In the third week of September 2023, the iPhone 15 series came out and available to those that pre-ordered it. I am sure that right now, I could go into an Apple Store, and buy the latest and greatest of iPhones. However, I will not be doing that, and there are a few reasons as to why not. In reality, I wouldn’t mind having the newest, but it is not a necessity. With that said, I have to be a big boy, and tell myself NO!
So why won’t I be getting the iPhone 15 Pro Max? There are a few reasons. First, the phone I have now is a year old, and I don’t need to upgrade. Second, it wouldn’t solve the problems of the iPhone 14 Pro Max, and third is price. So the rest of this blog will go into detail of each of the reasons I mentioned.
First, the iPhone 14 Pro Max is just a little less than a year old. I still have a warranty on it in case something happens, and the phone works fine for me. I still have a lot of storage space available on my phone. It can make and receive calls. The ringer works, and there is just nothing wrong with the phone. The worse that there is a few minute scratches on the screen that you can’t see unless the phone is in a certain light. I can feel it slightly on the finger when running over the scratches, but the phone otherwise is in excellent condition. Obviously, if there was something severely wrong with the phone, or if it was stolen, I would get a replacement, in which case – it will be the iPhone 15 Pro Max, but as mentioned – the 14 works fine.
Second, the iPhone 15 Pro Max won’t solve my problems. There is USB-C for charging which will be the most compelling reason to upgrade, but currently all of my earphones, my headphones, my computer’s mouse and keyboard still all Lightning connection. This means I will still have to carry two charging cables for all of my devices. Upgrading to the 15 Pro Max will not magically replace all of these connections. Even if I was to spend $500 to upgrade my 2 sets of earphones, I will still have the AirPods Max which uses Lightning, and there was no word on new ones converting to USB-C. Even if it did, the AirPods Max is $550, and a very costly upgrade of more than $1,000.
Last is cost. The iPhone 15 Pro Max starts at $1,200, and goes up from there. I would be fine with the base 256GB of storage, but I will also want to get an extended Apple Care + warranty which will be about $300. This will mean I will have to pay almost $1,500 to have what I would consider an incremental upgrade. USB-C, and the “Action Button” is nifty upgrades, but not $1,500 nifty.
As mentioned, if something happened to my iPhone 14 Pro Max to the point that I will have to replace it, then I would get the newest iPhone Pro Max. Until then, I am hoping to keep my lifecycle for 5 years. This will mean that I will consider upgrade in 2027.