reaching or have reached the point where for most of us the phones already do everything we want in those areas.

For instance for me personally:

1. Storage stopped being an issue long ago. My biggest use of storage was for my music library so I could listen at work. Even if I still worked in an office I would no longer need that much storage because most of what is in my library is also on Spotify. I only need my library for that handful of albums that are not on Spotify.

2. I can't recall running into a situation where I noticed cellular or WiFi on my phone was limiting me, on either my current iPhone X or my prior 6 plus.

4. Screen resolution in modern phones has long been above the limits of what my aging eyes can distinguish.

5. Battery life has been fine for me for a long time.

That leaves these things that might get me to upgrade. First, there are these where I don't need to upgrade, but I would appreciate these things:

3. Better camera. Most of the time my iPhone X camera is fine, but I sometimes would like better autofocus, and the dark modes which were introduced not long after the iPhone X came out would be nice.

6. My iPhone X size is fine now, but as I get older and have more trouble with small print I might want a larger phone.

7. There have been times I would have appreciated dual SIMs.

8. I definitely prefer Face ID to Touch ID. Apparently I suck at hand drying, so for a minute or so after washing my hands I cannot unlock my iPad with Touch ID. If I was not already on a phone with Face ID this then might be a reason to upgrade.

Second, there are these things that may make an upgrade necessary:

9. Speed. For the last 10+ years every computing device that I have upgraded because I need more speed has been due to the web getting too slow on the old device. I don't think websites have yet run out of ways to make their sites consume more processing power, so am expecting this to continue driving upgrades.

10. I'm fine with the features that have been in the OS for a while, but eventually an old OS stops getting security updates.

11. Similar to #10.

Put it all together then these are by far the most likely reasons I'll upgrade:

• I have to because of software (web gets too slow or security updates stop).

• I want a better camera.

There's a good chance that after I do upgrade from the iPhone X, the new camera will be good enough that only software will drive future upgrades.