I feel like I've had my iPhone forever. What am I missing out on?

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......7 Plus....6 = 13.....

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I reject your reality and substitute my own!

You only live once.

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if the seven serves your needs, then not a thing.

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“No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong.” -- François de La Rochefoucauld

"Those who cannot accept the past are condemned to revise it." -- Geo. Mathias

The German word for contraceptive is “Schwangerschaftsverhütungsmittel”. By the time you finished saying that, it’s too late

I probably won't get one, but the telephoto sense on the 13 Pros is singing a sweet song to me. I like to do portraits, and that's get up to my favorite focal length (85-90mm equivalent on full frame).

it all depends on how you use your phone.

My teenage daughter, who is also my social media manager, is on her phone 29 hours a day. So the larger, faster, more storage phone made sense. Myself... I use my phone for... phone calls 98% of the time. some very light browsing, occasional maps and apple pay. No email, no photos, no video, no games... nada. Really my OG SE was more than fine, but went to a 12 mini cause it was nearly free.

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Edited 999 time(s). Last edit at 12:08PM by jdc.

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mattkime
I feel like I've had my iPhone forever. What am I missing out on?

Holy cow…

Assuming you want the same size phone, here's the comparison:

[www.apple.com]

The upgrade in performance and capabilities is huge.

Batteries don’t last forever. Phones aren’t supported forever. Depending on your carrier, you might get a real nice trade-in price for it towards a 13. Verizon at least is paying $400 for a 7. I assume AT&T is similar. Then you could use that for another five years and do the same thing. Or, if they keep offering what some of the carriers are offering right now, you could just keep swapping for a new phone for free every two years. As long as you don’t plan on changing carriers, NBD.

My wife and I were going to trade in our 11s for 13s for free. Then I saw that they were giving $400 for lots of older phones - all the way back to the original SE. I think instead we’re going to trade in our kids’ 7s for 13s, keep them for ourselves, then pass down our 11s to them.

Edit: Just realized that all depends on your plan, though. I can only speak from my Verizon knowledge, but with them, you also have to have at least the second tier unlimited plan. If you currently have a capped data plan, none of that might work.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/18/2021 09:34PM by BernDog.

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Article Accelerator
The upgrade in performance and capabilities is huge.

I see a lot of specs but not a lot of capabilities, well, unless I include photo capabilities. Maybe I should think of it as a new camera.

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I have trepidations about putting a grand and more into something that can be so easily broken or lost, or dropped into the toilet.
But that thirteen does look nice…

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And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Western Massachusetts

I had the same question when still using a 6S. My battery was pretty much dead but worked and looked great otherwise. TMobile was offering a trade in deal on our 6Ses for the 12 earlier this year that I could not pass up. A much better plan than I had with Verizon, I'm paying the same every month and we have 2 new (well, new in February) 12s. Huge upgrade, faster (way), all day and longer battery, way better screen and yes, better camera. So, yes, it depends on what you use the phone for. One or two calls a day? Email, texts, photos, calls, other heavy use? I actually find that I'm using the 12 more than I was the 6S.
Oh, yeah, you can drop it in the toilet, just don't flush.

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mattkime
I feel like I've had my iPhone forever. What am I missing out on?

Mattkime,

I'm in the same boat with my 8+. It does everything I need it for and is plenty fast. I've just replaced the battery in it and my wife's model 8.

I'm tempted to stick with these until security issues arise or they can't run the latest iOS, or I get a deal I can't refuse on a version 12 or newer.

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Ed (modelamac)

I think I will just put an OUT OF ORDER
sticker on my head and call it a day.

Thanks for posting this topic. We have iPhone 7 and have been thinking of upgrading, but with no clear reason, except newer/better.

I was hoping that iPhone 13 mini would have upgraded screen specs, but it's only on the pro version. I'm now tempted to wait to see what next year will bring. If nothing for the mini, then I'll probably do the 13 by then.

I'm very tempted to upgrade but I suspect I'm best off waiting. I WANT but I don't NEED. The financing deal is tempting but its still money I should be spending on other things.

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mattkime
I see a lot of specs but not a lot of capabilities, well, unless I include photo capabilities. Maybe I should think of it as a new camera.

That's the way I think. If not for the camera I'd stick with my old phone. I like to take photographs when hiking and biking but I don't like all the extra hassle of carrying a camera, lenses and flash and still not having an easy way to share photos or add location data. The iPhone 13 camera is pretty darn close in capability to my Lumix Micro 4/3 camera and in many areas the iPhone is actually better. I will now probably sell the camera and lenses to help defray the cost of the phone. I'll probably add a Moment case and telephoto to provide better "reach" for the phone camera.

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"In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion." (1987) -- Carl Sagan

If it suits your needs, then there's no reason to upgrade. I have a 6s, which if I were to update the iOS, would be perfectly fine. I haven't because there's a game I play all the time that wasn't updated to run past iOS 10. But I'm noticing a lot of web pages that won't work on the older version of Safari. And I'd like a better camera. So my plan is to finally get a new phone, but keep the old one so I can still play my game.

I'm still using my 128GB 7 Plus. Never run out of memory, it has not failed to do anything I need from it. Battery Health at 82% and Peak Performance Capability.

I can find zero reason to upgrade.

The smart phone market is definitely saturated.

I’m sticking with my 6S plus. Works just fine, has a new battery, and is still supported. My little rebellion that running your entire life through a phone.

....it's like with a spouse.....it's tempting to upgrade but..........

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I reject your reality and substitute my own!

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mattkime

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Article Accelerator
The upgrade in performance and capabilities is huge.

I see a lot of specs but not a lot of capabilities, well, unless I include photo capabilities. Maybe I should think of it as a new camera.

Let me help you out, Matt:

5G
AR (LiDAR-enabled)
Face ID
MagSafe accessories & charging
Wireless charging
Gigabit LTE
WiFi 6
Ultra Wideband chip for spatial awareness
Additional GPS sources for coverage & accuracy: Galileo, QZSS, and BeiDou
1080p FaceTime HD
Spatial audio
Dolby Atmos support
A huge increase in battery life
A huge increase in performance
Fast charging
eSIM/dual SIM

…and, as you noted, much better and more capable camera function.

My iPhone 7 was doing fine... except the battery life blew, even after one replacement. And the camera started taking blurry pix, and I use it for selling online. So it wasn't doing what I needed and we were switching away from AT&T, and T-Mo gave us hundreds for the old phones, so we upgraded. My wife hates the new iPhone controls, but she hates technology and change... what can ya do?

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I traded my iPhone 7 for a 12 mini, and it is not noticeably different to me. I had just had the battery replaced for 50 bucks, and it was running great. I'm with everyone else, in that if the camera is a big deal to you, that's about the only difference.

Watch Verizon close on your trade-in. They unequivocally shafted the Frick out of us on our trade-ins. Told us what we would get, and gave us a quarter of that when I got the receipt (they said the phones weren't in the condition that they had been told, even though they were the ones that entered the condition when we were in the store...). I had no recourse but a bad google review, which they called me to ask that I change. Uh, I don't think so. I expect nothing less than complete schiesterism for anything involving phones, so no biggie, I guess.