Other What will make you upgrade to a newer phone?

[klasma]

Nothing except a new mini. I will even switch to Android iff anything comes in a mini form factor. I prefer a phone rather than a brick.

Having owned an Android tablet for some time (because I wanted an OLED display), I won’t be switching to Android for the phone anytime soon, it’s just too sucky. If there isn’t a new small iPhone when the mini 13 goes out of support, I don’t know, I’ll probably suck up whatever is the next-smallest iPhone then. What I’d really want is something in the OG SE form factor (size and lightness).

 

[neutrino23]

I usually upgrade every three years or so. This is an upgrade year.

 

[ian87w]

L

Curious as to what makes you think that we have reached the peak of the smartphone? 🤔

I feel we are at peak smartphone simply because every new phone releases no longer have features that fundamentally affects a user's daily tasks. In the past, every new iPhone has something that will definitely affects the basic tasks, eg. performance. The biggest leap was probably from iPhone 6 to 6s, where we get performance cores and nvme storage. Those two things really nailed down the baseline performance expected on a smartphone. Anything over that are more geared towards efficiency, gaming performance, and ML. But the base performance level are generally transparent to most users. Take an iPhone X and iPhone 13. Benchmarks will show a difference, but when one starts using the phone day-to-day for basic tasks, most users probbaly won't notice much differences.

Then come the camera, arguably the only thing that many phone OEMs are selling. First we have portrait mode, then night mode. After that, imo any increase in the tech is just icing on the cake. The baseline iPhone 11 is already good enough. This is also why Apple is keeping the telephoto just for the Pro, since they know there's not much else they can sell if they allow telephoto to trickle down to less expensive iPhones.

It is even more apparent on Android. If you look at the Android market, other than the ultra flagship models where each OEMs use the top most SoC, the rest are simply recycled hardware from last year or two. Many are even exactly the same phone, using old SoCs, and the only different thing is the design appearance and the Android version it comes with. In the mid to low range, literally OEMs are simply using new Android version as the only new thing. When you look at the hardware, they're mostly the same phone from the previous gen. This been happening for a few years, thus I consider that we are at peak smartphone.

 

[Mark Stone]

At about 5 years after purchase.

 

[jchap]

I longed for an iPhone Mini, I’m not sure today. Size is pretty good on my XR….
Not the most important thing today.
The rest of my Apple stuff works fine too.
Apple life is good 👍🏼 ♥️ 😇

I hear you on the XR. I also find the size to be just right for me. I had the 1st-gen. SE before that, and moving up to the XR was so freeing. It still fits in my pocket, so it's not cumbersome.

It's nice to hear that you're happy with the things you've purchased 👍

 

[jchap]

Been upgrading since 2008 nonstop without hesitating. Can't really give you a valid reason to upgrade every year.

It's the iPhone. Must upgrade!

What do you do with the old phones every year?

Also, did you ever find an iPhone that almost made you want to stop upgrading the next year?

 

[NoelWalker]

I will separate the question into two parts. Why you NEED to upgrade and why you WANT to upgrade.
I upgraded to 11 from my 6s because I NEEDED the extra battery life and WANTED the bigger screen real estate and the ultra-wide camera. The 6s was dying with maximum 3 hours of screen on time and lag whatever I did.
And last year I upgraded again to 13 mini because I WANTED the OLED display and the smaller form factor. I didn't need to upgrade, I just wanted to do so. This year I would upgrade once again to 14 Pro because I WANT the 48MP camera and screen real estate once again (only if it comes with USB-C)

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

What do you do with the old phones every year?

Also, did you ever find an iPhone that almost made you want to stop upgrading the next year?

I've started to collect them and I've been collecting them for the last 7-8 years. I don't like dealing with selling them and putting them into the market. Time is money, LOL.

It has never dawned on me never to upgrade. It just never crossed my mind. At this point, I can safely say it upgrading holds more of a tradition and a sentimental value to me.

 

[Cognizant.]

I've started to collect them and I've been collecting them for the last 7-8 years. I don't like dealing with selling them and putting them into the market. Time is money, LOL.

It has never dawned on me never to upgrade. It just never crossed my mind. At this point, I can safely say it upgrading holds more of a tradition and a sentimental value to me.

Swappa.com is the place I sell all my Apple stuff. iPhones, Macs, etc, and it couldn't be easier. I don't deal with eBay anymore.

 

[blkjedi954]

I’m really feeling we are at peak smartphone. Take my S21. I really don’t see anything in the near future that would make me want to upgrade, especially since I have the 256GB model, so plenty of storage still. And I’m only planning to upgrade my iPhone 7 Plus mainly because Apple dropped it from ios16. Performance used to be a reason, but imo nowadays it’s only edge cases where people upgrade due to performance.

Seeing at lay consumers, most generally tend to upgrade when their battery life is getting too short and/or they’re running out of storage space. Some will upgrade when their phone breaks (regardless of length of time of ownership).

What about you guys? What would be your reason to upgrade to any newer phone from your current one?

Astro-photography capabilities. iPhones SUCK at taking pictures of the night sky. Waiting for when it’s no longer the case!

 

[ian87w]

Astro-photography capabilities. iPhones SUCK at taking pictures of the night sky. Waiting for when it’s no longer the case!

This is another reason why I think we are at peak smartphone. The new features that some people are looking for are increasingly niche features that won't affect the general use of a smartphone.

 

[ian87w]

For those answering that your phone is getting too slow, it would be interesting to read which phone you're upgrading from.

 

[ian87w]

when I can get a new one for free as part of a trade-in deal.

This is probably true in countries where contracts are common (eg. US). People are simply upgrading just because it's time to re-contract and they're not paying more monthly anyway, so might as well get that new phone.

 

[unrigestered]

For those answering that your phone is getting too slow, it would be interesting to read which phone you're upgrading from.

it also depends on what they will be upgrading to... maybe their next phone will be the iPhone 20, because their X became too slow.
at least i understood this question as about our general buying / replacing behavior and not why we're upgrading NOW

 

[ian87w]

If I can have an iPhone without a notch (does not exist) and with 120Hz display (so in the Pro line), I don't think I will ever need to upgrade anymore.

Interesting. What phone do you have right now?

For me, even those things won't sway me to upgrade as they're just cosmetics. (I disable high refresh rate on my S21 since I don't really see the benefit). With or without those, my day-to-day tasks on the smartphone are not affected. Thus I think we are at peak smartphone, since the reason to upgrade is increasingly niche/trivial.

 

[EnigmaticZee]

Having owned an Android tablet for some time (because I wanted an OLED display), I won’t be switching to Android for the phone anytime soon, it’s just too sucky. If there isn’t a new small iPhone when the mini 13 goes out of support, I don’t know, I’ll probably suck up whatever is the next-smallest iPhone then. What I’d really want is something in the OG SE form factor (size and lightness).

Perspectives. I have been using S10e for 3 years now and absolutely love the Android OS.

 

[PsykX]

Interesting. What phone do you have right now?

For me, even those things won't sway me to upgrade as they're just cosmetics. (I disable high refresh rate on my S21 since I don't really see the benefit). With or without those, my day-to-day tasks on the smartphone are not affected. Thus I think we are at peak smartphone, since the reason to upgrade is increasingly niche/trivial.

I have an iPhone 12, not Pro.

Of course I always appreciate new camera features, but yes we're at a peak and I think upgrading at this point will start to become nearly pointless.
The screen resolution cannot be better, colors either, blacks are true blacks thanks to OLED, photos are incredible, processing power is simply put amazing (GPU can always be better though, but still.

 

[kd5jos]

I’m really feeling we are at peak smartphone. Take my S21. I really don’t see anything in the near future that would make me want to upgrade, especially since I have the 256GB model, so plenty of storage still. And I’m only planning to upgrade my iPhone 7 Plus mainly because Apple dropped it from ios16. Performance used to be a reason, but imo nowadays it’s only edge cases where people upgrade due to performance.

Seeing at lay consumers, most generally tend to upgrade when their battery life is getting too short and/or they’re running out of storage space. Some will upgrade when their phone breaks (regardless of length of time of ownership).

What about you guys? What would be your reason to upgrade to any newer phone from your current one?

Well, let’s see…
Smaller foot print… Oh wait, I get that in my apple watch.
Larger, more colorful, easier to read, higher resolution screen… Oh wait, I get that in my iPad.
More powerful processor, more ram… Oh wait, that’s in my iPad.
Easier to carry when exercising… Oh wait, that’s my watch.
Works with wireless earbuds… watch and tablet do that.

I guess the only thing I’m tied to a phone for is CarPlay (which could be made available on the tablet), Health (which could be made available on the tablet), and Watch (which could be made available on the tablet).

Trying to figure out why I’d want to carry a brick in my pocket when the only thing tying me to pre 2020 technology…

Is software that could EASILY be moved to my tablet freeing me forever from the stupid that is a “smart” phone.

I ALREADY have the upgrade to a smartphone, I’m just not allowed by the vendor to be free of it yet.

 

[matt_and_187_like_this]

Most important factor: When important apps (think banking) no longer support the old iOS version

 

[Hicksmat1976]

I used to do it every year, then every 2 years, and now its a case of whether the new phone has hardware features I value, such as camera or higher storage options etc. All the rumours I am hearing this year's models tells me that my 12 Pro might be worth sticking with and perhaps I'll pay that bit of money to replace the battery when its needed. I think the fact iOS tends to run well on several generations of iPhone is actually counter-intuitive in terms of iPhone sales - they could be selling more phones by limiting iOS lifespan on older hardware - however I love that Apple do support older devices and I hope that doesn't change any time soon.

 

[chanchowancho]

Like so many people here I used to be a yearly upgrader (twice a year when I used to swap between iPhone and Android), and now only upgrade when a family member needs a phone and I need to hand mine down (sadly this has already happened twice this year )

Previously it used to be if a feature would have some large benefit for my daily use case (e.g Much longer battery life or giant OLED screen for watching Youtube). I've skipped a few generations recently because they were very similar to my existing handsets (XS, 12).

 

[SFjohn]

A periscope lens in 2023, a port less iPhone, and eventually when under the display camera & Face ID work perfectly.

 

[Cognizant.]

A periscope lens in 2023, a port less iPhone, and eventually when under the display camera & Face ID work perfectly.

And when you need to restore your iPhone because of an error, a portless iPhone would be very nonsensical. Not to mention you can't use the phone if it's charging wirelessly.

 

[SFjohn]

And when you need to restore your iPhone because of an error, a portless iPhone would be very nonsensical. Not to mention you can't use the phone if it's charging wirelessly.

I think Apple can figure that all out… 😉

 

[ian87w]

And when you need to restore your iPhone because of an error, a portless iPhone would be very nonsensical. Not to mention you can't use the phone if it's charging wirelessly.

You probable meant DFU restore, which still requires a wired connection to a computer (so much for post PC era...). This is imo the last issue for iOS to get portless. iOS needs its own recovery mode like macOS/Android.

Or, Apple would add some sort of data connectivity to magsafe 2.0. I've always wondered why there is that elongated bar at the bottom the circular magnets of magsafe. Seems like a placeholder for something.