Other How long did your last iPhone last / do you expect your current phone to last?

[-pete-]

Hi everyone, I'm contemplating switching out from my current Sony Xperia XZ2 to an iPhone 11 after about 6 years of being out of the apple loop.

I've had my current phone for a couple of years now but I'm thinking of splurging on an 11 Pro and paying for it over 3 years rather than just going for the base iPhone 11 that doesn't have too much in the way of improvements over what I currently have.

I would only really do this if I was sure I would be holding on to the phone for probably at least 5 years.

So, I have to ask, how long do your phones last?

 

[FlippyGonnaSnap]

Varies. Planning on keeping my Pro Max for at-least three.

Had my iPhone 7 for one, Galaxy S7 for two.

 

[revmacian]

I'm currently holding onto my Apple devices until either my needs change drastically or the device irrecoverably dies. For me, upgrading prior to either of those events is a waste of resources.

 

[eyoungren]

So, I have to ask, how long do your phones last?

Is that really a serious question? This is Apple.

I have an iPhone 4, first sold in 2010.

I have an iPhone 4s, first sold in 2011.

I have an iPhone 5, first sold in 2012.

I have an iPhone 6s and 6s+, first sold in 2015.

With the exception of the iPhone 5 which has been replaced three times for battery swelling (and needs to be replaced again) all my iPhones are fully functional and used for various things. There is another iPhone 5 in the house that my daughter uses. It's functioning normally and does not suffer from battery swelling.

My 6s+ was my primary phone until May when we went to the Pixel. It's my secondary phone now on it's own line.

I do have a home and power button problem with the iPhone 4, but that was a $20 Reddit buy from someone who didn't want to just throw it away.

Now. Should I get into the longevity of my Macs as more proof of Apple hardware holding up? I've got a 1999 iMac G3 and a PowerMac G3 you may want to talk to.

 

[Puppuccino]

Apple hardware is generally speaking very robust and holds up for years and years compared to similar devices.

If you get an iPhone 11 Pro Max, as long as you look after it, I would imagine it’d last for at least 5 years if not more with normal usage. Whilst software updates my only last a few years, it’ll still work for many more to come so it’s a worth while investment.

 

[millerj123]

3 iPhone 6s, 1 iPhone 7+ all in daily use. 1 iPhone 6 and 1 iPhone 5 that work, but not on Verizon, so they only get used when we have wifi. I like the fact that the newer phones are waterproof, but that's not enough of a reason to upgrade.

 

[secretk]

Unfortunately I cannot help you with that. I have my two iOS devices (regular 2018 iPad and company iPhone 8) for 1 year. My personal phone is Sony Xperia XZ1 compact. If you think about it both phones I have (Sony/iPhone) are models from the same year and within one month apart. Sony one is from August 2017, iPhone from September 2017. I have the Sony from April 2018, the iPhone from February 2019.

I personally take the smoothness of the Android customization on the Sony phone over the iOS one. It is true that Sony does not update their phones the way Apple does, but it also does not introduce the bugs Apple does. In terms of RAM management Sony does it better as well. Almost no apps/tabs reloads. Only intensive games gets reloaded.

In terms of hardware indeed maybe iPhones hold better. The question for me however is always on how I will handle the iOS update mess. Like seriously with iOS 13 I had to wonder are the Developers idiots or it is the QA or both. I have used Android phones for 10 years and I have not ever had such of a mess as an software update.

To sum up - most people focus on hardware. I focus on software as well. I prefer for my phones to not be updated than to receive the mess that was iOS 13. I do not care about new features, I care about stability. Also RAM management. IMO this is the weakest spot of iOS devices and no matter how good the hardware is, I kind of feel that with every new iOS version, they use more and more RAM and it ends up in lots of apps/tabs reloading. Something I equate with lagging basically.

 

[jeyf]

i kept my previous phone 3or4 years
I stopped downloading ios updates on the old phone. Some how there was as un solicited software or firmware update and the phone was unable to make reliable voice phone calls. Was able to text tho. All the apps worked so i kept it a little while longer and the battery expanded separating the case top / bottom. dead.

I bought a iPhone 7 which is working now but with ios13 only 90% functional, it has odd random errors. Must be how i hold it? I wonder how high the ios13 revision number will get till apple gets it right?

my neighborhood (urban area) is being invaded from the north by 5G towers. I have been told carriers are not supporting the old 4g towers. Where i live the towers are end of life and not supported except for structural and safety maintenance.

so assume your area will qualify for 5G soon? I would buy an iPhone with a reliable (not 1st gen) 5G modem chip. I my iPhone 7 may not last till 5G becomes functional 4me.

best of luck.

 

[BugeyeSTI]

I have a 6S from 2015 that was my main phone and now my backup. It’s still has great performance for a 4 year old device and still receives updates so if necessary I could use it as my main device. My X just turned 2 years old and I plan on keeping it until next years phone is released at which point I’ll have the battery replaced (like I did with the 6S) and it will become my backup for at least another 3 years

 

[tonybarnaby]

I plan to use my 8+ in some way for another 3 years.

 

[||\||]

On iPhone 6. It is still totally viable.

 

[MacRazySwe]

I went 4.5 years with my old iPhone 6. A record for me! It still worked well enough.

 

[now i see it]

Well I'm still using an iPhone 6 Plus (on iOS 9) that's five years old and the hardware is running as good as the day I bought it - because I never updated the OS.

But...

At some time (in my case 5 years) you've really got to update the OS because the Safari web browser and any other browser that runs on iOS will eventually not work too well or at all on more & more websites.
Apple will also pretty much block you from most of their website too using an old browser.
Also eventually there will be not be any apps at the App Store that will run on the old OS. Really, Safari is the Achilles heel of iOS. You can't run an old version (on the internet) forever.

So can an iPhone last 5 years? Mine has and I'll continue using it.
But be forewarned, updating the OS beyond maybe one version from which it shipped is the beginning of the end of your once snappy iPhone. iOS updates eventually will make it too annoying to use due to slowdowns for features you never wanted.

Interestingly, I also have an iPhone 8 running the latest version iOS 13 but I never use it except to visit an occasional webpage that won't work properly on my 6+. Not a fan of iOS 13 at all. In my opinion it's worse in almost every way than iOS 9. So much for progress.

 

[tonybarnaby]

Well I'm still using an iPhone 6 Plus (on iOS 9) that's five years old and the hardware is running as good as the day I bought it - because I never updated the OS.

But...

At some time (in my case 5 years) you've really got to update the OS because the Safari web browser and any other browser that runs on iOS will eventually not work too well or at all on more & more websites.
Apple will also pretty much block you from most of their website too using an old browser.
Also eventually there will be not be any apps at the App Store that will run on the old OS. Really, Safari is the Achilles heel of iOS. You can't run an old version (on the internet) forever.

So can an iPhone last 5 years? Mine has and I'll continue using it.
But be forewarned, updating the OS beyond maybe one version from which it shipped is the beginning of the end of your once snappy iPhone. iOS updates eventually will make it too annoying to use due to slowdowns for features you never wanted.

Interestingly, I also have an iPhone 8 running the latest version iOS 13 but I never use it except to visit an occasional webpage that won't work properly on my 6+. Not a fan of iOS 13 at all. In my opinion it's worse in almost every way than iOS 9. So much for progress.

I think that saying to never update the iOS is not exactly accurate. You don’t know for sure how bad it is, because you haven’t done it. Forums will always be skewed in a drastically negative way. Very few people will come on and say how well iOS 11,12,13 work. Way more people will come on and say how the new iOS version “killed my iPhone”. I think a lot of that goes back to the 6 series and it’s 1gb of ram. Of course the newer updates “ruined” the phone, because they were only really optimized for the iOS update they launched with. I don’t see people complaining about their 7+ or 8+ being ruined. Even people on a new Xs series have complained about iOS, but it’s due to the update itself, not the fact it ruins older phones.

 

[jettie1767]

I replace my phones yearly so I don't know how long they last.

 

[nickdalzell1]

I expect it to last a lot longer than any Android phones i had did. I got a PowerBook G4 TiBook that can still browse some modern sites and it's close to 20 years old. Battery still works a bit too. I found a decade old iPhone 4 in a junkyard car that just needed a restore and it works and battery's still good (and in the beat up condition it's in, there's no way anyone ever replaced the battery--looks like Techrax's results)

Now I don't expect to hold onto the same iPhone 6S i have now for that long but who knows? I'm not one to mindlessly upgrade until what i have either breaks or no longer does what i want it to do. I'm old fashioned that way. I still cling to 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it'.

I actually love iOS 13. It feels like some of the skeuo magic has started slowly returning albeit in a modern fashion which I've missed since iOS 7 to me was the ugliest version ever and 9 still looked like 7. It wasn't until 12 IMO before they started to backtrack some of the flat design. I hope 14 improves even more. Dark mode is definitely a step in the right direction for these old eyes.

 

[GalileoSeven]

I bought a iPhone 6 shortly after launch and it lasted me a good 5 years (didn't do the free battery replacement). Am expecting the XR I bought to last at least that long, maybe an extra yr or 2 beyond that.

 

[Mac2019]

Usually around 3 years. I expect I will upgrade next year so the XR would have hung around for 2 years. I'll then give it away to one of my parents or my wife, as none of them upgrade their phones until they physically break so one of them can have the xr if they want it.

 

[nickdalzell1]

Before my dad died sadly in 2016 he was still using the original iPhone! the 2G. He only used it to make calls and browse Safari. Didn't even have a texting plan. Display was super dim but did what he wanted it to. Was given to him by a friend. He was using the first Moto Razr V3 but AT&T killed GPRS and he had to upgrade.

 

[Camarillo Brillo]

For what it’s worth, my iPhone 7 is almost 3 years old, and is running the most recent version of iOS, running great. There aren’t any problems introduced by updating to 13. Actually it fixed a couple bugs for me.

Also have a 2011 MacBook Pro that works like new, as well as a 2013 MacBook Air also working great. No repairs! Apple Hardware is top quality.

 

[nickdalzell1]

The HDD in my first 2012 MBP died and i had a fit and smashed it on the ground (yea it was not a smart move but i did manage to save the RAM, fan, even the HDD seems intact but no doubt dead. surprised so much survived but the screen) but I love my new 2019 MBP.

My oldest Apple products are an old busted up iPhone 4 I found in a junkyard that still works and holds charge, sadly it's stuck forever on iOS 7.0.1 which isn't my favorite and still ugly! And an old PowerBook G4 Titanium someone gave me. It was acting like HDD failure but a simple wipe and reinstall of OS X Jaguar restored it to new--believe it or not, Netscape 9.0 still pulls up many SSL pages including this site! No a bad performer for only 128MB of RAM. None of my WinXP stuff ran that good even with 512MB.

The PowerBook i keep more as a museum piece and don't try to use often. It's still in decent condition, battery still holds some charge, and after reading and later listening to the Steve Jobs book/audiobook it just feels sad to simply throw it away. Before i got my new MBP it was what i used to keep 'all Apple' once i came back after 6 years on Android.

There are quite a few games I purchased/played back when i had iOS 6 on an iPad 3 (then known as the 'New iPad') that won't run on modern iOS, the install icon is greyed out and says 'the developer hasn't updated to support iOS 11+' so I'm going to find a cheap iPad 2 on Amazon soon just to get those back. I miss them and there's no Android version.

 

[Alex967CW]

My first iPhone, the iPhone 5s, lasted for four years. It was working fine until I dropped it and the logic board inside broke. My next phone, the iPhone SE, was used for about 1.5 years until I bought an iPhone 11 (will give the SE to a family member). We still have an iPhone 4s in use (bought 6 years ago) but will be retired soon due to Verizon dropping 3G support. I expect my 11 to last at least two years, but I'm confident that it will still run well 5 years down the road.

On the tablet side, we still have two functional iPad 2's that are used once in a while. I downgraded both of them to iOS 6 and upgraded one to iOS 8. I currently used them to run old applications and experience the different iOS versions on each one. These iPads are over 8 years old now, but are still in good condition.

I do have an old iPod Shuffle (1st gen) in my house somewhere; its battery cannot hold a charge (unless plugged into a computer) so it is unused. The original earbuds that came with the device are still in use though.

 

[nickdalzell1]

How do you downgrade iOS since Apple stopped signing it? If i could've i'd have avoided the 6 years of Android (who was still doing skeuomorphism ala Samsung) since my iPad 3 and iPhone 4 got iOS 7 and i couldn't downgrade. I tried DFU restore and IPSW of 6.0.1 but it always failed.

When i get an iPad 2 it no doubt would have its last supported version installed (Amazon resales always update the software--my Note 2 has 4.4 Kitkat, vs. 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, my Galaxy S5 6.0 Marshmallow vs 4.4 KitKat) and iOS 9 was as hideous as 7, and i heard it makes the iPad slow

Doesn't the 4S support 4G? Why would losing 3G matter? My dad before he died used the original iPhone! He had it on Tmobile who has a functioning EDGE network still.

 

[Camarillo Brillo]

Hi friend ,

I think it’s time to let go of the skeuomorphism and update your devices! Security updates are way more important than simulated shadows and wood grain.

You’re running android Kit Kat devices? I hope you’re not doing mobile banking on those

Any time an iOS update slowed down my iPhone it was fixed by the time the next incremental update came out. Trust Apple, in my experience their software works as long as the device is still supported, with maybe some minor glitches at worst.

 

[nickdalzell1]

I'm getting the iPad 2 because many games i miss from when i was in Apple years ago no longer support anything after iOS 11. Also i hear the iPad 2 performs awful on iOS 9 so it's not JUST skeuomorphism. the iPad should have never gotten past 7. It was underspecced for 9

iOS 13 and macOS Catalina have started trending towards a slight bit of skeuo return though. Shiny title bars, drop shadows, icons that look 'tangible' for lack of better description, the way the books look like hardcover books, etc.

I got plenty of skeuo apps and AR apps on app page #2 on my 6S though. I never liked flat. I used it back when flat was all PCs and such did in the 80s. it's not something i find 'modern.' but actually dated. My Nokia 5185i had a flat UI. and monochromatic one at that. Was it awful? not at the time. But it's not 1996 anymore.

FYI i WAS running those old Android devices. I returned to Apple because things have changed for the better since i left and Android remains, alas, Android.