If you can afford it, it's always a good idea to buy the newest model available at the time. This would be a 6 or 6 Plus at this point and which one you choose would depend entirely on your preference with respect to the size of the phone. The 6 Plus is very big, but it does have the advantage of a big battery and hence very good battery life (at least for an iPhone).
Just keep in mind that it's unlikely you have any smartphone for 7 years as you did your old phone. I think for most people 4 or at the most 5 years is the maximum lifetime of a phone nowadays since after that time you'll run into issues where your OS may not support new apps and so on. Of course batteries degrade over time and may not hold much of a charge any more and it's typically not worth spending $100 or more to pay somebody to put a new battery into, for example, an iPhone 3GS which is now the model of iPhone which if somebody had bought it at its release in the summer of 2009 would be now 5 and a half years old. It wouldn't even make sense if you had an iPhone 4 from 2010 although I know people who do have those and I'm always surprised how well they still do hold their charge. Buying an unlocked phone at full price would only make sense if you are able to get an inexpensive plan from an MVNO where you only pay $30 or $40 a months so that the $40 or $50 you save each months add up to a large enough amount over what would be your normal 2-year contract period that you actually save money in the end. Regards, Sieghard -----Original Message----- From: viphone@googlegroups.com [mailto:viphone@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Deidre Muccio Sent: Friday, January 02, 2015 5:49 AM To: viphone@googlegroups.com Subject: RE: My Recent Experience upgrading from a 5 S to an iPhone 6 Plus, With One Question Every time I read something like this it pushes me farther towards going further towards a later model and version of a phone. This report was excellent. Meanwhile my old cell phone which is 7 years old has a charger or contact point for charging that is now defective. Question is do I run around to the Verizon store to see what deal or spiel they give me, get on the phone or just go down to Apple! I sure would prefer an unlocked phone, and I don't want to be thinking of needing to do any significant upgrading once I do get a new phone. I wish you guys (b's and g's) lived or worked next door! -----Original Message----- From: viphone@googlegroups.com [mailto:viphone@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of M. Taylor Sent: Friday, January 02, 2015 3:35 AM To: viphone@googlegroups.com Subject: My Recent Experience upgrading from a 5 S to an iPhone 6 Plus, With One Question Hello Everyone and Happy New Year! Three days ago, I purchased a 128GB unlocked T-Mobile iPhone 6 Plus. The first thing I did, even before leaving the Apple Store, was to insert an A T & T Wireless SIM card, just to make certain it was truly unlocked (smile). I also had a sales person put on a screen protector. After returning home, I restored the phone from my 5 S and I was amazed at how complete the restoration was, given that my backup was not encrypted. The six plus is so fast that what, in the past at least, has taken up to 25 minutes to complete, only took approximately 15 minutes. The Restore was so thorough that it automatically put the new phone in Field Test mode. For those who may not know, field test mode allows one to toggle the cell signal indicator between either bars or numbers as a percentage of decibel strength. At the time of purchase, the phone came with iOS 8.1.1. So, when I got home, I updated to iOS 8.1.2. Now what I find fascinating is that, although on virtually every 6 Plus I used until this one, I could not use VoiceOver to summarily clear notifications as I did on my 5 S running 7.1.2. At the time of this post, I have tested or assisted in the purchase or setting up of no fewer than 20 iPhone sixes or 6 Pluses. On a whim and for no good reason that I can recall, on my new 6 plus, I single-finger, double-tapped on the Clear-All buttons in the Notifications Table and, each time, doing so cleared all of the notifications just as it does in iOS 7.1.2. Why does it work on this device? I have no idea. I'm just glad it does work for deleting each item in the Notifications Table can take a lot, relatively speaking, of time to complete. At any given time, I have access to, including my own device, 3 6 plusses. Earlier today, I laid them down side-by-side and compared the Settings options. What I discovered is that, to my astonishment, not all iPHones are created equally. I don't know why, exactly, but there are some settings options differences between the T-Mobile, Sprint, and A T & T versions of the 6 plus. I have not thoroughly examined the Settings area of the Verizon Wireless 6 Plus. I will not bore you with the minor details but the one that stands out in my mind is located in the Cellular settings area with regard to accessing LTE voice and data. It's probably of no significance but still ... My T-Mobile plus has more options allowing for greater definitions. Let's see, anything else? Oh yeah, although I am running iTunes 12 on my Mac, the Windows 7 PC, to which I sync my 6 plus is still running iTunes 11; it appears to be working just fine so I will not update to 12 unless or until it is absolutely necessary. My two newest favorite features of iOS 8.1.2 would have to be Predictive text and SMS forwarding to my Mac. By the way, I was thinking about downloading the Alex TTS in addition to Samantha. Does anyone know if you can delete the Alex TTS voice from the device, should you choose? If so, how? Finally, for the beta testers among us, aside from having to reinstall various profile definitions, there have been no glitches in my upgrading from a 5 S to a 6 Plus. I have decided to leave my 5 S at iOS 7.1.2. In conclusion, I am totally delighted with my 6 Plus and, as yet anyway, have not encountered any VoiceOver bugs with any of the third-party or native apps I used on my 5 S, with the exception of Safari. Oh, the Apple Maps app is fast becoming one of my Favorites to use on a regular basis. This was definitely not the case in IOS 7.1.2. While I'm not saying that I would choose it over A T & T Navigator, I am saying that, as a free solution, so to speak, it is now a viable option and fun to use. I hope some of you find this report helpful. Again, Happy New Year to everyone. Mark -- The following information is important for all members of the viphone list. All new members to the this list are moderated by default. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. 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