Other What is your tier list of all iPhones ?

[Lwii2boo]

Hey guys,

I would be interested to know what your views of best/worst models of iphone given their launch date.
Before giving your view be sure to be as objective as possible meaning putting most recent and expansive model or every models you bought in best tier is probably highly biased.

Last but not least, even if you try to be as objective as possible, a tier list is highly subjective some are focused on design, others on raw performance, others on screen size/quality or camera perf etc etc.

To simplify I will classify iPhone in 4 differents tiers (no specific order within a tier)
Tier 1 - Excellent product in its time that brought features that are still relevant today
Tier 2 - Very good product for its price but either a lack of spec or "wow" effect on the product to put it group 1
Tier 3 - Good product but upgrade too incremental: no incredible interest at the price when the model was released
Tier 4 - Meh, too expensive/incomplete or too close to the previous model to be interesting

My ranking is (highly subjective, once again but it don't put all my iPhone stupdily in tier 1)

Tier 1
iPhone 4 - 1st iPhone w/ Retina screen 326 ppi, this pixel density is still used on the iPhone 11! Incredible build quality and design for the time, some affected by antenna gate, else was truly perfect IMO for a 2010 phone
iPhone 5 - 1st 4-inch iPhone, super thin and a design that many loved
iPhone 5S - The design doesn't change, but the addition of touch ID + A7 is the first 64 bit ARM CPU on iPhone will give a super long support and top tier performance for this iPhone.
iPhone 6S/6S+ - No more the "wow" effect of the 6's design but less fragile product and better built + Touch ID Gen 2 wayfaster + a much more powerful CPU/GPU + move from 1GB to 2GB of RAM = iPhones from this one can be fast and fluid even after 5 years for classic day to day tasks. Second leap forward in terms of lifespan like the 5S. Except for the bad battery of the little 6S model, it was perfect in its time. The last iPhone with a Jack plug
iPhone X - Breakthrough design + OLED, probably the best iPhone at launch ever? Its only flaw, the price which started to seriously climb... Battery and camera was good but not excellent, everything else was trully amazing IMO.
iPhone 12 - Trully well balanced iPhone with a price a lot lower than 12 Pro in Europe (€200 cheaper at same storage size), the most recent iPhone for most people if you don't care about telephoto or very big/small screen. 1st "standard" iPhone with OLED (which was the main advantage of XS and 11 pro vs "regular" models !) and 5G.

Tier 2
iPhone 3GS - The 1st iPhone that looks like a finished product in terms of performance, features and reliability
iPhone 6/6+ - The 1st iPhones with 4.7/5.5 inches, iconic design, unfortunately its fragility + its single GB of RAM make it relegated by the 6S which has aged much better in terms of performance. 6+ is probably more tier 3 because even more fragile (bendgate) and CPU/GPU was too weak to exploit properly the screen device at the time.
iPhone 7/7+ - Big jump vs. 6S in terms of battery life, CPU, GPU and Camera in low light for a 2016 iPhone. 1st waterproof and stereo iPhone
iPhone XR - The iPhone that disturbed geeks due to the return of the evil LCD screen! Finally the product is excellent for the non technophiles of the screens: great autonomy, well calibrated screen, and a size that pleases many people at a much more accessible price by making a concession probably well found to lower the price for an average consumer (on the SE the concessions being much stronger on the form factor)
iPhone 11 - Same as the XR + Super camera especially at night and MSRP is $50 cheaper !
iPhone 11 Pro / Pro Max - Excellent night camera + huge jump in battery vs the XS. The battery king ! Too expansive for most people but excellent device
iPhone SE 2016 / SE 2020 - Both phone target low budget or non tech enthusiats, the phone design and screen are basic/boring but for the price you get a phone with at least 5 years of support for really low price for an iPhone. Very interesting product for low budget consumers that like iOS.
iPhone 12 Mini - targets a niche audience, "only" $100 cheaper than regular 12 and battery life could be better, other than that it's truly the perfect compact premium OLED 5G iPhone !

Tier 3
iPhone 3G - The 1st iPhone 3G but still slow even at launch date to run basic apps
iPhone 4S - A small improvement in performance compared to the 4 + launch of Siri - but Siri is not so convincing in practice for most users
iPhone 8/8+ - Nothing bad but too close to the 7 and too far from the X, the screen and design looked already dated at launch date, and that's even more true when you compare its big bezels design with 2017 Android high-end phones !
iPhone XS / XS Max - Too close to the X and still very high launch price, this model can be an excellent deal today because it has undergone a strong discount which makes it an excellent value for money for an OLED iPhone. Great phone but poorly positioned in terms of innovation and price considering the X and XR. XS Max is maybe tier 2 thanks to its new form factor that can appeal power users! Main improvement of XS over X are camera 4GB ram (vs 3 on X) and CPU/GPU upgrade
iPhone 12 Pro / 12 Pro Max - The best iphone at the time in tier 3. Why ? because it is too expansive and the upgrade vs 11 Pro/Pro max and Regular 12 is very close small while the price is not. 12 Pro has the same lens as regular 12, while 12 Pro Max has better sensors. These two models should be tier 1/tier 2 if Apple managed to give them 120 Hz ProMotion. Sadly they are not 120 Hz and for an over $1000 2020 phone, it's very hard to swallow. This iPhone will seduce those who buy the latest and greatest no matter why and those who really want the best iOS camera.

Tier 4
iPhone Edge (1st gen) - Too slow, no 3G and too incomplete in terms of software, the following models will very quickly put this model aside. Its presentation by Steve Jobs was iconic and the product is on paper amazing but it lacks a bit of perf to be a reliable long term device.
iPhone 5C - Too expensive at the time of its release when it is actually a plastic copy of last year's model (the 5). The 5 was cheaper after 5C launch (at third party stores) when it was much more premium + the 5S was not much more expensive than the 5C while the 5S was much better

And you how would you rank iPhones ?

 

[BluMac]

For me iPhone 11 was the best of all time. Because

1.Reduced price at launch : $699
2.Addition of ultrawide lens and more camera features
3.Superfast A13 Bionic
4.Awesome battery life

iPhone 11 had the best performance to price ratio

No other iphone today gives you so much phone for the price

 

[PeteBurgh]

An interesting exercise!

iPhone 11 had the best performance to price ratio

Agreed, the 11 is/was a great phone, aggressively priced.

I suppose one useful thing to consider here is 'compared to what?'. Even if there aren't many people switching between ecosystems regularly, it's helpful to think about where the iPhones stood relative to their peers. The original iPhone had acute limitations, but what to even compare it to - a Blackberry? Even 4-5 years in, the Android competition - software and hardware - was pretty dreadful (e.g. in 2011, the iPhone 4 was far beyond the dreadful HTCs and Motorolas people were buying). But inevitably that gap closed substantially in the second half of the 2010s.

 

[Homme]

Tier 1

iPhone 6S/6S+/SE. Still supporting the latest OS, they may get iOS 15 since A8 SoC is still under production because of the Apple TV HD and that most likely will get tvOS 15.

and these phones got plenty of support and features from iOS 13 and 14

iPhone 5s. Touch ID, 64bit processor, got iOS 7 till 12. Survived well and is still surviving iOS 12 security updates

iPhone 4S. A phone which got updates from iOS 5 to iOS 9 which is still an amazing timeframe of major updates back then.

iPhone X and 8 lineup. Futureproof A11 Bionic. 8/8+ lineup look more premium than the 7 lineup

iPhone 7/7+, will get OS support for a couple of years

iPhone SE 2020. A13 Bionic wowed people via its computational photography which is only unique to it and not the other A13 Bionic lineups due to no Focus Pixels for SE’s back camera

iPhone 11/Pro lineups for the elegant colors in both lineups of the phones


iPhone 12. Different in looks, mini gave me a SE vibe of small in size and with the latest processor like both SE’s of the times

Tier 2

iPhone 3GS. Fast, received iOS 6 in which it performed better than iPod Touch 4G and even OG iPad didn’t get it. It was supported for somewhat longer than Apple Intended for but it was great

iPhone 4. Good iPhone in which it Revolutionized the iPhone with its looks, but it needed some improvements like the cameras

iPhone 5. Good snappy phone which can handle iOS 10 but if only you could wait one more year for 5S instead due to the extra amount of OS Support and security updates

iPhone XS/XR. Good iPhones but no wow factor. XR Maybe a little due to its differences with XS but yeah

Tier 3

iPhone 2G. The phone that started it all. A few things however like lack of 3G, it not getting iOS 4 (iPhone 3G got it but both phones have the exact same CPU/RAM), but luckily for it it wasn’t supported

iPhone 3G. Had 2 OS upgrades but iOS 4.0 killed it. 4.2.1 fixed say over half of its performance but it was too late for it. It had 3G which is needed but it had the same CPU/RAM performance as its 2G cousin

tier 4 (trash)

iPhone 5C. Released for the wrong reasons one of them being the fact that 5S is better in every way but the best part is the 5S gets iOS 12 and sporadic security updates for the device since iOS 13 and iOS 14 doesn’t support it but it still gets security updates and decent app support. 5C is stuck in iOS 10 and not much app support.

but the worst goes to the 6/6+ lineup. Can you imagine all the support Apple can chuck at these phones if they had a extra GB of RAM, but they are not only worse than 5S (since 5S and 6 lineup only get iOS 12 which is an embarrassment for the 6 lineup) but even the iPad Mini 4 and the OG iPhone SE (which is cheaper then and still now than the 6/6+) are far far far better devices

worst iPhones, period especially the 6+

 

[snipr125]

Tier 1

iPhone 6S/6S+/SE. Still supporting the latest OS, they may get iOS 15 since A8 SoC is still under production because of the Apple TV HD and that most likely will get tvOS 15.

and these phones got plenty of support and features from iOS 13 and 14

iPhone 5s. Touch ID, 64bit processor, got iOS 7 till 12. Survived well and is still surviving iOS 12 security updates

iPhone 4S. A phone which got updates from iOS 5 to iOS 9 which is still an amazing timeframe of major updates back then.

iPhone X and 8 lineup. Futureproof A11 Bionic. 8/8+ lineup look more premium than the 7 lineup

iPhone 7/7+, will get OS support for a couple of years

iPhone SE 2020. A13 Bionic wowed people via its computational photography which is only unique to it and not the other A13 Bionic lineups due to no Focus Pixels for SE’s back camera

iPhone 11/Pro lineups for the elegant colors in both lineups of the phones


iPhone 12. Different in looks, mini gave me a SE vibe of small in size and with the latest processor like both SE’s of the times

Tier 2

iPhone 3GS. Fast, received iOS 6 in which it performed better than iPod Touch 4G and even OG iPad didn’t get it. It was supported for somewhat longer than Apple Intended for but it was great

iPhone 4. Good iPhone in which it Revolutionized the iPhone with its looks, but it needed some improvements like the cameras

iPhone 5. Good snappy phone which can handle iOS 10 but if only you could wait one more year for 5S instead due to the extra amount of OS Support and security updates

iPhone XS/XR. Good iPhones but no wow factor. XR Maybe a little due to its differences with XS but yeah

Tier 3

iPhone 2G. The phone that started it all. A few things however like lack of 3G, it not getting iOS 4 (iPhone 3G got it but both phones have the exact same CPU/RAM), but luckily for it it wasn’t supported

iPhone 3G. Had 2 OS upgrades but iOS 4.0 killed it. 4.2.1 fixed say over half of its performance but it was too late for it. It had 3G which is needed but it had the same CPU/RAM performance as its 2G cousin

tier 4 (trash)

iPhone 5C. Released for the wrong reasons one of them being the fact that 5S is better in every way but the best part is the 5S gets iOS 12 and sporadic security updates for the device since iOS 13 and iOS 14 doesn’t support it but it still gets security updates and decent app support. 5C is stuck in iOS 10 and not much app support.

but the worst goes to the 6/6+ lineup. Can you imagine all the support Apple can chuck at these phones if they had a extra GB of RAM, but they are not only worse than 5S (since 5S and 6 lineup only get iOS 12 which is an embarrassment for the 6 lineup) but even the iPad Mini 4 and the OG iPhone SE (which is cheaper then and still now than the 6/6+) are far far far better devices

worst iPhones, period especially the 6+

I would probably put the 7/7+ in Tier 2, but apart from that absolutely spot on with your write up.

 

[Homme]

I would probably put the 7/7+ in Tier 2, but apart from that absolutely spot on with your write up.

i put them In Tier 1 because 3 years after both phones were released 7th Gen iPad was released with an A10 and 3GB of RAM and that will get OS updates for years and I do see the 7 lineup surviving for a long time 😊