How iPhones Age
When you upgrade to a newer phone, the expectation from Apple and other tech companies is that you will use it for at least one year. However, most users keep their smartphones for around two years. Meaning, if you get an iPhone 12 5G today, you need to think about having it as a daily driver for a while.
Like any other smartphone, iPhones age with time as well. The hardware itself does not degrade, but the battery may fail over time. But what ends up happening is Apple release iOS updates that are pushed to all their devices, including both old and current generations of iPhones. With each new version, new features are added. Over time, iOS becomes more demanding in terms of resources thus it may require more powerful hardware to run smoothly. Apple does tend to optimize the iOS to run as smoothly as possible on older devices but newer ones always feel and run smoother.
Knowing how Apple deals with their iOS updates, we need to look at how older models perform today and compare them to the iPhone 12 5G. For example, the iPhone X is about 4 years old. Surprisingly, it still runs smoothly in 2021 despite being released in late 2017. It would be safe to assume if you buy the current generation of iPhones, it will still run smoothly at least two years from now.
Is It Worth Waiting For the Next-Gen?
Many will be tempted to skip the 12th generation of the iPhone and wait for the 13th generation. The wait might be justified if you own something like the iPhone 11. But if you own an older iPhone or an older Android phone, you are long overdue for an upgrade. Waiting for the next generation of iPhones may not be worth it.
What you should know is that from one generation to another, the differences are not substantial. You get negligible better cameras, the same version of iOS, same screen technology, and a minor performance boost that should only be visible in performance benchmark software. In simple words, if you are waiting for iPhone 13 because you think it will be considerably better than the iPhone 12 5G, you may discover that is not the case.
If you own a smartphone which is more than two years old then the only reason why it might be worth the wait for the next generation of iPhones to be released is to get the iPhone 12 5G at a discount. Because when Apple launch a new generation of smartphones, they tend to lower the price of the previous one. They do this so their old and new smartphones do not compete against each other. As the iPhone 12 5G uses the A14 Bionic chip, which has proved to be a highly capable platform, it is future proof as it supports 5G networks, meaning it's a smartphone which should last you a number of years, despite what the next generation brings.
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