Hi all,
my spouse needs a “new” used phone.
Ideally it gets updates for the next 3-5 years.
She doesn’t need any particular features, but I was wondering, whether there are some models that are too old, so they are likely dropped for future iOS versions.
My own phone is an iPhone 11, which I think is last on the list of supported devices. So that might be too old, to keep it for 3-5 years around?
Does anyone have pointers for me?
For 5 years you’re probably looking at something at the bottom end of the current new phones. the current 12 is 5 years old, your 11 is 6 years old (both from first release)
For 3 years you might get another 3 years from a 14 or 15.
This is the way. I usually figure brand new iPhones are good for 5 years with updates.
But depending on what she’s looking for, keep in mind that the 15 Pro is the backward cutoff for Apple Intelligence. As that’s getting more and more central to the operating systems, I could see the possibility that the previous 5-year rule might not be as useful as it previously was.
So I think this is probably a time when you might want to consider a newer phone - maybe a 16e? $600 gets you a new one with 128 GB. It looks like they’re also available refurb in the $400-ish range.