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Comment by conductr | Hacker News Reader

My thing is the battery timeline matches pretty closely to when I’m just ready for something new. I go bare, no case, so by 3-4 years my screen is scratched and scuffed enough to just do full replacement. I usually notice the speed leap too and how certain apps were severely unoptimized for my older device. So that’s nice too. But it’s not ever felt like a “upgrade” in a very long time because I don’t have any new features unlocked (not any that I use), so I’m my mind it’s a “replacement”.

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The one consumable much harder to replace is the oleophobic coating. There are drops you can buy and apply, they seem to work alright, but don't last nearly as long as the factory coating.

By year two, the screen just gets grubbier and grubbier. By year three its just plan nasty.

If you get AppleCare+ the screen replacement is $29. I usually get it replaced right before I can hand it off to my family. It's not as good a deal obviously if you don't plan on getting AppleCare+ anyways.

Do you have to break it?

Theoretically yes; but depends entirely on the mood of the employee you get.

If the drops work, then are you forgetting to reapply them every few months, or is that not viable, or what?

Seems you need to apply them about every month because they wear off so fast. And then you're looking at multiple $18 bottles per year...

It's very easy to just apply a glass screen protector which has a fresh new oleophobic coating on it.

I buy them in packs of 3-5 on ebay for $5-10. (no need to buy the really expensive brands) They are quick to replace, have a nice oleophobic coating on them, and can be replaced as frequently as desired.

Getting protectors that come with an alignment frame and running a hot shower to pull dust from the air was life-changing for me.

I’ve gone back to no case since the Ceramic Shield and it’s been great. Excited for the improvements in the next model. I hate cases and will no go back.

I tried that for a while, but I find my iPhone 13 Pro Max to be easier to operate with one hand when it has a case. The iPhone is a bit too slippery for me without it.

I used to hate the cases until I recently got one that can hold my ID and credit cards. This allowed me to retire my wallet which was very much worth it. Do you still use a wallet?

That sounds good and convenient until you loose or a thief robs you of your phone and wallet at the same time in one go. I need to use a wallet because I live in a cash first country but even of otherwise I'd still carry a wallet because I don't want a single point of failure. Like what else am I gonna do with an now empty pocket if I give up on the wallet?

The other pocket usually has my car keys. For theft, I in fact rarely use my phone to pay but usually my watch. I can do pretty much anything with the watch except CarPlay and taking photos. It has its own cel connection as well.

Aside from what the sibling says regarding theft, I still use a wallet and what I hate most about the combined wallet + phone combo is the thickness of it.

My iPhone barely fits in my jeans pocket as is. Piling 3-4 credit cards and some cash on top of that is way too much.

That's why I never get the Max and wish the Mini had seen further improvements.

Anecdote, but iPhone 13 lasted me 2 years case free before tiny crack appeared. iPhone 15 lasted 5 months until back glass completely shattered.

Not surprising because only the edges of the back glass are glued for iPhone 15 so most of the surface is just floating there without support. On prior generations the entire panel is glued.

Not sure what the justification for the change would be, if anything it does make changing the back glass much faster as there is no need to scrape or laser blast the entire surface to remove all the adhesive. It would be interesting to see if this is also the case for the 16th gen.

Classic of "easier to fix vs less likely to break".

Given how much Apple is pushing apple care (and how much they charge for back glass) - it's almost like incentives have turned around.

I’ve had the 15 Pro since launch day, and it is incredibly durable. No case, no screen protector. The screen is slightly scratched around the edges, there are a couple ~1mm^2 dings in the titanium, but aside from that, no problems. I’ve dropped it probably a hundred times, including probably a dozen or two on concrete or tile. The titanium (and whatever they’re doing with screens these days) really makes a difference.

Not sure how you are not getting scratches - here's a photo of mine https://imgur.com/a/pt5HRVl

It seems every year they are scratching even more. Not that it matters much tho.

My phone has a couple (literal 2) scratches slightly under the notch bubble, that I am fairly certain were caused by laying the phone face-first on a desk that had some kind of dirt on it, and removing the phone by sliding it off the desk (rubbing the dirt against the screen, causing the scratches). The rest of the main screen surface is pretty much scratch-free, and only the corners and edges have notable scratches (from inserting and removing the phone from my pocket - the corners pretty much always catch on the metal rivets on my jeans). I don’t keep anything in the same pocket as my phone though.

The reason screens scratch more now than in the past is the tradeoff between shatter resistance and scratch resistance. Generally speaking, it’s very hard to make glass that is both resistant to scratching and shattering at the same time - you can trade off one for the other, but you can’t have both. (Of course as material science progresses the baseline improves - I’m talking about a given point in time at a given price point). In general, it’s much easier to live with light scratches in a screen than with a shattered screen, so the majority of mid-to-high-end phones make the trade off to favour shatter resistance over scratch resistance.

Next time you’re on public transit, or in line at a restaurant, or somewhere else people frequently use phones, take note of how many have cracked screens. Compare that to a decade+ ago where it was fairly common (for me at least) to see broken phone screens. Obviously anecdotal, and could be due to a number of compounding factors, but I very rarely see broken phone screens these days.

> Next time you’re on public transit, or in line at a restaurant, or somewhere else people frequently use phones, take note of how many have cracked screens

Cool anecdotal evidence, it does actually seem to be correct based on my experiences as well.

Though imo a screen protector is very little price (in terms of losing out on stuff, not monetary wise) to pay to have that scratched instead of the screen.

I think it depends a lot on how you handle your phone. I used to have screen protectors, which would always end up scratched, coming off, etc. It was a total PITA to replace them. The last one I had was on my iPhone 7. Took it off for the last 4 years of use I've got out of that phone. The screen is still like new. For mew new phone, I didn't bother with a screen protector. It's a year and a half old now, and no scratch to report.

Screen protectors have gotten much better and much cheaper, especially for anything other than the latest model.

In any case, sounds like you have a lifestyle that doesn’t require one.

I depend on them. Really can’t tell a difference anymore with regards to feel, hue/light etc.

Weird. I get no scratches either. I do try and keep my keeps in an opposite pocket, but not always and this year as my place has been under construction, the phone has shared the pocket with all sorts of metal screws, bolts, junk, etc. still nothing.

Just upgraded to iPhone 15 Pro Max, I’m glad this phone is durable based on your experience.

Obviously anecdotal but yeah, this is by far the most durable phone I’ve owned. My 11 was the first I went caseless with, and it got pretty beat up in the first year. My 13 Pro was better, but still worse for wear after a year. The 15 Pro is probably in similar shape compared to the 11 after 3-4 months, and I have not been careful at all with this phone whereas with the 11 I most certainly was.

A few years ago I cracked my iPhone7+ screen in several places (dangerous to use any swipe features) but I wanted to wait the few months until the next iPhone revision so I just put a screen protector on it and honestly, it was quite usable. I even skipped the next refresh because you could hardly tell it was cracked with the screen protector and using the phone through that - it felt almost new.

Interestingly i felt like my last replacement was actually a downgrade.

Had the X (10) for years and it was great and compact but the face-id broke, upgraded to the 13 (because i didn't need anything in the 14/15) and now i have a phone that's too bulky, and not as comfortable to hold.

The X was simply thinner, more rounded and a way better experience, also i feel almost no difference doing day to day stuff.

I too prefer the more rounded exteriors. It feels better in the hand. I think it's just a cyclical fashion choice, was an adjustment period when it was iPhone 3 (rounded) to iPhone 4 (squared) too and it more noticeable when not cased.

It's interesting that you perceive the X to have been thinner. It's actually very slightly thicker (by 0.05mm) than the 13. The 13 is longer (by 3.1mm) and wider (by 0.6mm) though.

Rounded is much better. Now even macs are getting squareish :(

Same and totally agree with the timeline. This is the first time I have gone 3 years though and the screen hasn’t cracked, the back hasn’t cracked, the battery life is decent. These features the last 3 years haven’t sold me. I’m not spending over 1k, at least on launch day… for the first time in a very long time

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