Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Other Which old iPhone should I go for?

M

MrMiyagi1

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 22, 2019
203
76
Hey everyone,

okay I need some advice. My main iPhone is an XR. However I also have a secondary iPhone 7 256gb.

The secondary iPhone I mainly use as a recording device when it comes to recording lectures and other things. I also use is as a phone for calls but very seldom.

Now my iPhone 7 is in need of repairs but out of warranty. The screen is broken, home button doesn’t work and I can’t even get into the iPhone as it keeps loading up the Apple logo and vanishing on me like it’s in loop. Sometimes I cannot see the screen at all. So I have looked at options to repair this iPhone. If I look at Apple out of warranty repair costs this will cost me £286.44. I can by the same iPhone slightly cheaper than that from Apple. However I am not keen on spending that much.

So I am thinking of an older phone than the iPhone 7 which has at least 128gb memory as a replacement. However this older iPhone I would prefer for it to be able to run fine on either the latest iOS version. Anyone got any recommendations which iPhone I should go for. I was thinking 6s but if anything before 6s runs fine can anyone recommend? As I said the only use would be for recording and occasional phone calls. Just to add when the next iPhone arrives I will probably use my xr as a secondary device.

thanks in advance
 
BasicGreatGuy said:
With the limited use mentioned, consider an original SE.
Click to expand...

you know after I wrote my post I was just going to mention this too that ideally the iPhone be smaller than the 7 but still runs fine on the current iOS. Can anyone confirm if the original SE runs fine on the current iOS and how the battery life is?
 
MrMiyagi1 said:
you know after I wrote my post I was just going to mention this too that ideally the iPhone be smaller than the 7 but still runs fine on the current iOS. Can anyone confirm if the original SE runs fine on the current iOS and how the battery life is?
Click to expand...
SE1 does a pretty good job with ios 13 actually. I don't use the device it's on tho so cannot confirm what the battery is like (it sits in a drawer as a almost backup should the worst happen to my own phone or wife's). In fact I couldn't rely on it because its battery jumps from 90% to 10 randomly, shuts off and then has any range of battery left showing at the top. Anyhoo I'd say the original se is a good shout and I recall it will get ios14 too
 
MrMiyagi1 said:
you know after I wrote my post I was just going to mention this too that ideally the iPhone be smaller than the 7 but still runs fine on the current iOS. Can anyone confirm if the original SE runs fine on the current iOS and how the battery life is?
Click to expand...

I recently bought a silver 64gb for $85 used.Tested it out for a week. Runs good. Battery is good on standby time if anything. Just make sure you have chargers around that go with your day. I’m basic with my usage like email, texts, YouTube, podcasts, Instagram, basic searches etc. If you have a car charger, your good. 7am 100%, by 6pm, I’m at 15%.

This is on a new battery I replaced for $50. If I eliminated YouTube, that’s like 30% added back. The orig SE is still a good daily driver if you choose, but it’s a backup for me. I mainly use my 11 pro max, battery and screen reasons, although I will get the 11 pro or this new 5.4 12. I like the smaller size it’s just that 4” screen I can’t do anymore. Sorry, lol, my 2% preference I threw in there.
 
Last edited:
The original SE runs great on iOS 13 and as others have said it will run iOS 14 later this year.
I bought a refurb 16gb one on eBay in January of this year with 100% battery health for under £60 to see if I could make a move to iOS from my BlackBerry KeyOne and it happily lasted me all day battery wise until lockdown started and I found myself using it more so I upgraded to an XR.
If you can find a good deal on a higher capacity one it would be a great replacement for your 7.
 
6s will still get all the iOS 14 features I believe. Pretty cheap on the second hand market as well.
 
OP not sure where in the U.K. your based but I’d recommend going to your local CeX and check out their second hand iPhones as the shops are open now. You can get them for good deals with warrantee also for peace of mind.
 
My SE does fine on 13.5.1, but I don’t worry about the battery, as I’m almost always around a charger.

Worrying about battery life can turn into a phobia, in my opinion. YMMV
 
MrMiyagi1 said:
So I am thinking of an older phone than the iPhone 7 which has at least 128gb memory as a replacement. However this older iPhone I would prefer for it to be able to run fine on either the latest iOS version.
Click to expand...
so with those two criteria, your options are 6S, 6S+, and SE (original). For what you use it for, I think the SE is the right choice, as others have advised also.
 
SE. it’ll handle those task you seek.
[automerge]1594313303[/automerge]
osta.doc said:
My SE does fine on 13.5.1, but I don’t worry about the battery, as I’m almost always around a charger.

Worrying about battery life can turn into a phobia, in my opinion. YMMV
Click to expand...
If the persons use is that basic I’d turn on low power mode and turn off data and WiFi and Bluetooth lol. He just needs it for a phone and voice recording.
 
  • Like
Reactions: osta.doc
Thanks for your replies all. I will probably get the original se. However since making this post I have managed to book an appointment next week with Apple just to see what they say about the iPhone 7 and see if they can just fix the screen without fixing the other issues. Ideally if they can fix the screen I pay the screen fixing cost and can reuse my 7. As I have recordings on the iphone which I did not manage to back up to iCloud. If they are not able to simply fix the screen and have to charge me a replacement device cost then i will tell them that I won’t go ahead with them. In hindsight I wish when I originally broke my screen took it to Apple to get fixed instead of a third party repair store. Just to give a background story: the screen broke, took it to a 3rd party repair store they fixed the screen and the home button was working fine too. A few days later the screen started to go green with lines going across it. Took it back to the store they said it was fine with them and that I must have did something. They offered to repair it again for a cost but I told them no thanks. I just put up with the screen as it was because the iPhone was still useable apart from the different colours on the screen. Then a month later I dropped the iPhone and the phone within the casing of the iphone seems to have came out so I put pushed it back together again. Then the screen went even more crazy like showing me blue colours and then not showing anything at all, prior to dropping it after the repair on occasions if I restarted the iPhone it would stick in a loop where the Apple logo keeps flashing on and off and won’t turn on and eventually it would fix itself but I had to avoid turning the iPhone off completely to avoid this problem. Also whenever I tried to take a photo I heard this weird crackling sound. Anyways that’s the story. Also to am near Edinburgh in Scotland so will check out the CeX store that’s been mentioned too. I seen this SE for £154.99 not sure if this is a good price though or how this company is when it comes to phones: https://www.musicmagpie.co.uk/store...unlocked-6d388cf3-08c0-494a-991a-2b994d23fed3 but they do offer a 12 month warranty.
 
Music magpie i have only ordered from once before.
I purchased a BlackBerry Bold 9900 for my brother as he wouldn’t use anything else at the time. It arrived with a faulty trackpad and a battery that would only last 30 mins, it was also sold as refurbished and in B+ condition.
I contacted them about the faults and was asked to have it repaired and send the bill for reimbursement, the cost was around £7 more than I paid for the phone and they refused to refund for it.
CeX is one to watch out for too, always double check what you are buying in person before handing over the cash. My local ones have a habit of labelling things wrong, sometimes it works in your favour and others you can get burned.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back