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iPhone 15 Pro Should I Upgrade to 16e or (renewed) 15 Pro?

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maxg2356

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 19, 2025
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I currently have a 12 mini with pretty awful battery life and plan on upgrading soon. Would it be a better idea to get the 16e, or buy a renewed (excellent condition) 15 pro on Amazon for $639? I am not sure if the newer chip and the fact that the 16e would be new rather than refurb outweigh the 120hz screen and far better cameras of the 15 pro. I do not care about visual intelligence at all so I am a bit torn on this decision. I am also aware the battery on the 16e is supposed to be excellent and not sure if a refurb 15 Pro with probably around 90-93% battery health would be as good.

I am open to any and all advice, thanks!
 
I think either way you will be fine. I myself will lean towards the 15 Pro as it is probably more feature rich compared to the 6E; however, I will only pull the trigger if I can get some sort of warranty from Apple. With a new 16E, you can get apple care but I don't know the policy regarding renewed devices (especially purchased from amazon).
 
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mzlin said:
Just pulled the trigger on a 15 Pro for $540; seems like a better deal than the $599 16e
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where did you get a 15 pro for $540? I'd definitely buy that over the 16e if it had good battery health
 
Swappa. It's unlocked, listed as grade B. As with eBay you may need to check often and act quickly when a good listing comes up.
 
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I agree with @mzlin regarding Swappa. You can also inquire what the current battery health is before buying.

My opinion only, but if the funds are there I would go 15 pro all day over the 16e. It’s simply a much better device in many ways.
 
The.Glorious.Son said:
I agree with @mzlin regarding Swappa. You can also inquire what the current battery health is before buying.

My opinion only, but if the funds are there I would go 15 pro all day over the 16e. It’s simply a much better device in many ways.
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Really appreciate the advice. I think if I can find a 15pro under $650 with over 90% batter health it would be a good move. Maybe using Swappa or eBay instead of Amazon since I can ask about battery health.

Doing more research, the 15 Pro (vs 16e):
-Has a MUCH better camera setup
-Has 120hz
-Has MagSafe
-Has 2 extra GPU cores
-Has dynamic Island
-STILL has Apple Intelligence (don't really care about this but it's nice to have)

Overall, just seems like a better value than the 16e if I can get one in good condition and battery health for the same price. Thank you for the help.
 
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I was thinking of getting a 14 pro and I don't know how that compares to the 16e
 
maxg2356 said:
I currently have a 12 mini with pretty awful battery life and plan on upgrading soon. Would it be a better idea to get the 16e, or buy a renewed (excellent condition) 15 pro on Amazon for $639? I am not sure if the newer chip and the fact that the 16e would be new rather than refurb outweigh the 120hz screen and far better cameras of the 15 pro. I do not care about visual intelligence at all so I am a bit torn on this decision. I am also aware the battery on the 16e is supposed to be excellent and not sure if a refurb 15 Pro with probably around 90-93% battery health would be as good.

I am open to any and all advice, thanks!
Click to expand...
15 Pro is 10x as good a phone as the 16e is.
 
If you need all the shebangs, just go Pro, don’t even think about the regular models. If you need a phone to take quick photos, watch YouTube, do social media, and will last you all day, just go for the 16e.
 
maxg2356 said:
I currently have a 12 mini with pretty awful battery life and plan on upgrading soon. Would it be a better idea to get the 16e, or buy a renewed (excellent condition) 15 pro on Amazon for $639? I am not sure if the newer chip and the fact that the 16e would be new rather than refurb outweigh the 120hz screen and far better cameras of the 15 pro. I do not care about visual intelligence at all so I am a bit torn on this decision. I am also aware the battery on the 16e is supposed to be excellent and not sure if a refurb 15 Pro with probably around 90-93% battery health would be as good.

I am open to any and all advice, thanks!
Click to expand...

My advice? Buy the 16E new, why? Because I bought my last two phones ‘refurbished’ from a decent online company, not Amazon though, but my current phone a 14 Pro Max is already down to 86% capacity and I only got it last year. The Apple Refurb store sells phones with the batteries replaced apparently so better but then more expensive. Nothing else is wrong with my phone, but you take a risk with the battery buying refurbished and not from Apple.
 
It's for prepaid.

I'm sticking with that.

299 up front and 40 a month on metro or total wireless.

Small screens mini didn't sell too well just apple cacwd into the hardcore fans and found out the market is too small.


This is perfect for people that just want to use this on cheaper service with the basics iMessage and FaceTime.

Alotof people don't even have airtags.

Apple gets back their investment up front probably when you buy from total wireless who already is saying 360 up front with 1 month service.
 
maxg2356 said:
Thanks for the advice! Just bought a 15 pro grade A with 100% battery health for $635 from Swappa!
Click to expand...
Congratulations on the new beast!
Makes a lot more sense to get the 15 Pro indeed, it has more features than the 16E and will be getting Visual Intelligence too, bringing the 15 Pro to parity with 16 Pro on the Apple Intelligence front over and above that you get the more comprehensive camera setup, 120Hz screen, MagSafe etc… which 16E doesn’t have.

Even the Apple A18 chip in 16E seems to be a less powerful variant of what’s in the standard 16.

Glad you managed to get a 15 Pro with 100% battery health too.
 
I have the same question except the 15pro I am looking at is allegedly new for $730...so it's more than the 16e but still seems worth it given the main focus of this purchase is cameras. Thoughts anyone?
 
If near a MicroCenter, check out their iphone selection. Just snagged an open box iPhone 15 Pro for $600. Brought it home and got full 1-year Apple Warranty + added AppleCare.
 
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