Hacker News Reader

Comment by skydhash | Hacker News Reader

Still no reason to upgrade. My shift from iPhone 8 to iPhone 13 was qualitative. Now much of the barrier to improvement is software, and they’re all gated by Apple.

View on HN

I think iPhone 17 is the first worthy upgrade to the base model in years, LPTO is a huge upgrade to the aging pre-iPhone 17 screen. The difference between Pro and non-Pro is pretty thin this year. I currently have a 16 Pro, might upgrade, but mostly because models are typically shifted through our family (so everyone gets an upgrade).

What I found with screens going back to an old 1280px macbook screen when the retina was in the shop is that you quickly lose appreciation for quality when you don’t have an example next to you. This is why the Apple Store model is good for sales, you can dangle the new screens on an hdr wallpaper and its clear that it is different to the one you already have. But again, it only became an issue because one day you made it an issue.

I agree. Though I would formulate it a bit differently. You can live fine without HiDPI or >60Hz. But once you have used them for a few days, it's really hard to go back.

Our daughter still has an older iPhone with 60Hz and I cannot look at it. The flickery animations drive me crazy. Yet, I have had iPhones with < 120Hz screens for well over a decade.

I went back pretty easy. The real thing is the pixel viewing distance. At laptop viewing distances I couldn't see the pixels on the low res screen anyhow. The only real noticeable difference was ui text was a little bigger. Refresh rate you stop noticing fast. I personally can't tell when my m3 mbp is on 120hz on the power adapter or 60z on battery, maybe if I hunted for it specifically by scrolling at lightspeed.

USB C by itself is enough of a reason to upgrade. I have one set of cords that work everywhere and the iPhone supports all of the standard USB-C standards - video, storage, audio, and networking using the same devices you use on computers.

And MagSafe charging and stands.

I don't know if it is enough of a reason, I still use by 12 and charge it and my Airpods all via magsafe which is USB-C

If I don't need to use the lightning port, I don't need to use what would be the USB C port.

I am looking to upgrade to the 17 potentially, but USB-C to me isn't a key factor.

I am with you- magsafe is great for charging all the things and it is how I charge all my stuff currently. I will say that despite that, moving to USB-C is a big deal for me. As a household of 7 having different cables for everything becomes a chore whereas standardizing on USB-C saves us a ton of headaches. Kids phones need charging? Grab one of our dozens of USB-C cables and one of our many USB bricks and go. For me- it has been a slow climb but I have been slowly moving everything we have over to USB-C. When completed I can put all the other cables (mini usb, micro usb, lightning, that weird usb-3 thing some androids/ext harddrives used, etc) into my old cable foot locker.

Even an iPhone X was running great in 2025, until it finally gave up to age and the network module stopped working. iPhone 13s are lightning quick for me still.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com