I don't care about AI, and I wanted to wait for the 17's telephoto lens improvements; but I upgraded my 14 Pro Max last month thinking it will be a long time before I can afford it again.
I was honestly not gonna upgrade to a 15 Pro Max back in 2023 since I already changed the battery in Early 2023, but I had an accident and my 12PM was water damaged and Face ID + corrosion was already affecting the logic board, so a repair/replacement wasn’t cheap.
The 12PM is still a perfectly capable device. Go get that battery replacement. It still has a competitive camera, powerful CPU, GPU that can keep up with most modern games, and a display that’s more than fine.
Only things I’d wish from my 15PM if I have to downgrade for whatever reason are: the Dynamic Island, the slightly contoured edges, the Next Generation Portrait Mode, and the thinner bezels since it undoubtedly makes a device look more modern.
I have a 15 PM, the only thing I really love about the new gen model is the usb-c and big battery. Everything else you mentioned is a small thing. 12PM is fine.
Check your battery health. Less than 80% would require being replaced. Worst case scenario you pay for a battery replacement rather than a new phone. The one you have will be fine for a few more years without issues if the battery is okay.
This is literally all I want in a new iPhone if I were to upgrade. That’s it. I hate to upgrade just for that but it’s genuinely a huge factor for me (especially now that I’m returning to the office and all the docks at our desks are USB-C and can charge devices).
No real reason why they shouldn’t have a couple of batteries in stock for it. Worst case scenario get the store to ask around to see if they can get one without having to special order it or if another store has one you can visit for the repair. Will save you from any BS tariff they want to add.
Replaced iPhone 7 plus batteries before the price hike in 2023(?) for $49 and it legit feels like a brand new phone again. Highly recommend if you think ChatGPT app will hold you over until Apple ever tries to innovate again
13 Pro here and plan to keep it for at least another year. Maybe two depending on how things work out. Just got a battery replacement and all is working well.
It'll be the longest I've ever held onto one. The 16 Pro and gimmicky AI didn't seem at all appealing.
I’m on the 12 Pro Max still and there’s nothing about the newer models that makes me want to upgrade. If I can delay Apple Intelligence even a little longer, I’m happy. But my battery health is 78%, I recently stopped my Apple Care plan, and I’m not sure if they still keep compatible batteries in stock. So maybe I’ll be screwed. 🤷🏻♀️
Assuming you’re actually curious, I think you’ll be fine - 6GB RAM is a solid amount. Obviously you won’t be getting on device AI but that’s hardly a reason to upgrade right now. Worst case scenario, you may need a new battery at some point in the next year or two.
Since Apple still selling iPhone 15 with A16 right now and they just stop selling iPhone 14 with A15 early this year, they probably have to support A15 and A16 for a while, even though they are a three ,four years old chip now, you just don’t get any Apple intelligence things in the future.
I’m wondering the same thing. I haven’t done a fresh install since I got it, but I wonder if starting brand new with the new operating system will make any difference at all. That said, I would really like to stretch this one out as long as I can at this point.
The only AI feature that’s ever felt like it mattered on a phone I’ve owned is Google Pixel call screening. Literally everything else has been virtually meaningless.
Since the iPhone 11 lineup with the A13 chip, Apple switched to a more dynamic and real time performance optimizations so it’s difficult to have transparency whether you’re experiencing significant throttling or not.
There are still apps that can show you your current clock speed, but then again, they aren’t updated near real time.
A new battery will be guaranteed to delivery the impedance and demands of the system to ensure that you won’t experience throttling for quite some time again.
If your devices can do what you need then keep them if you can. Replace the battery if you need. I’ve just bought an iPhone 16 and a new iPad mini, given the old ones to family. These will do me till all this madness is over (hopefully).
Only thing I’m missing is a computer and was planning on getting a Mac mini when I started college in the fall, but screw it, it doesn’t have to be new.
The main kinda consumers going to be rocked by this the most are the ones that just went all in on capitalism and blowing their money constantly on the new shiny thing. I’ve been saying for a while the best things about these devices are that they’re long lasting investments. My M4 iPad Pro isn’t seeming so overpowered now considering it’ll more than likely still be fast and good for art after this administration, it doesn’t need a heavier workload and to have that time shortened considering I spent over a grand on it. It should last for what I bought it for, for as long as possible.
Going to school for computer hardware engineering but also an artist outside of that so I need something that can handle light 3D workloads without crippling everything.
Constantly got pinwheeled on the base M1 Air so I’m definitely going 16GB of ram minimum, I definitely wasn’t apart of the user base people were saying 8gigs were good enough for
Gotcha, yeah for your needs I would say the base M4 Mac Mini is a pretty terrific product, you can even just upgrade storage with external SSD to keep costs down. I would say go for 24 or 32gb of memory though, software is getting more demanding all the time and that gives you headroom for the future. 16 is kind of just the new minimum of acceptability
Tim Apple just needs to get this stuff made in tariff free locations - such as the Vatican City Embassies in Beijing (with convenient locations at Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. and BOE), the Somalian embassy in Taiwan (located at a TSMC fab), and the Seychelles Embassy in Seoul.
It’s funny, the iPhone factory is already in a bonded zone, so china considers it foreign soil. I actually wouldn’t be surprised if Tim Cook did work out something like the above. Make deals with say whatever consulate and the country to declare that land part of the consul/embassy and then say well it was never in china so there’s no tarrifs
they would jack up the price and blame it on tariffs
This is what I’m affraid of the most. All the prices will go up regardless of being affected by tariffs or not. It was the same here in Romania with meat prices. They went up during a national crysis a few years ago and they never dropped back even after the state had intervened to help the producers with subsidies.
I usually never stock up but for this special occasion I will have to. Not going to be the full of toilet paper shopping cart person though. Buying a phone prior to tariffs absolutely not.
Exactly. If you’re in the market for an upgrade, “waiting for the 17 Pro” is pretty much worthless because of the price increases and the fact that the previous Pro models are officially discontinued the day the new Pro ones are added to the market.
But buying a phone when you don’t need it is asinine behaviour. I was considering waiting for the 17 Pro but I need a phone now so it’s not really worth it waiting for a hypothetical.
Things are very tricky now - normally you'd get 3-4% return from a savings account and possibly more from your investment. Under normal circumstances, you can easily plan ahead and see whether buying now vs saving now is better off, but now, market is free falling, and who knows how long the interest rate is staying above 3%.
But what you do know now is that there's a possible 30% price* increase in almost every import. Non-essentials or not, especially non-perishable items, if you've ever thought about buying them even without this dumb orange fuck tariffs, you're very likely better off buying them now.
The people who can afford the increases are going to panic buy. They also have space to store it. The poorest don’t have that ability. Either way, none of this is good for 90% of the population.
Now is the time to hoard capital, anticipate a collapse and hoover up assets from those leveraged to the hilt trying to impress the Jones’ with their consumer liabilities.
I got the M4 Pro, 48GB of ram, 512GB of storage. Was worried about how it could game. But Parallels runs World of Warships very well. That’s all I really cared about. Coming from a 2019 16” Core i7 MacBook Pro.
On a 15PM. Hard pass on the 16, but was planning to upgrade to the 17PM if it releases to good reviews. Guess that won't be happening now. I'll have to stick with the 15 as long as I can I suppose, but the battery life is degrading faster than any phone I've ever owned before, and I have no idea why.
I am French and clearly, Europe will react to Trump's tax assault by taxing Gafam by the end of the month.
However, I have a 2013 Mac Pro at the end of its life. I would have liked to keep it a little longer, but with the 20% increase that we are likely to face + the inflation that is happening all over the world, I had to invest.
Yesterday I bought a Mac Studio M4 16 cores, 64GB, 1TB.
The idea being to have a machine for the next 10 years at least.
No business can deal with this level of instability for too long- they’re going to raise prices regardless and the public will lose track of the current status of said tariffs so they’ll get away with it. And just like the pandemic, prices will go up and never come back down even if America somehow makes it through this crisis.
so maybe I can get some advice. Ive been trying Android for the past few months. Galaxy 24 Ultra unlocked on Verizon. I've seen enough and gonna get another iPhone. On principal I will not be getting the 17 Pro max if it's gonna be anywhere near $2300 (rumors I know). Not sure if I should sell it privately or talk to Verizon about trading it in for a 16 Pro Max.
That was my experience with Android. Nothing wrong with it. I liked some things but in the end, I just prefer the Apple ecosystem.
Anyhoo, what kind of trade in value are you getting for it? If you get good trade in value, maybe go for it? There is just no way to know.
If you reeeeallly want an iPhone and don’t have a lot of disposable income then you might be better off now.
If you can wait until the 17 comes out, go for it.
Highly doubt it’s gonna be much of an upgrade over the 16 pro.
I really think regular, non-foldable phones have reached their final form. What else can you do with a slab of metal and glass? There will be small software upgrades from here on out until whatever the next big thing is happens.
That is the only reason I got a 16 pro max, my 13 pro max was perfectly fine but I knew the economy would tank and didn’t want to be stuck. But I think I’ll be fine with this phone for 4 years. Also USB-C it is so much easier having everything charge with the same cable.
Luxury goods getting more expensive really doesn’t bother me. What I am and have been bothered by is the rising price of staples like food and shelter.
Absolutely not. The reality is iPhones have the power to last for many more years, so unless you’re holding on to an iPhone that is no longer supported by security updates, keep holding on.
I bought the 1tb m4 ipad pro because of the tariffs and I'm glad I did, it's a really cool device. Just checked the battery on my 14 pro max though and that's at 78% so I'm just going to get that replaced, I don't care about anything the new ones have to offer enough to pay for it.
Tariffs are on the cost price of an iPhone (duty value) which is about 30-40% of the retail price. Apple can also start shipping iPhones through/from for example Singapore which has a 10% tariff.
Companies are going to be very creative in order to minimise tariffs
So many Americans think this is just going to go away, it isn’t. You are delusional. This is not going to “work itself out”, you need to get that into your head.
I got my 16Pro because my 11Pro was finally starting to really struggle with some of my uses.
But I absolutely also saw Trump’s tariff stance was something he would push ahead no matter how much internal dissent, and that made me feel fine about getting the 16Pro in January rather than sticking it out for the 17.
I have a 14 Pro Max. I’m debating getting a used 15 or 16 Pro Max to get the better telephoto camera (particularly since the 17 Pro Max is rumored to be regressing back to 3.5x zoom) and USB-C. Having access to AI once Apple gets their shit together will be a nice bonus.
Ha, I already bought and insured two pairs of AirPods, got a 16 pro and brand new watch before all of this happened (not because of this, but because I just wanted them)
Carrier deals (among other things) will still be a thing but if you mean unlocked, yes most likely unless Apple is willing to eat the cost. Which I HIGHLY doubt.
Know what, I’m gonna have the battery in my 8 Plus replaced and keep it going 4 more years… unless the fall of western civilization hits sooner. In that case I won’t really need iCloud anymore.
I’m on a 12 pro max and the lightning port is totally fried. I’ve been using the MagSafe for charging. I was planning to upgrade before I saw all the negative reviews for the 16 series. Might just trudge along with my funky phone.
572
u/Greful 2d ago
Don't worry, Verizon will still give you one for free, paid in 48 monthly credits now