Should you upgrade to iPhone 11 Pro if you have an iPhone XS?

Comments

• Reply 1 of 39

  spice-boy Posts: 1,450member

  September 17, 2019 5:18PM

  I was considering it by trading in my Xs with the crack back but unless I spend $600 including NYC sales tax Apple would not give me a dime for it. One should not have to pay $1000 for a product which you are suppose to carry around with you but then need to pay for insurance (Apple care) and a chessy silicon case which covers all that high end Apple design. Another glass back on these phones tells me Apple is making more money on repairs than the initial sale price. It's a scam.

  
• Reply 2 of 39

  MplsP Posts: 3,925member

  September 17, 2019 5:19PM

  Yes, the iphone 11 is better in almost every way - that’s to be expected. If they released a new phone that was actually worse than the previous model there would be some serious howling going on. The question isn’t whether it’s better, the question is whether these differences matter. If they actually do matter, the question then becomes whether they’re worth several hundred dollars to upgrade.
  
  I virtually never have issues with the battery on my Xs so longer battery life is meaningless to me. If that’s the only issue for you, you’re still probably better off getting a battery case for $900 less.
  
  As far as the camera goes, there are some neat tricks but none of them are anything I would use on any sort of regular basis. A better telephoto lens would have been a different story, but I’ve virtually never wanted a wider angle lens.
  
  Yes, the display is better, but unless you do a side by side comparison, you likely won’t notice that either. I haven’t heard any complaints of “my iPhone Xs is awesome, except for the terrible screen!”
  
  As far as the processor goes, for the majority of people it’s a lot like the screen. Yes it’s faster, but I’ve never really noticed my Xs being slow, so it’s hard to imagine shelling out money for something that isn’t a problem right now. The vast majority of people I know are happy with the processor speed of their iPhone 7; processor speed is not a huge concern for the majority of smartphone users any more.
  
  Like the article says, the Xs is a great phone. There are undoubtedly some people who rally could use the wide angle lens, or do significant gaming on their phone and so can take advantage of the processor, but, as is usually the case, the decision whether to keep your year-old phone is a no-brainer. 

  
• Reply 3 of 39

  spice-boy Posts: 1,450member

  September 17, 2019 5:21PM

  PS defender of Apple save your breath or key strokes, I can predict your reaction since so many of you have lost critical thinking at this point and can't wait until the Apple mothership takes you home. PS it landed in Cupertino or somewhere nearby. 
• Reply 4 of 39

  stantheman Posts: 332member

  September 17, 2019 5:35PM

  This year’s plain-Jane iPhone 11 is superior to a 2018 Xs, so the 11-Pro is heads and shoulders above the Xs. If there were not going to be an even bigger iPhone upgrade in 12 months, I would be willing to pay the incremental cost of upgrading from Xs to 11-Pro.

  
• Reply 5 of 39

  mike1 Posts: 3,284member

  September 17, 2019 5:37PM

  I generally upgrade every 2-3 years. Other than the camera, I don't see a compelling reason to go from my X to an 11Pro.

  Unless something bad happens to my phone, I'll probably just live for a year without payments and see what next year brings.
  

  
• Reply 6 of 39

  rogifan_new Posts: 4,297member

  September 17, 2019 5:38PM

  Year over year improvements are becoming more and more incremental. People who upgrade every year do so because they want to and have the means to.

  
• Reply 7 of 39

  Andy.Hardwake Posts: 38member

  September 17, 2019 6:09PM

  mike1 said:

  I generally upgrade every 2-3 years. Other than the camera, I don't see a compelling reason to go from my X to an 11Pro.

  Unless something bad happens to my phone, I'll probably just live for a year without payments and see what next year brings.
  

  Right you are, unless something happens to my 6s Plus, I’ll live with it for another year.
• Reply 8 of 39

  StrangeDays Posts: 12,877member

  September 17, 2019 6:15PM

  spice-boy said:

  I was considering it by trading in my Xs with the crack back but unless I spend $600 including NYC sales tax Apple would not give me a dime for it. One should not have to pay $1000 for a product which you are suppose to carry around with you but then need to pay for insurance (Apple care) and a chessy silicon case which covers all that high end Apple design. Another glass back on these phones tells me Apple is making more money on repairs than the initial sale price. It's a scam.

  You do not have to pay $1000 and pay for insurance and use a silicone case. You are free to get a less expensive model if you feel you’re prone to drops. Or use an attractive leather case. Or if you want the top-tier and are prone to drops and you don’t want to use any case, then by all means get AppleCare, to not do so is foolish. 
  
  But as has been explained to you, no, it’s not a scam. Glass back is for the conductive charging feature. Apple’s repair income is a rounding error to their enormous sales revenue. 
  
  You dropped yours. You didn’t protect it. Get over it. There’s no one to blame but yourself.

  
• Reply 9 of 39

  StrangeDays Posts: 12,877member

  September 17, 2019 6:23PM

  rogifan_new said:

  Year over year improvements are becoming more and more incremental. People who upgrade every year do so because they want to and have the means to.

  This is true. Phone nerds like us may, but it’s definitely not what normals do. 
  
  As for incremental upgrades, it was noted even in 2010 that iPhone updates followed the same pattern at Apple, noted on previous products such as the iPod, etc. Release, improve, release. It’s how they roll. Gruber talks iPhone in 2010:
  
  https://www.macworld.com/article/1151235/apple-rolls.html
  
  The iPhone is following the same pattern. In 2007 it debuted with no third-party apps, no 3G networking, and a maximum storage capacity of 8GB. One year later, Apple had doubled storage, added 3G and GPS, and opened the App Store. The year after that, Apple swapped in a faster processor, added a compass and an improved camera, and doubled storage again. The pattern repeats. We may never see an iPhone that utterly blows away the prior year’s, but we’ll soon have one that utterly blows away the original iPhone.
  

  
• Reply 10 of 39

  retrogusto Posts: 1,111member

  September 17, 2019 6:40PM

  MplsP said:

  
  As far as the camera goes, there are some neat tricks but none of them are anything I would use on any sort of regular basis. A better telephoto lens would have been a different story, but I’ve virtually never wanted a wider angle lens. 

  The new telephoto lens is better, with a wider aperture, and the camera attached to it is said to be better too. The difference may not be huge, and may only matter in low light, but it is an upgrade. 

  
• Reply 11 of 39

  dewme Posts: 5,362member

  September 17, 2019 6:40PM

  Until smartphones become commodity or the manufacturers start to focus more on cost reduction around a static feature set there is always going to be something better coming out next year.
  
  The good news is that much of the adaptability, flexibility, and functional diversity of these devices comes from the software. It doesn't really bother me if some of the apps that I rely on for my iPhone XS Max would run a bit faster or better on an iPhone 11 Pro Max or next year's iPhone 12 Pro Super Max 5G, as long as they keep running on my current hardware. So the real hard line decision point for whether to upgrade or not, for me at least, is more determined by software functionality and compatibility than hardware performance, new hardware features, and higher capacities. I can tolerate running slow or missing a new feature, at least to a point, but I cannot tolerate being left behind with old app and/or iOS versions that no longer serve my needs adequately. 
  
  Apple maintaining a robust foundation for the software developer community (internal and 3rd party) to build their software apps on top of, and keeping the App Store in a healthy and profitable state is as important to me as bumping up the hardware specs on processors, radios, cameras, and memory.
  
  The hard semaphore from Apple that "it's now time to upgrade" is when the device you are relying on is no longer on the supported list. I'm grateful that Apple kept the iPhone 6/6+ and iPod Touch 6th Gen on the supported list for iOS 12, and was hoping they would give them both a ride on the iOS 13 train, but it was not to be. When my iPhone XS Max gets bumped from the supported list I'll be compelled to upgrade, unless I succumb to temptation by something totally out of the blue showing up prior to that point in time.
  

  
• Reply 12 of 39

  spice-boy Posts: 1,450member

  September 17, 2019 6:54PM

  StrangeDays said:

  spice-boy said:

  I was considering it by trading in my Xs with the crack back but unless I spend $600 including NYC sales tax Apple would not give me a dime for it. One should not have to pay $1000 for a product which you are suppose to carry around with you but then need to pay for insurance (Apple care) and a chessy silicon case which covers all that high end Apple design. Another glass back on these phones tells me Apple is making more money on repairs than the initial sale price. It's a scam.

  You do not have to pay $1000 and pay for insurance and use a silicone case. You are free to get a less expensive model if you feel you’re prone to drops. Or use an attractive leather case. Or if you want the top-tier and are prone to drops and you don’t want to use any case, then by all means get AppleCare, to not do so is foolish. 
  
  But as has been explained to you, no, it’s not a scam. Glass back is for the conductive charging feature. Apple’s repair income is a rounding error to their enormous sales revenue. 
  
  You dropped yours. You didn’t protect it. Get over it. There’s no one to blame but yourself.

  I understand your points, my point is the glass back is more for style and conductive charging, don't know anyone that charges with one of those unless, say at home. 
  As a finished consumer ready product the latest iPhones should not require a case if so then Apple should provide one the way it supplies a charger. The mat glass on the 11 models suggest they are attempting to correct the slippery glass problem that the XS and other models have. I always buy the top end model for camera improvements, 

  
• Reply 13 of 39

  macxpress Posts: 5,808member

  September 17, 2019 7:05PM

  Of course its for style...everything Apple does is for style. However, if you think that people are sitting in a conference room thinking how they can "scam" customers out of extra money is just pure BS. Honestly, I find the glass far less slippery than the aluminum backing iPhones used to have. 
  
  I'll throw myself into the hat of wireless charging users. This can be done anywhere and is. Even cars today have wireless chargers built into them. 
  
  Its not really Apple's fault you dropped your phone and it broke. Its really no different than accidentally dropping a laptop, iPod, or anything else you'd hold/carry in your hands. If it drops and it breaks it's not automatically the manufacturers fault and its a defective design to scam its customers. 

  
• Reply 14 of 39

  22july2013 Posts: 3,571member

  September 17, 2019 7:09PM

  I thought Apple used a smaller-sized S than the X when talking about the Xs. I don't think it was lowercase S, I think it was what we call "Small Caps". Some fonts support small caps directly, but most text edit windows in web pages don't support it, so I can't demonstrate that here. I think the best compromise is to say Xs.
  
  Apple's website makes this clear by virtue of the fact that their literature for the XR also shows a small but capital R next to the X. It's an uppercase small caps R.
  
  So can AppleInsider respect this typography? Nobody would say "IPod" (they would say "iPod") so why are we saying "XS"?
• Reply 15 of 39

  CheeseFreeze Posts: 1,249member

  September 17, 2019 7:14PM

  I always skip one generation. It's much more fun to experience the difference between 2 generations, vs 1, and reduces the cost to upgrade. 2 generations is already aggressive I think - I mean the iPhone X is nothing to sneeze at.
  
• Reply 16 of 39

  wood1208 Posts: 2,913member

  September 17, 2019 7:15PM

  Well phones with wireless charging has glass on back for conductive physics property. Wireless charging is not prevalent in all places, you can take advantage in home and new cars with wireless charging. Some day, it will be every where like current charging through wired port.

  I would say if you have XS and have to pay smaller delta cost to upgrade than do it otherwise wait until next year or whenever you need or want to upgrade.
  
• Reply 17 of 39

  MplsP Posts: 3,925member

  September 17, 2019 7:16PM

  spice-boy said:

  StrangeDays said:

  spice-boy said:

  I was considering it by trading in my Xs with the crack back but unless I spend $600 including NYC sales tax Apple would not give me a dime for it. One should not have to pay $1000 for a product which you are suppose to carry around with you but then need to pay for insurance (Apple care) and a chessy silicon case which covers all that high end Apple design. Another glass back on these phones tells me Apple is making more money on repairs than the initial sale price. It's a scam.

  You do not have to pay $1000 and pay for insurance and use a silicone case. You are free to get a less expensive model if you feel you’re prone to drops. Or use an attractive leather case. Or if you want the top-tier and are prone to drops and you don’t want to use any case, then by all means get AppleCare, to not do so is foolish. 
  
  But as has been explained to you, no, it’s not a scam. Glass back is for the conductive charging feature. Apple’s repair income is a rounding error to their enormous sales revenue. 
  
  You dropped yours. You didn’t protect it. Get over it. There’s no one to blame but yourself.

  I understand your points, my point is the glass back is more for style and conductive charging, don't know anyone that charges with one of those unless, say at home. 
  As a finished consumer ready product the latest iPhones should not require a case if so then Apple should provide one the way it supplies a charger. The mat glass on the 11 models suggest they are attempting to correct the slippery glass problem that the XS and other models have. I always buy the top end model for camera improvements, 

  Actually, it's inductive charging. Conductive charging is what happens when you plug in the cord. And yes, the glass back is completely for inductive charging. Prior to the iPhone 8(?), when inductive charging was introduced to the iPhone they all had metal backs (except the 5c). Inductive charging won't work through metal. Period. it's not a scam, it's physics. 
  
  I personally don't use inductive charging, but I know a lot of people who do. My brother in law's car has an inductive charger built in. There are plenty of drawbacks to it, but there are some definite advantages, too. 
  
  As for a case, the iPhone doesn't require a case. It requires that you don't drop it onto a hard surface. Do you complain if you drop your laptop or desktop computer and it doesn't work? There are a multitude of different cases providing varying levels of protection and style. NO smartphone manufacturer supplies a case with their phone for good reason - everyone has a different preference. 
  
  

  edited September 2019
• Reply 18 of 39

  spice-boy Posts: 1,450member

  September 17, 2019 7:41PM

  MplsP said:

  spice-boy said:

  StrangeDays said:

  spice-boy said:

  I was considering it by trading in my Xs with the crack back but unless I spend $600 including NYC sales tax Apple would not give me a dime for it. One should not have to pay $1000 for a product which you are suppose to carry around with you but then need to pay for insurance (Apple care) and a chessy silicon case which covers all that high end Apple design. Another glass back on these phones tells me Apple is making more money on repairs than the initial sale price. It's a scam.

  You do not have to pay $1000 and pay for insurance and use a silicone case. You are free to get a less expensive model if you feel you’re prone to drops. Or use an attractive leather case. Or if you want the top-tier and are prone to drops and you don’t want to use any case, then by all means get AppleCare, to not do so is foolish. 
  
  But as has been explained to you, no, it’s not a scam. Glass back is for the conductive charging feature. Apple’s repair income is a rounding error to their enormous sales revenue. 
  
  You dropped yours. You didn’t protect it. Get over it. There’s no one to blame but yourself.

  I understand your points, my point is the glass back is more for style and conductive charging, don't know anyone that charges with one of those unless, say at home. 
  As a finished consumer ready product the latest iPhones should not require a case if so then Apple should provide one the way it supplies a charger. The mat glass on the 11 models suggest they are attempting to correct the slippery glass problem that the XS and other models have. I always buy the top end model for camera improvements, 

  Actually, it's inductive charging. Conductive charging is what happens when you plug in the cord. And yes, the glass back is completely for inductive charging. Prior to the iPhone 8(?), when inductive charging was introduced to the iPhone they all had metal backs (except the 5c). Inductive charging won't work through metal. Period. it's not a scam, it's physics. 
  
  I personally don't use inductive charging, but I know a lot of people who do. My brother in law's car has an inductive charger built in. There are plenty of drawbacks to it, but there are some definite advantages, too. 
  
  As for a case, the iPhone doesn't require a case. It requires that you don't drop it onto a hard surface. Do you complain if you drop your laptop or desktop computer and it doesn't work? There are a multitude of different cases providing varying levels of protection and style. NO smartphone manufacturer supplies a case with their phone for good reason - everyone has a different preference. 
  
  

  Thanks for that info, I don't usually drop my phone however I was at a restaurant with it sitting on the table top, a customer walked by moved my table and.... crack. Accidents happen but I mean 28" drop was enough to cause so much damage. It would be less than $200 to fix the screen which I wish had broken instead. A case defeats the purpose of the iPhones design, think of the hours and engineerings which goes into getting it to look the way it does, then it's wrapped in silicon? No thanks.
• Reply 19 of 39

  yojimbo007 Posts: 1,165member

  September 17, 2019 7:44PM

  The Camera improvements are absolutely amazing.. definitely  upgrade worthy !..... Both my wife and i will be upgrading from X and Xs for sure.. waiting to see the new green in person before finalizing our  order.. we are leaning towards the Max this time. 

  
• Reply 20 of 39

  hail-saision Posts: 1member

  September 17, 2019 7:54PM

  Except, if you were on the Apple iPhone Upgrade Program, you'd be swapping to the iPhone 11 Pro anyway. In that one situation, you're definitely better off —or at least no worse off financially —by upgrading.

  It's not true that you're "no worse off financially" to upgrade from the XS you bought last year using the upgrade program.

  1. You still have to pay sales tax on the entire cost of phone, something you did last year when you bought the XS (so $80-140 depending on your state and the iPhone you choose)
  2. You probably will want to buy a case for your new iPhone 11 Pro, something you also did last year when you bought the XS ($40-50)

  So really the cost to upgrade after a year with the XS is more like $120-190. That's not even taking into account the fact that if you hang on to the XS for one more year that you will have $400-500 in trade-in value when you upgrade to the iPhone 12 (after making 12 more monthly payments that is).
  
  I'm not saying the upgrade isn't worth it, but it's not fair to say there is effectively no cost to upgrade. I personally am justifying the cost because I look at it as the cost to have a nicer camera for the next year.