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Other What is the longest you have kept an iPhone as your daily driver?

What is the longest you have kept (and used) an iPhone as your daily driver?

  • <6 months

    Votes: 3 0.6%

  • 6 months to a year

    Votes: 31 6.7%

  • 1-2 years

    Votes: 67 14.4%

  • 2-3 years

    Votes: 97 20.8%

  • 3-4 years

    Votes: 96 20.6%

  • 4+ years

    Votes: 172 36.9%
  • Total voters
    466
1. iPhone 5: 1 year, 10 months
2. iPhone XS: 1 year, 9 months

Any other iPhone I had in the past ten years probably didn’t last over a year.

I just buy what I want when I want. I have experienced the drop off in value stays about the same for 1-3 years of use. At least not enough of a difference to keep using a phone when I could just buy a newer model. I only buy them ‘new in open box’ or used and sell them afterwards. No real harm in that, just takes a lot of effort.
 
For me, it's only been 6 months to a year and a mix of new and second hand devices. Think I kept my 5S for a year, and the original SE for a similar amount of time.

I'd like to start keeping phones for longer. Intend on picking up a cheaper (used) 13 Pro in the next few weeks as people begin to sell and expect to keep it for 3+ years unless we get something vastly different from Apple with the IP15/16 (a flip phone, a completely full-screen device with no pinhole etc).
 
iPhone 6S. Bought it new on 48 month contract and kept it nearly five years before replacing it with an SE2.
Until then I changed phones every two years.
IMO iPhone 6S and its equivalent Android devices were landmark phones that started the beginning of the time when most people who bought a phone never really need to change it until it broke or became too obsolete to run the apps you wanted to run.
It hadn't been like that before.
The iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 were just the 6S on steroids. And you don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to notice while watching the iPhone SE3 launch presentation earlier this year that it was unashamedly aimed specifically at stubborn iPhone 8 customers who so far have refused to upgrade.
 
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My record is 4 years
From iPhone 7 128 GB Day 1 to iPhone 12 256 GB Day one.
I plan to do the same i.e. skip 3 incremental upgrades before buying a new one. If needed I will replace the battery after 2/3 years
 
I had the 11 PM from launch day. Had it for 28 months before upgrading to a regular 13 in January this year.
 
What a low carbon impact thread ♻️

This XR since April 2019.

I think often that if you don’t know what you’re missing, and what you have is good enough, then you’re happy with what you have.
 
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iPhone 6S from from 2015 till 2021. Hope my 12 mini will last just as long… nothing had to be replaced, but at the end the battery would not last a whole day.
 
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iPhone XS since November 2018. This has been the longest that I’ve kept a phone before upgrading. I would say the pandemic had some part in this as the last thing I wanted to do in 2020/21 was to go to a store to compare new phones. I am waiting for the 14 to upgrade.
 
I kept my 6S 128GB from January 2016 to September 2021 when it was replaced by a 13. That’s almost 6 full years. One replaced screen, and 5 or more replaced batteries.
 
almost four years for my bought on launch day iphone Xs Max. With battery still sitting at a healthy 89% somehow. I’m thinking about upgrading to a 14 pro (maybe the max)
 
Honestly I’m too lazy/don’t care enough to figure it out. I kept a 5s until I replaced it with an X, still have that X still works great, battery still at full health. My 5s battery did fail, it was either replace a battery of an old phone or get a new one

Probably will get a new one soon seeing how AT&T is now gouging me on my plan, time to switch vendors and get a free/discounted phone
 
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I respect all the users who keep their iPhones for years and years. I should do, but I usually cave after 2 years at the most. The iPhones last so long and the features change so little year over year I’ll probably stay on a 2 year cycle. The irony is I was actually not planning on replacing my 11 Pro, especially after I watched the keynote for the 13 Pro, but the combination of $1000 trade in for my 11 Pro was too much to pass on. And, I have actually loved my 13 Pro more than any other iPhone I’ve ever owned.
 
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My iPhone 7 turns 4 next month. Still works fine and is spotless.
But it might be a good time switching to a iPhone SE (2022).
 
I have Verizon and waited impatiently until the iPhone came to that network. Got my first iPhone, the iPhone 4, on launch day. February 10, 2011. Wasn’t able to upgrade so quickly to the 4S that released later that fall, but got the iPhone 5 when it launched Sep. 2012.
Upgraded every year since (save for the wait from iPhone 7 to iPhone X which didn’t release until November)
 
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GuruZac said:
I respect all the users who keep their iPhones for years and years. I should do, but I usually cave after 2 years at the most. The iPhones last so long and the features change so little year over year I’ll probably stay on a 2 year cycle. The irony is I was actually not planning on replacing my 11 Pro, especially after I watched the keynote for the 13 Pro, but the combination of $1000 trade in for my 11 Pro was too much to pass on. And, I have actually loved my 13 Pro more than any other iPhone I’ve ever owned.
Click to expand...
One small part of why I hang on to old phones/devices is that I tend to form attachments. I respect all the users who can let their phones go in that whole cycle of trade in/promotion or selling for $$$.

My wife and I ported to T-Mobile in 2015 and my greatest regret in that deal was letting go of an essentially brand new iPhone 6+. I had just had my 6+ replaced about two weeks before we ported (cracked screen) and this particular phone was perfect and solid. But off to T-Mobile it went. The only upshot was my 6s+ (which I got for trading it it) has been one of the most durable iPhones I've ever had.

But my attachments mean I end up skipping promos or trade ins and instead keep the phones. I know the device is a tool, but so are cars and some people have serious attachments to their cars (I don't). So I guess I see it that way.
 
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