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iPhone 8/Plus Did You Upgrade to an 8 from a 7?

newellj

newellj

macrumors G3
Original poster
Oct 15, 2014
8,156
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East of Eden
I'm wondering how many here upgraded to an 8 from a 7. (I'm not really thinking about the upgrade from the 7 Plus to the 8 Plus, which I think might be more understandable because the camera improvements seem more obvious in that case.)

I had an 8 for about a week and a half and didn't find much that was different, other than that it suffered from the same notification issues I had with the X (which reportedly have now been fixed with 11.2.5, released yesterday).

I've mostly been an annual upgrader but I had several issues with the X and the 8 just doesn't seem compelling when you are already using a 7. All opinions welcome.
 
akash.nu said:
What notification issue?
Click to expand...

Not getting banners on the lock screen.

jav6454 said:
Why doesn't the 8 compel you?
Click to expand...

What I see in comparison to the 7:

- tweaked camera (not compelling)

- inductive charging (not compelling at all, and the glass back is a drawback)

- huge speed increase (nice in theory, but nothing I do with a phone benefits in any way I will notice)

- TrueTone display (VERY nice, but if that's the reason I'm upgrading, that's a lot to pay for TT)

YMMV, and I'm interested in other thoughts for sure.
 
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newellj said:
What I see in comparison to the 7:

- tweaked camera (not compelling)

- inductive charging (not compelling at all, and the glass back is a drawback)

- huge speed increase (nice in theory, but nothing I do with a phone benefits in any way I will notice)

- TrueTone display (VERY nice, but if that's the reason I'm upgrading, that's a lot to pay for TT)

YMMV, and I'm interested in other thoughts for sure.
Click to expand...

Good reasons. I understand
 
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In my opinion it’s almost never worth it to upgrade in just a single generation. I got an excellent three years out of my 6 before upgrading to an 8 Plus.

If a phone was ever any good it will be good for at least 2 or 3 years. Then you’ll enjoy a real upgrade in performance and features, not just slightly faster, slightly better camera and whatever that year’s gimmick is.
 
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joeblow7777 said:
In my opinion it’s almost never worth it to upgrade in just a single generation. I got an excellent three years out of my 6 before upgrading to an 8 Plus.

If a phone was ever any good it will be good for at least 2 or 3 years. Then you’ll enjoy a real upgrade in performance and features, not just slightly faster, slightly better camera and whatever that year’s gimmick is.
Click to expand...

Exactly.! iPhone since the 6, or maybe the 6S, all will fall under this category.
 
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Nope. My 7 works just fine and the 8 wasn't worth the upgrade. Had Apple actually done something worthy of upgrading (like a 1080p screen and 3 gigs of RAM), I would've.
 
I upgraded from my iPhone 7 to an 8, but now I’m back on the 7. Not completely fair, because it’s a 7 Plus which does offer the benefit of a bigger screen and dual cameras (never used Portrait before, love it).

Also, I’ve got Jet Black again which makes this my favorite iPhone design ever. The closer it gets to a single piece design, the better. The X is kind of the opposite of that.
 
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newellj said:
Not getting banners on the lock screen.



What I see in comparison to the 7:

- tweaked camera (not compelling)

- inductive charging (not compelling at all, and the glass back is a drawback)

- huge speed increase (nice in theory, but nothing I do with a phone benefits in any way I will notice)

- TrueTone display (VERY nice, but if that's the reason I'm upgrading, that's a lot to pay for TT)

YMMV, and I'm interested in other thoughts for sure.
Click to expand...
Just goes to show that opinions can vary. I’m clearly on the other side of the fence on every point, displaying that everyone has different needs. Neither of us are right, we simply reacted differently to the changes.

-Love the new camera. Noticeable upgrade over the 7 from my usage.

-Wireless charging is my favorite new feature since TouchID. Can’t live without it now.

-Didn’t notice a huge speed increase. Same speed as my 7 on iOS 10.

-TrueTone makes my eyes cry yellow tears of disgust.
 
The only reason I updated from a 7 to an 8 was because my 7 got stolen and I was using a 5s as backup. That was painful. If I had the 7 still I wouldn't have updated.
 
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I just finally upgraded from my 16 GB iPhone 5 to a 256 GB iPhone 7.

Not much difference really for my daily use. My only motivating factor was capacity.

My 160 GB iPod classic was recently stolen. And the price of a comparable iPod put me into the realm of newer iPhones.

So I chose to go with a dual purpose concept. Put all my music on the new phone and it can serve as an iPod replacement in my car. And it’ll come out of the car with me when I stop places... compared to me always leaving the iPod in my car because who wanted to carry it everywhere I stopped.

Was never a problem before. Nobody cared. It was too ancient for anybody to break into a car for. I know who took it, and simply put its about headgames with an ex. And I don’t care to play into the game. So not pursuing it.

But... the 256 GB iPhone 7 makes a great combination mobile iPod and phone.

In daily use as a phone, e mail, texting, web browsing, and apps... I really can’t say I find anything compellingly different or better. Performance feels the same. Function is the same. Just slightly physically larger.

I’ve run down the comparison charts for all the phones. And there was no compelling reason to go higher than the iPhone 7.

Honestly... if my iPhone 5 had 256 GB of storage, I wouldn’t have bothered to replace it.
 
flyinmac said:
I just finally upgraded from my 16 GB iPhone 5 to a 256 GB iPhone 7.

Not much difference really for my daily use. My only motivating factor was capacity.

My 160 GB iPod classic was recently stolen. And the price of a comparable iPod put me into the realm of newer iPhones.

So I chose to go with a dual purpose concept. Put all my music on the new phone and it can serve as an iPod replacement in my car. And it’ll come out of the car with me when I stop places... compared to me always leaving the iPod in my car because who wanted to carry it everywhere I stopped.

Was never a problem before. Nobody cared. It was too ancient for anybody to break into a car for. I know who took it, and simply put its about headgames with an ex. And I don’t care to play into the game. So not pursuing it.

But... the 256 GB iPhone 7 makes a great combination mobile iPod and phone.

In daily use as a phone, e mail, texting, web browsing, and apps... I really can’t say I find anything compellingly different or better. Performance feels the same. Function is the same. Just slightly physically larger.

I’ve run down the comparison charts for all the phones. And there was no compelling reason to go higher than the iPhone 7.

Honestly... if my iPhone 5 had 256 GB of storage, I wouldn’t have bothered to replace it.
Click to expand...


Speed, better camera, relatively longer battery life (ha-ha)?
 
Samadd said:
Speed, better camera, relatively longer battery life (ha-ha)?
Click to expand...

Honestly, I haven’t observed any noticeable difference in any of those categories. Possibly a slightly better picture with the camera... but only marginally better image quality at least visually. But my battery life and perceived speed is about the same. My battery in the iPhone 5 had been replaced about a year ago, so it was reasonably new.
 
ACG12 said:
Nope. My 7 works just fine and the 8 wasn't worth the upgrade. Had Apple actually done something worthy of upgrading (like a 1080p screen and 3 gigs of RAM), I would've.
Click to expand...

Technically what you listed with the 1080 P screen and 3 GB of RAM does exist in the iPhone Plus version for both the iPhone 7 Plus and 8+. However, Apple is not a company that's going to implement those features into a smaller 4.7 iPhone, when they want you to upgrade to the larger, more expensive model.

You have to have a separation between the 4.7 5.5 iPhone, because if both size iPhones shared the same features, then the only real advantage with the 5.5 iPhone would be the larger display.
 
I did go from a 7 to an 8 as I like the glass back and wireless charging plus the A11 Bionic processor.
 
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