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iPad Pro How do you fight the urge to upgrade?...

My wife and I have had the same problem ever since we went Apple in 2015. The Apple Upgrade Plan made our iPhone upgrades yearly instead of every other year. We promised we'd only upgrade every other year but when that email came to upgrade early and was so painless, we've been upgrading yearly, much to Apple's delight, I'm sure.

I have to agree with other posters here, lack of funds has to be the primary motivator to me myself for not upgrading. I found that when times were good financially, my desire to upgrade was very strong and ... we did.

I used to justify spending so much on Apple products because I used them every hour of the day (and still do).

My friends who don't upgrade very often, I find they don't rely on their devices as often or as much as I do. (My own experience).

Like others have said in this thread, Apple making incremental upgrades (iPad Pro 11, for example) will make not upgrading even easier. That and I'm getting tired of always upgrading. I justified a lot of my upgrading over the last year because I sold/gave my Apple tech to family - but now they're all satiated.

Looking at last year, there's no way I want to or can keep up the level of tech buying that I was doing. My wife and I are more resolute than ever to just keep what we have for several years before even thinking about upgrading.

For example, our 2017 MBPs are approaching 2 years old and ... they're working perfectly. No need or want to upgrade.
 
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It all depends on if the advancement is good enough for you. I stuck with my iPhone 6 until the 8 Plus was launched.

I didn’t upgrade to the X because it was the first iteration of its kind. Instead I upgraded to the Xs Max next year because it was a refined version.

Then I upgraded to the 11 Pro because the plus size was becoming increasingly annoying and since I didn’t get used to the size even after 2 consecutive years I realised the normal model is the perfect size for me. Plus the camera upgrade on the Pro alone was worth the upgrade for me.
 
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Kal-037 said:
For me I have a very difficult time fighting off the urge to buy the newest tech. I’m just curious how anyone here is able to stick with older iPads, Macs, and iPhones. How dourge without giving in and buying the newest or latest or greatest?



Kallum.
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Simple? Pandemic, loss of jobs, Unknown financial future, unknown health future, maturity, don’t even think about buying.
 
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achappy said:
When I realized that new doesn't mean better. For me it was with the iPhone X and iPP 10.5. Both of those devices are still extremely fast, work perfectly for my needs and there's nothing in the newer models that make me want to upgrade. When I compare them to current models, the newer ones don't offer anything in my day to day usage. My wife is still on a 7+ and she loves it and my son is on an XR.

Plus I got tired of the whole upgrade process. Even though I always got maximum value on eBay for my old devices, I was tired of the yearly hustle of selling the old device. Plus when you add other family members to that cycle and it becomes too much.
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This. I used to be on the 1-2 year upgrade. Then I sat down and realized how much I was wasting for not a lot of return.

I kept my iPhone X (I may go for the SE2) because $1000 for a phone anymore isn’t good for me.

I’m using the 10.5” iPad Pro. I got it b/c at the time it was the only one w  pencil support. It’s still super fast and responsive. I’ll keep it till it doesn’t do what I need.

15” MBP (non touchbar). It does more than I need it to. When it dies I’ll prolly go for the new air line.

 watch series 1. This one is tempting me to upgrade. I won’t lie. I’m keeping a look out for a 4 or 5.

Again, for me, I can’t keep dropping all this $$$ on items every year. I just can’t afford it. 3 kids and a wife have helped me slow down. It’s all about being content and perspective.
 
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if you can hold out one gen, it gets easier for subsequent generations assuming your gear is working great. its toughest at first.

my rundown:

have a 2017 12.9" w/ ASK and it has backlight bleed but otherwise works great on iOS 13.3
No way Im going to spend $1400 something + tax for a true upgrade ($999 12.9 + $350 for Magic Keyboard + upper $100 for the pencil 2) when I'm already really happy with what I got for ~$700 and change I laid out 3 years ago and am still getting great utility from ($100 off PM with iPad from around launch with cc company, and under $100 ASK from eBay that I had to get replaced so effectively new, and re purposed pencil from 9.7 pro). I like Touch ID on my iPad too.

have an iPad mini 5 and I'm doubtful it would be upgraded for some time despite rumors, according to gap between iPad mini 4, and even if it does I'm loving this thing and gonna give it a good run. Feels like iPad mini 2 for me, good enough to not need to move for a long while. Also helped that I Sold my 9.7 pro to pay for 3/4th of this that I had for years.

my XR is still a champ with battery and performance on 13.3 as well. I love the blue color too haven't been this happy with an apple color decision for a while. Have a gift card ready to use to make my next iPhone cheaper (from X), but also not burning a hole in my pocket. don't wanna go less than 128gb I don't think either. My spare 7+ subsidized this one and made it like a $500 upgrade at launch which was cool. Was pretty happy with my X, except it being a smaller experience visibility wise than my Plus phones I was used to , PWM being a sore to my eyes over time, and battery life. XR addressed all three things I found as weak spots so I upgraded. If not for that, I might still be on X as well.

...2020 MBAir on the way, have to admit I'm all too curious to have an apple laptop with keyboard key travel again even though butterfly hasn't been terrible for me personally I've never not had at least some gripes with it / find it fatiguing over time on 2016 NTB. x86 machines I don't get year over year lust, I dial in a machine and use it for years on end. maximize utility like my iPad upgrade cycle gaps, increasingly. Remains to be seen if ill trade my 2016 NTB to subsidize this or just keep it and make Air my new daily. It would be nice to have a backup computer also. For whatever. But that made my purchase that much more filled with options. I upgrade my laptop on a good run every 3-5 years.

Apple Watch series 4, cheapened a bit by selling series 1 at launch of s4, and dont care at all for the same thing with series 5 but always on display. No FOMO at all, I'll get whatever gen watch is out when my watch breaks down, like ill get night mode on an upgraded iPhone eventually.. as its not a necessity / the redesign still makes it feel fresh for me

AirPods gen 1. same deal, going to run it into the ground and when batteries are degraded ill probably get whatever the generation is of the time that can replace them. Don't like IEM so probably not pro's.

HomePod gen 1. No gen 2 yet, and got it for $200 well over a year ago and don't care what gen 2 offers even acoustically. the sound is fantastic, thats all I want out of my 'smart' speaker honestly.

Apple TV gen 4 1080p's. They sit in the box and barely get used as is. No need for the 4k, even with 4k OLED's. But they are permanently jailbreakable which could be a fun project.

--

the tl;dr is trading old gear (whether lazily handing it to apple, or reselling myself), finding sales, usually going base model, and trying to make sense of, marketing aside, whats in it for me specifically and what utility I will get from spending a lot of dough for a luxury priced electronic vs. realizing I'm caving to shiny new thing feeling we all have when a new product launches. I genuinely think most upgrades I deem incremental has saved tons for my wallet, as much as I gripe I'd like to see more innovation and this and that.

My order of importance of lust
1- iPhone
....

Some clustered order I would likely change for the rest of them . Get more lusty about big generational body changes with Macs more than one iPad generation to another at this point since iPad isn't in its infancy any more as a product line and hasn't been for a while.
 
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For me it’s difficult to not upgrade. It’s only recently with the xs max that I didn’t upgrade. The reason is not cash because I make way more than I’ve ever, it’s just knowing the jump between generations are so little. Now I did buy the 2020 iPad Pro 11. I wanted something smaller and wife needed an iPad 2018 12.9 for studying. i
That’s how I justified the purpose.
 
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When I realize spending too much time on these things can contribute to a sedentary lifestyle, taking away from activities like walking, hiking, biking, and outdoor life. Frequent upgrades make you want to get the most out of these expensive purchases, resulting in even more screen time.
 
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Kal-037 said:
For me I have a very difficult time fighting off the urge to buy the newest tech. I’m just curious how anyone here is able to stick with older iPads, Macs, and iPhones. How dourge without giving in and buying the newest or latest or greatest?



Kallum.
Click to expand...

I guess it's a behavior you learn since you're a kid.

I have money to buy every single iPad on the lineup every single year since 2010, and I don't. I have two iPads (iPad1, iPad Air1) a MacBook (2006) and a MacMini (2012). I'm a physicist (Matlab, LaTeX) and do editorial design (printed magazines, books, typography, InDesign, Affinity Photo an Designer, Capture One Pro). I really don't need to upgrade every year, I don't have time to fiddle around instead of working
 
For me, I have trouble during the launch windows and the lead up to them. I get excited and want it “now.”

I've found that shortly after the launch it gets easier to say to myself “I can wait longer.”

I kept my iPhone 6+ for an extra year because I knew a 10th anniversary iPhone would launch the following year. The X launched and that’s what I upgraded to after 3 happy years with my 6+.

That experience has helped me hold onto my X for longer. To the point that I’m even heavily considering keeping it until the 2021 iPhone launches.

i didn’t find it as difficult to hold off on an iPad, though. I just bought a 2020 Pro and my previous iPad was a mini 2. I think that’s because I have plenty of other devices that fill that need, to a degree. But I was ready for a new one this year so I jumped on that.

I’m sure there’s some psychological prognosis for this and proper ways of Dealing with it so you don’t go broke. I’m no professional in that area. So I just tell myself to wait and it works out most of the time.... gonna be hard not to buy a PS5 or XB Series X this fall/holiday. 🤷🏼‍♂️😂
 
I don't fight it. I'm responsible with my money and it's a splurge I enjoy treating myself to. I don't spend money on other things many other people spend a lot on. Also, for the iPhone upgrade program it's a little over $2 a day.

That being said I have no desire to upgrade from my 2018 iPad Pro. It's still a great piece of tech.
 
Nowadays, resisting is pretty easy. You can tell when something is game changing and when its just another bump.

IPhone X = XS = 11
iPad Pro 2018 = 2019
Apple Watch 4 = 5
AirPods 1 = 2

Also, return policies. If its not a substantially better upgrade then return it.
 
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AutomaticApple said:
I would've expected people to be more mature when buying electronics.
Click to expand...

Sure, that would be cool to have, especially in tougher times like these where purchasing the latest consumer stuff isn’t really on top of mind for many people - one would hope that people re-evaluate their consumer habits to a degree.
 
I just... do.
I love new tech and I can afford it, but I was raised not to waste money, so I need to have a legitimate justification to make a large purchase.
 
iPad is such a great and powerful device for years that I only really upgrade when there is a significant change (with the exception of ipad pro 9.7”. My first iPad was iPad 2 then I bought iPad Air 2. I had a MacBook Air at the time with no Retina display (this was late 2016 I wanna say) but I decided I wanted a Retina display so I sold my MacBook and iPad Air 2 and bought a 13” non-touchbar MacBook Pro.

After a couple months of that I realized the MacBook pro was overkill for my needs and I preferred a tablet form factor so I sold it and bought a 9.7“ iPad pro. That served my needs for a couple years (a little shy of two) and then I bought the 11” when it came out after deciding the 12.9 was probably too big (bad choice maybe idk).

This year is pretty easy to not upgrade because not much has changed. I want to try the LiDAR thing but not enough to spend another $1000 I don’t have.

Phones I upgrade yearly, selling the old one usually helps cover the cost. I will likely change that habit this year though, my 11 pro is doing fantastically.
 
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I really haven't felt the urge much since the 2000s, the last time I really felt an urge to buy was when the 27" iMac came out, and I held off on that for 9 years.
 
sonicrobby said:
I’m just not a fan of paying monthly for the phone for the rest of my life. I prefer one lump sum for lower monthly expenses.
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The iPhone upgrade program doesn't have to be the rest of your life. If you make 24 payments you own the phone and you're done. If you want to upgrade and keep paying you also can.
 
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I didn't fight. I had a 256GB 10.5 iPad Pro LTE. I upgraded to the 256GB iPad Pro 11" (2020). Still haven't found a buyer for the old one, but so far I'm pleased with my decision.
 
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