Other Anyone NOT upgrading this year?

[JM]

I feel like the people making a big deal over $50 should probably not be worrying about the latest phone...

I feel like people who think they know better than everyone else should keep their haughty opinions to themselves.

 

[JM]

This is another story, especially in the current times. But as I said, not judging anyone’s financial situation/management, I am just surprised that 7% of the entire price of something which by default will be used for a prolonged period of time can be such a big deal.

Ah yes. Knowing everything must be real nice for you.

I hope my explanation helped you understand. 👍

 

[WRXHokie]

I'm seriously considering going with a Samsung Note 20 Ultra. The iPhone just hasn't had many real changes in the last few years and i want more customization. Being someone that already is in the Google ecosystem, i'm just struggling to find reasons not to switch. Apple watch is really the only thing holding me back at this point.

 

[7enderbender]

Awful. I'll keep clinging to my 6s and will see if I can put an 8 in storage. These new ones are unusable for me. I need a fingerprint reader and I will certainly not carry a phone that has magnets in it as that will at one point or another destroy one of my nice mechanical watches. How stupid. I'm locked into the Apple universe with my family fro apps and calendar sharing, FT etc, otherwise I'd buy something different.

 

[darngooddesign]

Can you imagine if the new phones suffer from antenna-gate? LOL

 

[MadeTheSwitch]

I’m not upgrading. I am still really happy with my XR. I doubt i will even consider unpgrading until at least iPhone 14.

 

[fathergll]

I have an iPhone 8. Two major issues from upgrading

1. iPhone 8 has been the best iPhone I ever had by a country mile. It's still extremely quick and despite not having a case on it for 3 years it's in really good condition. Every other iPhone in the past would be damaged and slow in a 3 year period.
2. The covid lockdowns has made my phone far less used than pre lockdown. The question on upgrading now for me is....whats the point? I don't need to use the phone on the go im in a lockdown and work from home so I'd rather use my 5k iMac and Windows 10 machine.

*Edit* Just found out I won't return to the office until June 2021 at the earliest. As much as a new iPhone would be cool I wouldn't even be using it much until next summer at the earliest which means iPhone 13 is a few months after that.

 

[icemantx]

I’m sticking with my 11 pro.

 

[Momof2.1107]

This is my depression post: it seemed like the perfect spot here.

I was ALL on board to get a new phone this year. It would have been the first year since getting my first iphone in 2013 with the 5c, where I paid full retail. It was $550. We had NEVER paid that much money for a phone because we were pretty broke for four years, but had just made it into a better career where we had some extra money to spend and we needed smartphones.

Ever since then, it's been free iphone promotions through carriers, or screaming iphone 7 deal for $350 through best buy when the 8 was released.....

Today, I had enough money saved up to confidently spend $650, but i DID NOT want to waste my money on a iphone unless I absolutely LOVED it. I love the mini. It's perfect. Small. Light (As light as the 3gs... look it up yourself).

What I needed this year was more battery life. The iphone 7 was bad on iOS 13, and it's even worse on iOS 14. I get 3.5 hours average screen on time for last ten days. That sucks.

But what I DON'T need is a damn brick in my pocket.

So, the mini seems just about perfect! It's battery life is somewhere in the middle between the SE and the 11 (depending on metric... again, look it up on tech specs Apple page).

What isn't perfect is the $699 price with 64 GB of storage. Starting at $650 with 64 GB, or $699 with 128GB would have been palatable, as I only have that $650 pricepoint I could comfortably spend with savings.

And no I don't have a phone to trade-in because I got screwed by Verizon's "free" iphone 7 last year where they just give you 24 months of bill credits. The only clear information I can get is that MAYBE my credits will disappear if I trade the phone in and will be billed for the $200 still left due on the "free" phone. I'm screwed and can't do any trade-in promotions until the "free" phone is "paid off" by Verizon's bill credits. It SUCKS.

So, here I was all excited to finally be able to get a BRAND NEW iPHONE, the NEWEST one out there at 2am PREORDER..... Finally.

But no. It's $699. It's depressing because the 11 was $699 last year and Apple couldn't price the 12 this year at $699, with the mini $50 or $100 less. It sucks. I was expecting $650.... I'm very disappointed now and bummed and depressed that it wasn't $650.

Now I have to decide to hold onto my cracked screen 7 with terrible battery life, or spend $399 for an SE that is NOT what I would love. I HATE the curved edges. It's slippery and hurts my hands when I have to hold it tightly to keep it from falling out my hand.

So, yeah, depressed because I feel like there is NO GOOD OPTIONS this year for me.

I may not upgrade this year and just hold on to my decrepit, gimpy 7.


If anyone has any information on trading in a phone with Verizon or Apple that is still getting bill credits, please let me know. I don't know if the bill credits end if I trade in the phone or sell it, and Verizon agents aren't helpful because the 3 or 4 I've talked to can't give me a knowledgeable answer.

This sucks. I was so ready to buy a new iPhone full retail.

I just checked my account for my SE2020 if I wanted to upgrade to the 12 Pro Max through Verizon and you are right about paying the device off before upgrading. I don’t want to lose out on the $16.66 in bill credits that I receive, so I have to pay outright with Apple even if I didn’t want to. I hope your financial situation changes and your are able to get the 12 Mini.

 

[MadeTheSwitch]

So, the mini seems just about perfect! It's battery life is somewhere in the middle between the SE and the 11 (depending on metric... again, look it up on tech specs Apple page).

What isn't perfect is the $699 price with 64 GB of storage. Starting at $650 with 64 GB, or $699 with 128GB would have been palatable, as I only have that $650 pricepoint I could comfortably spend with savings.

So, you might be able to find some good deals before Christmas. A lot of stores throw in things like $50 gift cards that you could use to buy someone a present, thus breaking even with your desired price point. So you might have more options that you think. You just will have to waint until next month to see them.

 

[dinggus]

Thanks for such an uninformed post. Yes I did write the post because of $50 more than what I was hoping for.

according to the rumors and stories posted on Macrumors, the BOE fail-screens will be in the mix later this year. I'm tired of the iPhone roulette of getting terrible screen issues because Apple has to use several different suppliers and some of those suppliers are not as good as others.

so even if my financial situation fit into your assumptions, I would still have an undesirable situation with the screens.

my financial situation for buying this phone was saving up Christmas and birthday money and selling old things that I have. My work money goes straight into bills or savings.

The XR is two years old. No.
the 11 is too big. No.
the SE has battery life similar to the 7 it seems (or not enough of a jump to warrant spending $400 for)

I have zero options and it's depressing.

You're throwing the word depressing around like it's causing you to be emotional. You have 3 options; replace your battery (I'd suggest this route), buy SE 2020, or buy the phone you want and put whatever you had saved towards it.

But, I hope whatever you're going through that you can overcome it.

 

[rui no onna]

I’m not upgrading. I am still really happy with my XR. I doubt i will even consider unpgrading until at least iPhone 14.

Wasn't planning on upgrading a paid-off XR but AT&T is offering $800 discount with monthly bill credits after trade-in. For the cost of tax, reckon we'll jump on the iPhone 12 on this one.

 

[kepler20b]

Ive got an 8+

money isn't an issue

I thought leading up to the event it was an easy upgrade. Now I think ill hold off for another year.

for me the biggest draw is the OLED + 5.4 + new antenna bands. But I know that the 5.4 iPhone is going to get so many battery cycles in vs the 6.1 you are going to end up wanting to replace the battery pretty quickly or to replace the phone by year 2.

touchID would've absolutely pushed me over to upgrade.

I think ill wait for the reviews this time and try and hold out for next year.


things in the review that would push me over:
~say 10-25% better faceid (not likely)
~5.4" iPhone battery not an issue (maybe to not likely)

 

[macrumors3000]

Apple will release SE Plus 5G this coming spring.

 

[iScone]

I have a XS Max and definitely won't be upgrading. I remember when I used to upgrade every year! Now that seems laughable.

 

[pavelbure]

I have a XS Max and definitely won't be upgrading. I remember when I used to upgrade every year! Now that seems laughable.

I think I'll be doing the same. I was going to upgrade, but after doing a comparison it really does not seem worth it right now.

 

[Gator5000e]

I’ll be upgrading my X for the regular Pro. I’m ready to kiss the Intel modem goodbye (I hope the QC modem makes a difference). If it wasn’t for that, I’d probably hang on to the X.

 

[Septembersrain]

I'm absolutely not. Smaller mAh on the Pro Max plus 5G and missing accessories? Hard pass. My 11 Pro Max is still going past strong. 99% battery health and I'm enjoying my jailbreak. We'll see next year.

 

[MisterAndrew]

I think I'm going to keep my iPhone 11 Pro for at least another year. I still have AppleCare+ on it and I don't see many compelling reasons to upgrade. We don't have 5G in Oregon yet.

 

[CrazyForCashews]

Was dead set on upgrading from my OG iPhone SE to the Mini but I’m not a fan of FaceID and I’ll wait until Apple implements TouchID back into the iPhone like they did with the new Air.

 

[mdjasrie]

I am on the fence this year. I mean, 5G is great and all, but where I live, it is still in the infant stage and still on trial. But the upgrades doesn’t really improve the way I use my current iPhone, the 11 Pro Max.

 

[glindon]

I think this will be the first time I don’t buy a new phone. I’ve got an 11 pro and frankly this years upgrade seems like a whimper.

Slightly better camera and pretty much only if you buy the Max.

The cpu upgrade is so marginal that they pretty much glossed over it and waxed on about ML improvements but didn’t really show anything application wise that needed it. Same with LIDAR.

5G is just not really important at all to most people. It’s certainly not the leap from 3g to 4g where it made the difference of 10s of seconds to load a web page or download a song. And most places aren’t going to have great coverage anyway.

MagSafe, another accessory I’d have to buy to use. Yawn.

 

[brgjoe]

Was already leaning toward "not" and these phones didn't make me change my mind.

No USB-C, no TouchID in any form, no 120hz screen, same yuge notch. Definitely will wait another year. Or at least until the rumored SE Plus gets released.

Looks like next year is the one where there will be more significant upgrades.

 

[cardfan]

I am on the fence this year. I mean, 5G is great and all, but where I live, it is still in the infant stage and still on trial. But the upgrades doesn’t really improve the way I use my current iPhone, the 11 Pro Max.

Some 5g is great and all. The limited Verizon areas? Great. If you don’t walk more than a block away from it or can keep a signal.

The 5g areas touted by att? Not good at all. It’s worse than their enhanced 4g.

It’s great Apple released 5g as things don’t really seem to evolve til Apple gets on board. Right now 5g is a gimmick.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

I feel like the people making a big deal over $50 should probably not be worrying about the latest phone...

This is another story, especially in the current times. But as I said, not judging anyone’s financial situation/management, I am just surprised that 7% of the entire price of something which by default will be used for a prolonged period of time can be such a big deal.

Don’t forget it’s not always about affordability and everything to do with principle. The Pro for example is only £200 more than the 12 but plenty don’t like the idea of a £1k phone so simply don’t buy it.