Other What were the best and worst upgrade years for iPhone?

[Steve121178]

iPhone 5s was the best designed iPhone until the 12 Pro came along, which borrowed heavily from the 5s design. The 5s was also excellent value for money at the time, also the first 64-bit iOS device.

The 12 & 12 Pro are the best upgrades for anyone with a device older than an 11/11 Pro. They really nailed the design with the 12 Pro especially.

It would appear the 12s/13 will be a slightly refined version of the 12, so I look forward to seeing it.

 

[iHorseHead]

I bet. You'll really, really notice a difference in performance.

It'd be really disappointing if I didn't.

 

[MiamiBeach]

6s was the best upgrade year for me. That phone had one battery swap and was still working great as a second line phone through last year until I got a dual sim iPhone.

I don’t think I had a worst upgrade year though. If I really had to choose, I’d say upgrading to the 7 was not a good decision especially since I bought it early 2017. I should have held out for the X. My 6s was still plenty fast.

 

[TechLord]

Best would be 4/6/X. These were the most transformative iPhone additions.

"Worst" would be something like the 7>8 or the X>XS. Not that these were bad by any means, just iterative. If you don't value camera specs then the XR>11 is on the weaker side also, but the 11 was and is great value for anyone from a phone older than the XR and came with a price cut so I personally rate it quite highly.

Honorary mention for the 6S. Was a pretty solid upgrade from the 6 and has aged much much better than the 6 thanks to 2gb of ram over 1gb and the huge performance gains from the A9 over the A8 of the 6.

 

[Channan]

It’s hard to single one out on either end. It also depends on multiple factors. For instance, I think the 4S was a bad year to upgrade because it didn’t really offer many major new things, but the processor was such a huge step up that it was able to last a lot longer than the iPhone 4 before it. If you go a long time between upgrades, this was a really good model to buy. If you upgrade more frequently, it’s not as great of a deal.

So just going by my own opinions in what I look for in a phone, I’d say the best time to buy an iPhone was the year the iPhone 4 came out. I’ve never been so excited about a new iPhone as I was with the iPhone 4. It had the first high PPI display; it had a high quality camera, finally with HD video recording and the first flash in an iPhone; it was the first iPhone with a front facing camera for video calls; it had a stainless steel body with front and back glass that was a huge quality upgrade over the previous plastic body, even if that meant it wasn’t as durable; it was the first iPhone with HSUPA (the previous iPhone could upload at a max of 384 kbps over 3G); plus all the usual stuff like a faster processor, more ram, thinner, etc.

Now, while I don’t think the iPhone 7 is the worst iPhone of its time (I have one myself), I do think it was the worst time to upgrade. Basically it was just a bit faster and had a slightly better camera than the iPhone 6s before it, while looking almost identical to the previous two models. It was also the first year Apple took away the headphone jack, which is a non-issue nowadays, but wasn’t great for some people during the transition phase. And after all of that, the iPhone X came out the following year. That’s why I picked the iPhone 7 over the 8. The topic doesn’t say best and worst iPhones. It says best years to upgrade and the iPhone X came out at the same time as the 8, so that’s on you if you went with the lesser phone.

 

[1rottenapple]

7 and 8 were lame. I didn’t experience a big upgrade in performance. At least the max was a jump. Same with The mini. That’s was nice to have a powerful small phone.

 

[nordique]

I think the 6 was the worst...rationale here is in Canada, the price went up due to currency change, yet design aside it was a meagre upgrade over the 5s. Same first gen Touch ID, no noticeable performance gain, same 1GB LPDDR3 ram at the exact same frequency and part spec. Just a shiny looking version but internally a minor upgrade all for significantly more $$

6S was the best; with that same $ one could buy a phone that would still be updated 6 years later and share core features with later phones. Second gen Touch ID and 7000 series aluminum are still Apple’s standard to this day and the A9 laid the foundation for all performance cores to follow, not to mention the ram stayed the same size and type for a few more generations leaving performance feeling remarkably similar across those devices

 

[fernlost]

Best new releases:
- 4
- X

Best for long-term use:
- 5S
- 6S
- X

 

[KOTN91]

Best would be 3GS -> 4 or 7 -> X. With honourable mentions to 4S -> 5 and 11 -> 12

Least significant upgrades would be either 6 -> 6S or XR -> 11

 

[gimmmick]

I don't have a worst upgrade because I have gone with the S cycle since 2013 😉 (best bang for the buck fro ma cost to performance, let alone they have been the best future proof purchases).

If I had to choose the best, probably would have to be the my entry level iPhone which was the 5s. Not sure why I ever upgraded to the 6s since the phone was still running like a champ even after 4 years.

 

[linkgx1]

6 Plus. Just an awful experience. Processor and ram were way underpowered. None of the apps were updated for the plus for at least a year. It became so unusable in its second year.

Best is kind of hard to say. 3GS, 5S, 6S, and X are what I call staple iPhones. They have the best long term support not only in software but hardware.

I think it really depends on the use-case scenario. The best ones are usually the S versions after a major hardware change. You get a refined device that usually has longevity.

 

[boss.king]

Best upgrade points: 3GS, 5S, 7, 11/12

Worst upgrade points: 3G, 4, 6, 8

 

[catean]

I was the happiest with the 5S, and now the same feeling with 12 Mini.

Owned a 4, 5, 5S, 6, 6S, 7, X, XS and 12 mini.

 

[satinsilverem2]

In terms of my personal experiences,

Worst:
iPhone 5- not a bad phone per say but after two years the software couldn’t run smoothly on the hardware and it made for a bad experience.
iPhone 6 plus- not enough ram or CPU for the screen then touch disease killed it all together for me.
iPhone 8 Plus- basically a 7 plus with wireless charging and a better CPU.

Best:
iPhone X- all new and no real issues across the board.
iPhone 12 Pro- just a solid phone with great features.

 

[Homme]

Some people need to use they’re brain here because with upgrade and value one has to take in the amount the amount of Software updates the phones get… now that is value

Which means the 6 and the 6 plus are easily the worst iPhones ever in terms of all of this. Weak A8, only 1GB RAM, WEAK GPU (even 5s can play games back then better than the 6+) huge screen for the 6 plus to handle A8 and 1GB RAM, and even graphically for the 6 plus it’s weak GPU has to extend past 1080p for some odd reason stuffing it up.

the 5c comes at a close second because the 5s was just the better phone back then for value and performance and despite 5c getting one less major OS update compared to the 6 and no sporadic security updates compared to the 6, the A6 SoC was still good for the phones size.

best phones though

6S lineup

5S

4S

all got good amounts of OS updates especially compared to the iPhone 4,5,6 lineup

since we have an A10 iPad released in September 2019 which isn’t even 2 years old I’d think even the 7 lineup is there too in terms of OS updates since they are over 4 and a half years old

 

[Homme]

Wasn't the 8 basically the X internals but with the 7 body?

to an extent yes minus 1GB of RAM

iPhone X was the best. It gave us new design, edge-edge to screen, swipe gestures, Face ID.
iPhone 6s was the worst. I updated from iPhone 6 and noticed that nothing was different other that 3D touch, which felt super gimmicky

mate are you serious in saying 6s is the worst….

it’s receiving its 5th OS update from iOS 9

4K video

5MP selfie camera

A9 and 2GB of RAM are massive updates compared to the 6

airtags

dark mode

support for AirPods Pro and AirPods max

the list goes on and on and on and on

 

[macOS Lynx]

In terms of "how impactful is this model compared to what it's replacing", I would say the best update was the iPhone 6 or the iPhone X. Both fundamentally changed the entire iPhone (in terms of design), and added much needed technology, while also introducing new functionality to the world too.

The worst update was probably the iPhone XS/XS Max, because compared to the X, it changed barely anything. Slightly better camera sensor and the A12 (which wasn't that big of a jump from the A11 compared to other upgrades), and while it gained Gigabit LTE and dual-sim support, it also got stuck with a terrible Intel modem.

Honorable mention for BEST: iPhone 12

Honorable mention for WORST: iPhone 4s

 

[smoking monkey]

I didn't own either of them so take my opinion with a grain of salt, but I think that the X to Xs upgrade was the least significant upgrade ever.

The best upgrade? I'm not sure... Even though there wasn't a design change, I think the 5 to 5s offered a pretty significant spec upgrade and introduced TouchID, which I think was huge. On the other hand, 5s to 6/6 Plus was a marginal spec upgrade but the larger displays were a big deal.

Yeah, X to XS was very minor, except for XS MAX with the intro of the large screen.
The 5 was a dog of a phone compared to the 5S. That thing was a killer upgrade with Touch ID and just better in every respect.

iPhone 6 Plus was lag city. I went back to a faster iPhone 5 with no lag. This was the point you started to figure out why apple couldn’t switch to larger screens sooner (transition started with iPhone 5). iOS was the culprit. Apple had to compromise and downsample with 6 plus. It was obvious. Many looked past this because hey it’s a large screen.

Though the same downsampling occurred on future plus phones the processor got much better.

People didn't know what they were getting with 6+. On the outside it looked like a great upgrade, but then the reality hit. 6S+ was the real upgrade. My wife still uses my old one to this day. The battery isn't great (it's been replaced once already), but apart from that it's still plenty fast enough and works perfectly almost 6 years on.

iPhone 6 was the worst phone for value, design, and performance. There's no contesting that.

The 6 screen was terrible. I remember checking a movie trailer on it in an apple store and it looked really poor in comparison to the 6+ which had a better resolution.

The 3GS,4S,5S,6S+ versions all seemed to be great value upgrades if you were coming from the previous number. I think 2023 will be the next big value upgrade. So if you're getting a new phone, this year is better than next year if you keep a phone for a minimum of 2 years. Nobody will want to get stuck with a notch or a hole while others are rocking full screens!

 

[throAU]

Worst: 3GS. Complete and utter waste of time when the 3G was still great. Starting to think the 12 Pro also belongs on that list.

Best: 4S, 6S, 11 Pro.

Not sure if you ever ran a 3g and 3g-s back to back, but the S was significantly faster.

 

[Homme]

In terms of "how impactful is this model compared to what it's replacing", I would say the best update was the iPhone 6 or the iPhone X. Both fundamentally changed the entire iPhone (in terms of design), and added much needed technology, while also introducing new functionality to the world too.

The worst update was probably the iPhone XS/XS Max, because compared to the X, it changed barely anything. Slightly better camera sensor and the A12 (which wasn't that big of a jump from the A11 compared to other upgrades), and while it gained Gigabit LTE and dual-sim support, it also got stuck with a terrible Intel modem.

Honorable mention for BEST: iPhone 12

Honorable mention for WORST: iPhone 4s

although 6 and 6 plus were a plus in terms of design since they weren’t a 4 inch phone, you can’t justify and say it is the best, no way.

A8 is a minor upgrade over A7
Both 5S and 6/6+ got 1GB DDR3 RAM ( and 5s is a faster phone due to its screen size and less than 1 million pixels compared to the 6 plus), piss weak GPU (since it is only a minor upgrade over the 5s and especially for the 6 plus it was bad)

NFC and Apple Pay is probably the only good things “technological wise” over the 5s but even technological wise compared to the 5s it wasn’t even major so yeah I fail to see that the 6/6+ added much needed technology when apart from NFC and Apple Pay it’s improvements are ****

now to the X/XS, to a certain extent I agree but I disagree with you in saying the A12 wasn’t a big jump compared to the A11

5 trillion operations per second compared to 60

Third party’s can use the A12’s ANE compared to A11’s ANE in which it was only used by Apple (so largely it’s 600 billion operations per second isn’t really of much use for apps

A12 (and only the XS/XSM) can support 4GB of RAM compared to 3GB

A12 was the first non X chip to support some games at up to 60fps (A11 theoretically can but it had flaws which prevented that from happening)

plus not related but only 3 devices have A11.. we only saw new Apple TV with the A12 so you may want to hold it before saying A12 isn’t a big upgrade over A11. Maybe it’s clock-speed but Geekbench scores are still good for A12 compared to A11

also A12 during iOS 12/13/14 got features exclusive for it and higher that A11 didn’t get like QuickTake, Location Anchors etc etc etc

 

[macOS Lynx]

although 6 and 6 plus were a plus in terms of design since they weren’t a 4 inch phone, you can’t justify and say it is the best, no way.

A8 is a minor upgrade over A7
Both 5S and 6/6+ got 1GB DDR3 RAM ( and 5s is a faster phone due to its screen size and less than 1 million pixels compared to the 6 plus), piss weak GPU (since it is only a minor upgrade over the 5s and especially for the 6 plus it was bad)

NFC and Apple Pay is probably the only good things “technological wise” over the 5s but even technological wise compared to the 5s it wasn’t even major so yeah I fail to see that the 6/6+ added much needed technology when apart from NFC and Apple Pay it’s improvements are ****

now to the X/XS, to a certain extent I agree but I disagree with you in saying the A12 wasn’t a big jump compared to the A11

5 trillion operations per second compared to 60

Third party’s can use the A12’s ANE compared to A11’s ANE in which it was only used by Apple (so largely it’s 600 billion operations per second isn’t really of much use for apps

A12 (and only the XS/XSM) can support 4GB of RAM compared to 3GB

A12 was the first non X chip to support some games at up to 60fps (A11 theoretically can but it had flaws which prevented that from happening)

plus not related but only 3 devices have A11.. we only saw new Apple TV with the A12 so you may want to hold it before saying A12 isn’t a big upgrade over A11. Maybe it’s clock-speed but Geekbench scores are still good for A12 compared to A11

also A12 during iOS 12/13/14 got features exclusive for it and higher that A11 didn’t get like QuickTake, Location Anchors etc etc etc

I personally disagree.

Both the 6 and the X were basically “resets” of the iPhone lineup. While the X more so on the technology side, the 6 represents the shift to a post-Steve Apple (really being their first post-Steve creation) and that alone makes it one of the most important/influential (if you don’t want to call it the best).

 

[Homme]

I personally disagree.

Both the 6 and the X were basically “resets” of the iPhone lineup. While the X more so on the technology side, the 6 represents the shift to a post-Steve Apple (really being their first post-Steve creation) and that alone makes it one of the most important/influential (if you don’t want to call it the best).

I see your point but basically I would easily say that despite your similar views and I agree with your views regarding iPhone X and iPhone 6 being a post Steve contribution arguably the iPhone X was hailed for its features and even with the new tech it had it still has a good processor with decent RAM. The 6 was more criticized later on throughout its existence for the flaws I’ve mentioned. If only it had 2GB of RAM instead

I never owned both but I’d think the X is much more superior and better regarding an upgrade besides the CPU/RAM/ Performance side of course.

 

[macOS Lynx]

I see your point but basically I would easily say that despite your similar views and I agree with your views regarding iPhone X and iPhone 6 being a post Steve contribution arguably the iPhone X was hailed for its features and even with the new tech it had it still has a good processor with decent RAM. The 6 was more criticized later on throughout its existence for the flaws I’ve mentioned. If only it had 2GB of RAM instead

I never owned both but I’d think the X is much more superior and better regarding an upgrade besides the CPU/RAM/ Performance side of course.

Yeah, if you want to look at just RAW specs, then the 6 wasn't really all that, but I'm factoring in kind of the impact it had, rather than just specs. Like, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus (combined) are the #1 best selling smartphone, and #3 best selling mobile phone *ever* (#1 and #2 are held by Nokia, of course), so I think that does speak to how much of an impact and how important the 6 was. I do agree though, upgrading to the 6 just in terms of specs was not that much of a big deal (though I still do think A11 -> A12 isn't as impactful on the end user as say A6->A7, A10->A11, or like A13->A14, though I do agree with you and I did understate the power of the A12).

 

[Homme]

Yeah, if you want to look at just RAW specs, then the 6 wasn't really all that, but I'm factoring in kind of the impact it had, rather than just specs. Like, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus (combined) are the #1 best selling smartphone, and #3 best selling mobile phone *ever* (#1 and #2 are held by Nokia, of course), so I think that does speak to how much of an impact and how important the 6 was. I do agree though, upgrading to the 6 just in terms of specs was not that much of a big deal (though I still do think A11 -> A12 isn't as impactful on the end user as say A6->A7, A10->A11, or like A13->A14, though I do agree with you and I did understate the power of the A12).

yeah the fact that they were the first phones to be actually big back then (and small nowadays at least with 4.7 inch lol) got a lot of sales and people liked them a lot and it least made Apple move forward with newer models since.

yeah even with A12’s performance over A11 it didn’t feel like a huge exciting intriguing upgrade over the processors you mentioned but A7 alone was superior to even A6X, A9 is superior to A8 and although I agree with A11 to A10 not so much compared to the beast which is the A10X, heck it has a 3 core GPU (advanced engineering though on apples side.) but performance is similar to the 12 core monster which is the GPU of the A9X).

The main reason why we have A12 as is now is because the A12 is meant to fix flaws the A11 had like 60fps gaming, the hardware flaw that A chips had since the A5-A5X to the A10X-A11 lineups in which you can install software like Cydia and others and Apple couldn’t do anything about it and they fixed that with the A12 onwards and other flaws that I can’t think of

plus A11 devices you can’t watch YouTube in 4K I believe, but with A12 you can watch in 4K resolution (and with HDR on most models)

 

[linkgx1]

to an extent yes minus 1GB of RAM


mate are you serious in saying 6s is the worst….

it’s receiving its 5th OS update from iOS 9

4K video

5MP selfie camera

A9 and 2GB of RAM are massive updates compared to the 6

airtags

dark mode

support for AirPods Pro and AirPods max

the list goes on and on and on and on

Agreed. The 6s is the best argument for why one should get an Apple device. The Galaxy S6 for example stopped getting updates before its third birthday.