iPhone 5 or earlier iPhone 5S on iOS 10.2 or update it to 12?

[Gandek]

Picked up a iPhone 5S for a old iPhone collection and it came with 10.2. Do you guys know if it has any special value like some older iPhones do with older iOS versions or should I just update it to 12?

Runs pretty fast on 10.2 and I guess I don’t really need any apps on it so I wouldn’t mind keeping it on this version.

 

[now i see it]

I played the “never update the OS” for 6 years (iPhone 6 running iOS 9 in 2021) and I’ll NEVER do that again.
Yes I’ll stay 9 months behind and only upgrade to the next version of iOS sometime in early summer - but clinging on to an old unsupported OS is a loser. You can take my word for it cuz I did it too.
Along with fixing countless security bugs on newer versions of iOS, Safari gets updated too. Old versions of Safari don’t play well on the web.

There’s nothing better in iOS 10 than iOS 12.

 

[Gandek]

I played the “never update the OS” for 6 years (iPhone 6 running iOS 9 in 2021) and I’ll NEVER do that again.
Yes I’ll stay 9 months behind and only upgrade to the next version of iOS sometime in early summer - but clinging on to an old unsupported OS is a loser. You can take my word for it cuz I did it too.
Along with fixing countless security bugs on newer versions of iOS, Safari gets updated too. Old versions of Safari don’t play well on the web.

There’s nothing better in iOS 10 than iOS 12.

It’s more of a nostalgic thing I only use safari for YouTube on all these old devices

 

[now i see it]

iOS 10.2 has the un-fixed secret battery throttling implementation that throttles an phone with a tired battery until a new battery is installed

 

[BrettDS]

If it was a device you were using every day, then I would say upgrade it. But since it’s part of an old phone collection, then it seems to me that leaving a vintage OS on a vintage phone makes sense.

 

[Gandek]

Seems like the best bet. Performance isn’t bad either.