[_fat_santa]

The 2010's were an exciting time because every year new phones would come out that would be double the power of the previous generation (I still remember trying out an iPhone 3GS when it came out and it was noticeably faster than my iPhone 3G). But I would say starting in like 2016, the progress slowed down and it's now much more incremental.

I now recommend to my friends and family to get lightly used phones that are 2-3 years old. Personally I recently upgraded from an iPhone 11 to an iPhone 15 and the only reason I did so was to go down in screen size from a "Pro Max" to just a "Pro". I imagine I will keep this device for the next 5-7 years and by then the reason I'll be getting a new phone probably won't be because they are noticeably faster.

But I gotta say I like where phones are now. I remember in the 2010's you had to plop down some serious money to get a super fast phone, nowdays I can buy a $150 phone on Amazon that would probably be a great phone for at least 4-5 years.

[bryanlarsen]

3 year old phones often have degraded batteries, which is a large part of the reason why they're so available and so cheap. You can put a new battery in for ~$50 and get a fabulous value.