[0x457]

Well, lets do math:

- from this thread: iPhone 17 pro max would be $1199 to buy (~1273 with tax) or $34.99 for 24 months totaling $839.76. So would cost 433.33 at the end of the lease to keep it

If you upgrade your phone every 1-2 years then what you pay for the phone is something like "full cost - optimistic trade-in value". I see no reason not to do if you know you going to upgrade.

[horsawlarway]

I don't understand this mindset. I get that people who are going to upgrade to the latest flagship phone every 18-24 months will probably do better with this, but realistically... those people are fucking insanely financially irresponsible (and if you can afford it - no shade, I guess, its your money - lord knows I burn lots of cash on hobby projects of my own, although I tend to buy things that are actually projects, and not just glitz...)

But there's just nothing to run on phones built in the last 5+ years that actually puts the hardware through its paces (in the phone form factor, laptops and desktops I'd be lot more forgiving on). The cameras aren't really getting better. The battery capacities seem to be mostly "the same". There's just no practical "reason" to justify the expense at this point (and I'll fully acknowledge this wasn't always the case - there was a period there in the early 2010s where phones were getting better rapidly and upgrading was a big deal).

They're basically buying an expensive piece of jewelry that they'll throw away in 24 months. Like... just buy a cheaper model and get some real jewelry. At least that could be passed down at some point instead of becoming e-waste.

[p1necone]

Yeah I'm on the same page - I spend a couple hundred bucks on a low-end-of-midrange android phone every few years (usually because I broke the old one by doing something stupid like walking into the ocean with it in my pocket). I can't fathom why I would want to spend 5-10x on a flagship to do... what exactly?

My current phone (Motorola g34) runs all the games fine, and that's probably the heaviest thing people use phones for. I do take photos, but like I'm not running a photography business, and social media compresses them to shit anyway so the quality is perfectly fine.

[vladvasiliu]

Well, you could buy a waterproof phone, which wouldn't break if you walked into the ocean with it in your pocket?

I use my phones as GPS attached to my motorbike's handlebars. They get drenched in downpours, frozen in the winter, and baked in the summer sun multiple times a year. They don't skip a beat and only require the occasional battery change.

My current phone is an iphone 14, still on its original battery. It replaced a 7 which had its battery changed 5 years in. The 7 replaced a galaxy s5 which I stupidly forgot in a taxi, but it was still good enough for my uses.

There are uses for higher-end phones, among which "longer periods between changes".

[ZekeSulastin]

So how much annually do you spend on your hobbies, anyways, if you're going to declare getting a new phone every two years "fucking insanely financially irresponsible" :p Glass houses and all that, right?

[horsawlarway]

Since you asked... Tools.

I buy more tools than I should - Wood working, electronic, and more general purpose. It's not always cost effective, but I generally pick a new project (ex - making my dining room table, installing solar panels, building my own dining room chairs, making my wedding ring, etc) and then buy a new tool for that project.

Am I saving money vs just buying a decent premade thing? Usually not really (although sometimes!). But I get to learn, work with my hands, and expand capabilities, and feel nice having made a thing.

I can get a lot of tools (or a couple very nice tools) for the amount you'd spend on a new iphone.

Since we're having the conversation - I'll make a value judgement. I think more folks would be happier with the tools than a new iphone, and I think buying one every 2 years is a perfect example of "keeping up with the jones" style behavior - compulsive consumerism that's not improving happiness (With an understanding that there are exceptions - ex: if you develop mobile applications, I'll accept that a new iphone is essentially a new tool).

[what]

People spend more on their daily coffee than they would upgrading their phone every two years. Significantly more.

[olyjohn]

I mean... what kind of hobby is owning the latest phone? Especially when the latest phone is barely an upgrade over the previous one.

[blackqueeriroh]

Do you know what’s cool about hobbies? They don’t have to be reasonable! They don’t have to be financially responsible! They’re hobbies! That’s the whole point!

Listen, whatever you do that’s your hobby I’m certain is also a giant waste of money and very financially irresponsible. And if not, learn how to have fun and stop being so boring.

[abanana]

> They don’t have to be financially responsible

They do if you don't have the money to throw away. That's the whole point - far too often, the people who throw their money away on these things are the same people who spend all their time complaining they're struggling to afford the basics, like feeding their family.

Yes it's fine if you have plenty of money to waste on what you enjoy, but the majority of people don't.

[beacon294]

LLMs are set to.increase hardware demands a lot. Although I don't necessarily think this is related to the program change.

I know this comment is deep in a thread, but to me it looks like they simply prefer to own the whole apple device payment cycle and not use partners.

BNPL has been a huge bubble outside the traditional credit bubble, this is the same. It doesn't seem like a big divergence excepting that it gives them a contact point and a stick with which to prod customer into a new phone sooner.

[macintux]

For me, the primary value of my phone is the camera, and the telephoto on the iPhone Pro Max models has gotten significantly better in the 2.5 years since mine was released.

Were it not for the camera, I could have stopped upgrading 10 years ago.

My point is, not everyone values the same things you do. The new Siri AI only runs on 15 Pro and higher, I think. New features do arrive in newer phones.

[Barbing]

iPhone 17 Pro is binoculars and also eliminated 16 Pro battery anxiety.

Value in being part of the discussion for a whole year every year too. You realllly have to care about stuff like these factors though (or hate investing your money or have too much).

[SV_BubbleTime]

This is exactly where I’m at. Want a higher zoom. I’m about three years old now and feeling it.

[TeMPOraL]

Foldables may be an exception (or at least that's what I'm telling myself). The combination of larger screen when unfolded + logistics of a phone when folded means a foldable is basically a tablet that you don't have to actively plan around carrying, and it lends itself to much more multitasking. And the last round of upgrades actually was a qualitative jump big enough to drag Apple into the market kicking and screaming.

[sneak]

> I get that people who are going to upgrade to the latest flagship phone every 18-24 months will probably do better with this, but realistically... those people are fucking insanely financially irresponsible

This is not remotely true. I buy each and every flagship iPhone every year on or near release day for cash. I have done so every release since the first iPhone came out.

Each September or October my old phone goes into a desk drawer forever, or is wiped and gifted to a partner or close friend. I do not recover any of the costs at the end of the 12 months.

In total, it is way less than $200 per month. That’s not “fucking insanely financially irresponsible” by any stretch of the imagination. $2k per year is a trivial amount of money for the most-often-used computer in my entire life. It pays for itself in the first few weeks of the year.

Separately, I spend another 10-20k per year on computer software and services, because it assists my business in making many times that in revenue. Hell, even my hobby AWS S3 account is like $35/mo and that’s like the same as the lease payment for the flagship iPhone Pro under this program.

Upgrading each year brings real performance benefits, despite your claim that phones don’t materially improve each generation. Whether or not that is worth replacing it before it breaks or not is a separate conversation, but let’s not pretend that upgrading annually is exactly equivalent to lighting $2k on fire. Anyone who participates regularly in US “bar culture”, for example, is spending more each month on drinks than I spend to carry the latest flagship iPhone, and nobody is claiming that eating out three times a month or going to the bar with your buddies every Friday night is “fucking insanely financially irresponsible”. Tech is so cheap now that it’s a trivial amount of money in the grand scheme of things.

(You’ll probably flip when you hear I replace my $7k work laptop every 12-24 months, too.)

Furthermore, I’m not even an extreme outlier. I know people who regularly buy the flagship iPhone for their entire family, in cash, every year. It’s a bit spendy if you’re not using it for business (but who isn’t, in 2026, where every single thing you do is an app) but it’s still simply not that much money in real terms when you consider it’s well under $2k/year/device. Hell, a nice lunch for two people at a decent restaurant even without alcohol is pushing $100 in most cities.

[abanana]

> way less than $200 per month... $2k per year

For the vast majority of consumers, these prices are insane.

> trivial amount of money... I’m not even an extreme outlier

It's also true that the majority of high-earners refuse to understand that they're in the top few percent for income. I'm not sure whether what I'm reading here is a sincere mistaken belief - the general psychological effect where a person believes their own sense of "normal" is normal to everyone - or a deliberate attempt to get a rise out of other commenters.

> another 10-20k per year on computer software and services, because it assists my business in making many times that in revenue... replace my $7k work laptop every 12-24 months

So those are business costs? They don't belong in this discussion.

[sneak]

My, and almost everyone’s, phones are used for revenue generation. Let’s not pretend otherwise.

High earner or not high earner, $200/mo isn’t a lot of money anymore, which is why I pointed out the lunch example.

[SV_BubbleTime]

Mine is about three years old now and I want a better camera.

[closetohome]

This math is what lead me to the iUp program in the first place. It's effectively a guaranteed 50% trade-in, which came out to about $200-300 in actual money that I was theoretically sacrificing in exchange for not having to worry about the cosmetic condition of the phone or weirdos on ebay.

And it came with AppleCare+ with Theft and Loss. I stopped using a case. I lived free.

[macintux]

I’ll never stop using a case. Too clumsy, too careless. 2-3 days without my phone would be manageable but why?

[olyjohn]

My screen is cracked, and I still prefer it over a case. Just a personal preference, I think.

[Onawa]

Phones these days are so slippery without a case though... Is it just me? Feels like trying to hold on to a wet bar of soap sans case.

[vladvasiliu]

This. They're also too big, so if you don't wear baggy pants it can be a pain to maneuver in and out of jeans pockets. But then, if I'm visiting somewhere unfamiliar in the middle of nowhere and drop it and it becomes unusable, I can have a pretty bad time.

[ghaff]

I don't think so. Maybe I'm just used to it but I like the gripiness of my Otterbox case in addition to the protection it provides. My prior iPhoen might have survived a hiking trip if I had an equivalently robust case (and the newer Otterbox Defender cases are much less clunky than the older ones were).

[prmoustache]

Disregarding the commodity of a big screen, they have the wrong shape to be honest for something that is made to be handled.

[ghaff]

I've handled the Maxes and they're just too big for my taste. It's not a financial thing. I'm by no means a phone size minimalist but my 15 Pro feels like just the right size for a phone at this point.