OPINION: Unboxing a new iPhone is a joyous event, but rarely a yearly habit. Most people update hardware based on need, so why the obsession about whether new phones are “worth” an upgrade?
As someone who excitedly pre-ordered the new iPhone 16 Pro Max last week, the sentiment in the run-up to release has felt decidedly muted.
Questions over whether the “unfinished” phone is worth buying without the Apple Intelligence features that’ll begin to roll out in *checks notes* about one month(!) are extremely misguided.
First off, we’re unsure just how many people even care about Apple Intelligence. Personally, I plan to turn those features off. For me, there’s enough un-reality permeating every facet of existence.
Many tech writers and reviewers have bemoaned another modest hardware upgrade over the iPhone 15 range. But what has many longtime owners psyched to receive their new device aren’t the improvements Apple has made over a twelve-month period; it’s the cumulative effect of years of advancements they’ve enviously eyed since their last purchase.
My current phone is the 2020 iPhone 12 Pro Max (which feels like a lifetime ago, when getting a new phone was about the only positive life held), so I have four generations of upgrades to look forward to when I unpack the iPhone 16 Pro Max.
Off the top of my head, features like the Dynamic Island, an always-on OLED display with much thinner bezels, 120Hz adaptive refresh rates, the Action Button, the titanium frame, USB-C charging, far better cameras with 5x optical zoom and a cinematic mode that enables a shift of focus when recording videos, battery life that can approach a couple of days, four generations of A-Series processor gains across CPU and GPU that enable AAA gaming experiences! Four years in processing terms is an eternity.
Tech insiders who review these new products in depth every year see only incremental changes and tell us they’re “not worth the upgrade”, are completely overlooking all of the above. They’ve lost sight of the fact, on average, it’s 4 years between new phone purchases in the UK (per Vodafone) and 3 years in the USA (Statista, August 2023), and those numbers are on the rise.
Worth an upgrade
“Worth an upgrade” is a complete misnomer nowadays. Few people upgrade their phones every year anymore. They’re more like laptops now, where we run them until they become annoyingly inefficient and then splurge on the new model.
Phones are far more durable, have software support for longer, look mostly the same, and are executed to such a high standard that the public’s brain isn’t wired to want to move on from a perfectly good device after one or two years. We buy upgrades when we need upgrades. Simple.
While a seasoned reviewer looks at a phone and struggles to discern the difference between a single generation, most iPhone owners will have spent little with the handsets (perhaps beyond a quick prod in Currys or a look at a friend’s new device) that have arrived in the years separating their last purchase.
So for those people picking up a new iPhone for the first time in 3-4 years today, it will feel like an event. The changes will feel enormous. Their handset will feel luxurious, photos will pop, their videos will appear cinematic in quality, their display will feel vibrant and responsive and cover more of the front of the phone.
Suddenly, the black void of a notch for Face ID sensors will be filled with life from a Dynamic Island, their battery will last for much longer and will charge much faster. They’ll be genuinely shocked by just how fast the interface feels. And yes, they’ll be able to take photos with a dedicated shutter button that iPhone 15 Pro Max users couldn’t do either.
These will be tangible differences, and they’re sod all to do with whether an AI can compose a slightly more pro-sounding email for you, or con some poor artist out of a gig by generating an image in a few seconds. It’s good, old fashioned hardware advancement that gadget fans still geek out for and still prioritise over everything else. Screen, cameras, battery life, design, speed, durability. They’re still the headlines we review our smartphones under. They’re still the pillars. So don’t listen to people telling you the yet-to-arrive AI you’ve never asked for is the be-all, end-all.
I know someone who rushed to in line at 6:30am at the Apple Store to pick up her pre-order before going to the airport; just so she can have the handset to take pictures on her vacation, rather than her iPhone 13.
That says it all. For the majority of people, this hardware cycle will bring highly tangible benefits that deserve more than just a straight comparison with 12 months ago and lazy “is it worth an upgrade?” takes.
