iPhone XR Thinking about upgrading from iPhone XR but not sure..

[ricketysquire]

Does anyone feel like purchasing an iPhone from Apple has been made overly complicated these days? I have an XR that I've had since 2018 and I'm thinking about upgrading to a 12 or 13.

Looking on Apple's site, they have a myriad of purchasing or financing options. Im considering trading in, but they only give you $140. The price of the phone isn't even clear, because the price they show is with a carrier discount of $30. But I don't know if taking that discount would be mean my phone is locked with Verizon for the next 60 days even if I don't go with the carrier deals. Seems like the carrier deals are the best option if I want to save money, but id be stuck with Verizon + potentially locked phone for 60 days for at least 36 months. Of course if I purchase and trade in I'd do it all in-store.

I guess my underlying frustration is just the high prices, low trade in values and the complexity around purchase options. Versus purchasing an iPad or something, I just walk into a Best Buy and buy it. Looking at Swappa I could literally purchase an unlocked mint condition 12 that still has AppleCare through Summer 2023 for $529 and not have to worry about financing or trade ins. Also not even sure if a 12 would be good from a battery life perspective.

 

[g35]

Personally if I wasn't getting a great deal from my carrier ($200+ off the MSRP) I would just go with Swappa. I'd probably sell it there too. I've only had good experiences there. That said I'd be absolutely shocked if taking the $30 off obligates you to stay with Verizon for 36 months. I think it'll just lock your phone for 60 days, which to me wouldn't be a big deal if I was with Verizon anyway

But as I understand it a new XR and a new 12 wouldn't be very different in battery life, and you'd want to go with a 13 for a meaningful upgrade in battery life

But truly if I was concerned about cost I'd just keep the XR. I pick up my dad's XR now and then, which used to be my phone, and I don't see a big difference from my 13 Pro Max, especially if XR had a new battery in it. I think the only thing I'd miss is the OLED when using it in pitch darkness in bed, which is bad for my eyes anyway and shouldn't be doing it. Aside from that it all seems very minor to me and I could switch back to an XR tomorrow and be perfectly happy with it.

 

[ricketysquire]

Primarily

Personally if I wasn't getting a great deal from my carrier ($200+ off the MSRP) I would just go with Swappa. I'd probably sell it there too. I've only had good experiences there. That said I'd be absolutely shocked if taking the $30 off obligates you to stay with Verizon for 36 months. I think it'll just lock your phone for 60 days, which to me wouldn't be a big deal if I was with Verizon anyway

But as I understand it a new XR and a new 12 wouldn't be very different in battery life, and you'd want to go with a 13 for a meaningful upgrade in battery life

But truly if I was concerned about cost I'd just keep the XR. I pick up my dad's XR now and then, which used to be my phone, and I don't see a big difference from my 13 Pro Max, especially if XR had a new battery in it. I think the only thing I'd miss is the OLED when using it in pitch darkness in bed, which is bad for my eyes anyway and shouldn't be doing it. Aside from that it all seems very minor to me and I could switch back to an XR tomorrow and be perfectly happy with it.

Primary driver is to get 5G reception, since it feels like carriers will have build out and investment with 5G going forwards rather than 4G LTE. Also want the better Qualcomm modems over the Intel modems in the XR.

 

[rjalda100]

I just upgraded my XR to a 13 a few months ago, it wasn't the most drastic upgrade in the world but it was still definitely a meaningful one. The battery life is by far the most noticeable improvement (although my XR was down to 88% capacity so it wasn't at its peak either), plus yeah, the OLED screen and 5G compatibility.

 

[TechLord]

Trading in to apple direct isn’t worth it. Better to do a carrier trade in if you’re American or just give it/sell it to a family member/friend. My dad gets my hand me down phones then he passes his older phone to my mum, I’d prefer to help them out than get £200, even keeping it around as a spare is probably better value imo.

In terms of upgrading from the XR, I went from the 11>12 and found that a surprisingly solid upgrade in terms of build/display, connectivity, MagSafe, even photos/videos looked better despite small improvements on paper. The XR>12 would be a solid upgrade in basically every measure and wouldn’t cost much, probably worth it imo.

 

[ricketysquire]

So I attempted to get an iPhone 13 from Apple this morning using the Apple Card payments.

I didn't have an Apple Card before, so I had to apply. Was going to use the Verizon discount of 30, but then I realized id be charged a 35 dollar activation fee and then found out that Verizon activates through eSim and I wanted to keep my physical SIM card. I just like the piece of mind that if my phone stops working or gets broken I can pop out the SIM card and throw it into my back up iPhone 7 without needing to contact Verizon.

Anyhow I found this out at the middle/end of the transaction. Later I realized it might be better if I just change the order to not use any carrier discounts so I could just pop in my sim and not deal with Verizon. Reach out to support and all they can do is cancel. So now I got an Apple Card and not sure if I want to redo the transaction. I guess this goes back to my underlying concern on how confusing Apple and the carriers have made the purchasing process these days.