UKH

After struggling with out of date Android phones that slow down over time and whose OS's are less and less supported by new apps I am going to get an iPhone. The question is - which one? It doesn't need to be flash as I only use it for maps, a few games, social media and podcasts, but I would like it to be reliable after many years of abuse. A buddy has had a 5S for many years and it works better than my newish android. At my price range of under £200 for an approved reconditioned one my chouice seems to be between the 5S, 6, 6+, 6S and 6S+.

I am generally clueless so which is it to be?

I recently upgraded from a 5S that I was really pleased with to an SE which is the same small body but with better innards. I like the smaller size of this phone and the smoothness of its software.

I have a 6s, but I much prefer the size of the 5 in my hand, 6 is just a touch too big for me, partly because the body is so slippery.

My last phone was a 5S, my current phone is a 5SE and my next phone (when this one packs up) will be another 5SE. I just don't update the OS, there no need as far as I'm concerned and the apps I use are pretty simple and don't need the processing power. Plus it's cheaper than keeping up with the new overpriced phones

I’ve had a 6s for 3 years now and really like it. It seems to have and support pretty much everything I need, though new phones do have better cameras. Plan to keep it till it breaks. It is noticeably bigger than the 5 but I like the larger screen. 

I've just bought an SE as I needed to change my phone for similar reasons to you and wanted something reliable that should last a long time. I managed to pick up a 128gb one brand new for £250 from John Lewis  online (all sold out now) but there seemed to be lots around second hand for less. I like it, it works really smoothly and it is a sensible size - some of the newer phones are enormous!

another vote for the SE, I’ve had the 5 and 5S only upgraded due to smashing them the size is much better for me than the 6/7 or others 

Whichever one you go for, get a decent case for it from day one - a really sensible investment,

Chris

As you state you’re going to use it for maps, I’d suggest the 6 or 6s. The larger screen really does make a difference. The + version may be a step too far though...

Thanks to everyone - lots of SE/5S votes with an argument for a 6/6S. Thanks again.

I threw my caseless 6 off the top of Saul's Crack (HVS 5a)and it survived with just a slightly cracked screen, so don’t believe anyone who says they’re not durable. 

Another 6s here and i’m really happy with it, had it nearly 2 years so its had a thorough testing. battery life is still good and youtube/iplayer is perfectly watchable with the bigger screen (than the five)

Wife has an 8 and there isn’t a great deal of difference that i notice

Makes one wonder why they stopped making a version SE sized.  (I have one, and it's the perfect size for a general-purpose phone.)

Bigger markups on the bigger models I guess, though in the long term profitability will depend on giving people what they want, and the newest iPhones have not been selling as well as predicted.

The SE is still current and on sale https://www.apple.com/uk/iphone/compare/

I have one for work and prefer the 7 that I have of my own - battery life is significantly different, as is the quality of the camera.

I’d agree, 7 is a big step up for the camera quality and I liked the bigger sized screen, also fit my hand better and preferred the streamlined design over the 5.

Just moved up to the XR as I wanted a bigger screen for work stuff (plus a time limited 20% off deal). Not the step change in camera quality I’d expected but the battery life is huge.  XR is my fourth iPhone but the 7 is my favourite.

Edit: iPhone 7 here for £218.

https://www.handtec.co.uk/collections/sim-free-apple-iphone-7-and-7-plus

Wiki says: "Along with the iPhone 6S and the iPhone X, the iPhone SE was discontinued by Apple on September 12, 2018"

So they're no longer making anything smaller than the 7.   (There might still be stock of older models on sale in places.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_SE

I've just upgraded from a 5S to an SE (for free) - really happy with both of them,  and the perfect size.

Se with sky.. cheap as chips. Daughter has a 7. Way too big.

I had an SE but it died as i had removed the protective case & shut it in the car door, or something. My fault. 

But i went to my local 2nd hand mobile store (Smart phones, Bedminster, bristol) & came out with a 2nd hand and seemingly perfect 5S for just £100!  i was advised to switch to Android but reading this thread has convinced me I have done the right thing. Am back up & running after doing a Restore. 

iPhone's slow down too you know, and they cost a good bit more than Androids.

Another vote for the SE. Surprised but quite pleased how many others feel the same - great phone, ideal size. Battery started to lose charge recently so I replaced it (fiddly put perfectly do-able, plenty of online tutorials) just make sure you pay the extra for a genuine Apple battery - it was about £20 I think.

i went from 4s to a 6s but only because I couldn't get the 5se on the day I wanted, kind of glad I did because the larger screen really does make a difference but as said above I had to get a grippy case as the size of it make it slippy in the hands.

I havent felt the need to upgrade to anything better than a 6s as it does everything you would need as far as I can see.

Slightly off-topic but I have just noticed that the camera on my SE was set to 'live' so I looked up what that meant. It takes a short video as well as a still. I have now turned it off to save memory. Any reason not to?

I migrated from iPhone to Android for the same reason.  I think you'll find ALL phone shudder to a stand-still after 3-5 years, with no OS better than the other.

As to which to buy, I say go for the latest possible version for exactly this reason.  With a year between each iteration, the amount you save by buying an older model is more than offset by the shorter lifespan you will get from it.  That's before even considering the better features and capabilities you get with newer phones (better cameras, more capacity, easier to read screens, faster operation)

Is that true even if you don't update the OS or anything else?    Why would they get slower? 

Dunno but my iPhone 6 is coming up for 4 years old on the latest OS and doesn't feel any slower than then I got it.

Not sure.  Maybe linked to bad upgrades though I tend to upgrade anyway as they are usually an improvement in all other aspects.  

Even erasing the phone and reinstalling everything doesn't fix it for long. 

But definitely suffered this as badly on my iPhone/iPad as I do on my Android.  And only in my Apple devices have I run in to the problem of not being able to upgrade the OS because my device was considered too old, and therefore also not able to install or upgrade an increasing number of apps as well.

It's definitely a thing that applies to certain phones, the Samsung Galaxy mini series in particular. I know because I've owned four of them. One never had a single update, one had all the updates but I also tried a factory reset and wipe, and one I tried custom ROMs on. They all slowed to unusability in under two years. I've since read that it's due to low quality memory developing errors. The OS can deal with the errors by moving stuff around, but it slows it down.

The full size Samsung Galaxys don't appear to suffer this problem, I assume because they use higher quality chips in their more expensive products. My current two year old Sony is still as good as when I bought it, so it's already lasted a lot longer than any of my Samsungs, despite Android pushing their bloody updates regularly.

As Apple are renowned for only using top quality components, I would hope this issue doesn't apply to iPhones.

I moved to iPhone from Android about a year ago and don't like it. Mine is an iPhone 8. My previous phone was a HTC One M8, and was the best phone I had owned (until it starting screwing up, but it lasted a long while).

Personally I don't like the fact that internal storage is severely limited - when you're filming videos it gets used up very quickly - and then you're forced to spend extra on cloud storage. Getting rid of the headphone socket is really annoying - you can't charge your phone and listen to music at the same time, and for any decent non-Apple headphones you have to carry an adapter around (which is annoying and you can often forget it!). And I'm currently having to carry 3 different types of charger cable around  - one for my personal iPhone, one for my work Android (the new type of micro USB) and one for my Kindle & powerbank (the old type of micro USB). If you carry multiple items that need to be charged, it is worth making sure they all have the same charger jack!

And personally I don't like the icon-based navigation - if you're not used to them some of the icons are not very intuitive.

They don't guarantee the screen if you don't put a screen protector on it costing £25 from Apple - and the screen protectors crack within about 10 minutes of use.

Give me my old HTC One M8 any day over this thing! But the HTC eventually reached the point where each software update seemed to be designed to screw the phone up and make it unusable. But it was a great phone in its day.

Sorry, I guess iPhone 8 is a bit off-topic, but just saying think hard before assuming that an Apple will be better!

Cheers,

Chris

PS I think smart phones generally are designed to stress us out. I keep telling myself to next time consider an old Nokia-style 'brick' without anything 'smart' on it - they were far less stressful!

Same here, 2 years on my current Sony and still going strong. A friend has my old one and that's ok too. Spend iphone money on a top end android and you should be ok, or get an iphone if you like their OS.

Go for the newest model you can as when Apple update the OS, they remove support for the older models. I like the plus size of the newer iPhones as the screen size suits my old eyes.

I dropped my 6 with a rear case out of my back pocket onto tarmac as I pulled a stupidly placed OS map out of the same pocket to show off my £1 bargain and the whole screen shattered. I'd say you were lucky and I was unlucky/stupid rather than state that they are durable.

I don't think it's about quality of chips. These things don't degrade.

It's all about the extra horsepower and capacity in a higher spec (ie. Not a "mini") phone giving room for its ever more demanding apps to grow in to.

I haven't looked into the claim in any detail, but it's the best explanation I've heard so far. Flash memory does degrade pretty rapidly under heavy write cycles.

So how would you explain the fact that after a factory wipe or install of a clean custom ROM it was still unusably slow? Definitely not down to OS updates or apps, it has to be hardware.

On the contrary, it had been dropped out of car doors on to various surfaces, soaked in torrential downpours.. you name it, it'd been through it. The dropping it from the top of a crag example was at the extreme end of the scale, but is the most impressive one I could give out of a list of many. I won't pretend that they're durable compared to designed for the jobs phones, but they're not not durable.. as some would have you believe.

But not waterproof and i dont mean dropping it doon the lavvy! 

not as far as i can see. i found it annoying also

Just replaced my old Sony of many years, that was a hand me down from the mrs, with a new Sony XZ2, the XZ3 is the latest model. 

Used to do the annual upgrades but dropped of the wagon for a while, the old Sony was working fine, except it was too low on memory to run the modern apps, but never dropped speed..

I've tried all other big name makes HTC, Samsung etc but none have lasted even close to the Sony's we've had.

Tried the other system but couldn't buy in to the cult....... not to mention colleagues constantly repairing their broken screens, funny, I've never broke a screen on a Sony, despite never using a case/screen protector, even though I work in a heavy engineering environment.