[MrManor]

I am or at least I was a serial iphone purchaser, I love most Apple stuff since adopting the first gen iPod nano a long time ago.

My contract on my pro 11 is around £80 a month and I’m now getting bombarded by emails and adverts for the new 13 pro.

I’m finding it impossible to keep up with how many new models there are now and have no real desire to as it’ll end up costing as much as the wife’s car a month for a frikkin phone soon enough.

The costs have become outrageous and of course my 9 year old wants one for his birthday next month FFS.

Phone contracts must’ve outperformed inflation exponentially, at least it feels that way

[ian332isport]

I always buy my iPhone outright and run a SIM only contract. Usually keep it for several years until the performance/battery life become something I notice.

Like you, I currently have an 11pro. I actually bought it the day after the 12 was released. For me at least, I think phones are getting to big. 11pro is about the biggest I want to lug around. My previous phone was an iPhone7 and apart from the battery life dropping off a bit, was still perfectly useable. I hate to think how big they’ll be when the 11 needs replacing.

Changing phones every year is a mugs game. Keep your 11 and go SIM only.

[AyrshireColin]

£80 pcm on a phone - wow!

I normally buy a new Pro max model each year, just buy outright and then sell a year later when I order the new model - it ‘costs’ about £250-£300 to do this each year (obviously there’s the initial outlay on the phone, being doing this since the iPhone 7 was launched) I’m on a sim only contract with 3 at £9 pcm so all in it costs me about £24 pcm if averaging the outlay and I get a new phone every year on launch. £80 is mega - that’s £1,920 over the 2 years you’ve had your phone….again, wow!

For the first time in a long time I’m not bothering this year. Don’t see any massive gains on the phone, camera aside, and hardly leave the bloody house/need a phone!

9 year old ‘wanting’ a new iPhone - do one! My daughter is 9 and her ‘phone’ is an iPod Touch, it’s the latest model and cost £175 new. Does everything a phone does for her, she knows no difference and is delighted with it to this day.

[Lurch1989]

I used to be the same, in the end I just bought the phone outright and kept w contract on the side.

I've had iPads, iPhones this way but to be honest I now almost exclusively use the Galaxy Note series as it does all of the above, only issue is it doesn't link with the BMW, so it's just Bluetooth for me.

Phones recently haven't made any great leaps like they were doing in the early to mid 2010s, now it's just iterations rather than big leaps.

[MrManor]

Originally Posted by AyrshireColin

£80 pcm on a phone - wow!

I normally buy a new Pro max model each year, just buy outright and then sell a year later when I order the new model - it ‘costs’ about £250-£300 to do this each year (obviously there’s the initial outlay on the phone, being doing this since the iPhone 7 was launched) I’m on a sim only contract with 3 at £9 pcm so all in it costs me about £24 pcm if averaging the outlay and I get a new phone every year on launch. £80 is mega - that’s £1,920 over the 2 years you’ve had your phone….again, wow!

For the first time in a long time I’m not bothering this year. Don’t see any massive gains on the phone, camera aside, and hardly leave the bloody house/need a phone!

9 year old ‘wanting’ a new iPhone - do one! My daughter is 9 and her ‘phone’ is an iPod Touch, it’s the latest model and cost £175 new. Does everything a phone does for her, she knows no difference and is delighted with it to this day.

I still sell the old phones so I suppose get some money back on the outlay.

[sahajesh]

Surprised to see the hate on the new iPhones - I always get the new phone and once you buy outright and get SIM-only, the delta as said above is pretty good.

We use our phones considerably more than our cars yet have no problem using man-maths to justify the latter.

Better battery life is always good and I don't like battery packs/cases. Improved camera is great as well.

The phone line-up isn't confusing, if anything the iPad range definitely is!

[MashinBenzin]

I'm in the buy outright and sim only camp too, but tend to keep 3 years. Iphone11 pro max at the moment, bought on release day two years ago. Will probably keep it until the 14 is released.

Even replacing every year, would still be good value for the use and utility.

[gangzoom]

Originally Posted by MrManor

My contract on my pro 11 is around £80 a month and I’m now getting bombarded by emails and adverts for the new 13 pro.

As others have said just buy the handsets out right and trade in/sell your current handsets at the same time. SIM only deals are really cheap these days we pay £15/month for x2 EE sims. You are than free to change handsets when ever you want.

[isleaiw1]

Also in the buy outright camp - but Samsung rather than Apple. And I keep my phones until they are absolutely wrecked because I absolutely hate the hassle of getting all the apps working on a new one, especially banking... That's user issues not phone but still!

Currently on a Galaxy Note 20, reckon it has a good 3 to 4 years left yet.

(Environmentally, you'd be better keeping your old phone forever - its consumerism that is the worst thing for the climate)

[Abzynthe]

SIM only contract for me and 0% finance on the handset.
£18 for contract and £55 for the phone a month.
I've only recently bought the 12 pro max in the last couple of months and plan on having it until it needs a battery replacement. I had the X before that which my daughter now has and she's happy with it. She's only 6 lol.

[Watsey]

I generally love Apple kit but it's been a long time since I bought into the "got to have the latest" mentality.

I've always specced each device to a level that will last me many years, bought outright, and (for phones) run them as SIM-only.

My iMac and two MBPs are both 9 years old and still going strong, albeit I upgraded the iMac to SSD. I run a 128Gb iPhone 7 which is absolutely fine for what I need.

My 13 year old daughter keeps asking for the latest iPhone even though her iPhone 7 was new two years ago and is also absolutely fine. Now I just say "sure; if you save your pocket money to get to £1,000". Then suddenly the instant/must-have world becomes a bit mote grounded.

Apple is great at emptying people's wallets. It's up to you whether you let them.

[JustChris]

I know what you mean on prides and change about every 3 years.

However it's not change since terms of the cycle, still seems to be a September annual announcement?

…£80/month on the black mirror ouch!

[Pentland]

Wife and I had iPhone 5 until battery life (on both) dwindled and hers had an additional catastrophic failure. Currently on iPhone 7 and batteries are starting to go.
As with others, bought out right then sim only for £6pm pp.

I might get the 13 for Mrs P for her Xmas but I think mine will live to fight another year.
With no big advances the incremental tech upgrades are wasted on me.

Plus I’m not a fan of massive handsets - I like to be able to use the phone single handed and prefer Touch ID over Face recognition. Many times I want to glance at my phone on the desk or arm of the chair rather than pick it up to open it.

[SkyJawa]

Buy outright here too, only switched from my XS max to a 12 pro max because the missus 10 was dropping battery and performance, she had the xs max. Also the camera is definitely a fair bit better than the xs max having the 0.5, 1.0 and 2.5x zooms.

Last time I worked out whether to be on the Apple plan to get a new phone every year or buy outright and for me it was cheaper to go outright.

Looks like the 13 is a complete washout and barely better than the 12 so you would be mad to change a 12 for a 13 imho.

[Watsey]

Originally Posted by SkyJawa

Looks like the 13 is a complete washout and barely better than the 12 so you would be mad to change a 12 for a 13 imho.

iPhone 13 !! Can capture video in PORTRAIT MODE !!!!

The world falls silent.

Is that it ??

Cough. Yep.

[Russbmw]

Yeah, I got off the new phone hamstewheel a few years ago.

Last phone I was paying for on a contract was galaxy S10.

Bought a 6 month old Note 10+5g for £400 or something and never looked back.

Best phone I've had and will no doubt keep for quite a while, I was comparing the specs to the newer S20 at one point, and my phone was better....

We're emigrating anyway, so wanted to have unlocked phones we can use elsewhere.

My missus has an XS max she bought at the same time to replace her 7 that she'd had from new, and it does everything she needs too.

In my opinion, phones stopped getting exponentially better a good few years ago now (around the Galaxy S10/ iphone 8 era). The camera's may have some new feature, or a higher pixel count (which doesn't mean better quality, unless the sensor itself has got bigger) - and for me personally, having a phone that takes decent pictures, which even 4 year old phones do, to have in your pocket is all you need. If you want proper photos you take a proper camera - there is no substitute for that, and never will be in my view.

Ultimately, I just don't much give a shit about having the newest model anymore, as it doesn't generally do anything better than what I have - even when 5g becomes the norm, my phone can handle that too.

As mentioned above, paying nearly 3 figures for a phone a month is pure insanity. I pay £12 for a sim with 12gb of data and unlimited everything else.

The only reason I would change from one iphone to another would be if I wanted to get one with more storage. That said, I picked up an XS off a mate a month ago (which is mint and unlocked incidentally, primarily because for £100 it would give me 256gb of music storage to replace the aging 64gb ipod touch in the car.

[Pentland]

Originally Posted by SkyJawa

.

Looks like the 13 is a complete washout and barely better than the 12 so you would be mad to change a 12 for a 13 imho.

Correct - given the 3 major differences between a 12 and a 13 are cinematic mode, general performance (e.e. processor speed, battery life). However, accounting for memory size, there is not much price difference between a 12 and a 13 so if you had an older phone you’d be as well going for the 13.

May be their sales model is based on the 250 million users that upgrade every 3.5 years rather than annually

[Nibbles]

I'm in the buy outright camp as well. Currently with an Iphone 12 mini as I felt the phones are just getting too big. The mini is about the perfect size for me. I'll have it until the battery starts to run down by which time my youngest will be wanting a phone so I'll pass it down to her and get something new.

[SteveChester]

I tend to buy a decent quality refurb / used but spent its life in a case off EBay keep it pristine and rotate every 3 years. Don't need the latest model so suits me fine.

[aquazi]

I tend to buy every couple of years - mainly when i run out of space… but when my 512GB 11pro max ran out of space - moved it to cloud storage so will prob keep this for a few more years now!

But quite fancy the new apple watch… my 4 is looking quite dated!

[JNW1]

Originally Posted by Nibbles

I'm in the buy outright camp as well. Currently with an Iphone 12 mini as I felt the phones are just getting too big. The mini is about the perfect size for me. I'll have it until the battery starts to run down by which time my youngest will be wanting a phone so I'll pass it down to her and get something new.

Bought the same phone for the same reason when my iPhone 6 finally died a few months back; I'd had that for over 5 years and expect to keep the 12 Mini for a similar length of time. SIM only deal for £8/month with Sky gets me all I the data I need plus unlimited calls and texts - job done!

[gr4z]

Don't forget you can get a new battery for your phone from Apple for £69. Just look on the store website. Just book it in at a shop and have replaced while you wait. My 3 year old XS is sitting at 80% capacity now, so might well just get a new battery rather than spend nearly a £1000 on a new 13.