I've said it for decades. Wait as long as you can. Buy as much as you can afford. Then stop looking. Because the next gen and price drop will only depress you.
That’s the way you do it. I just upgraded from an iPhone 7… No really, an iPhone 7. As for upgrading to the most you can afford… That was a three year old iPhone 13 for $200 USD. 🤣
Please tell me I’m not dreaming? I have missed this channel. Kept it on all notifications in the hope that videos like this would eventually come back and I feel so rewarded. Rene, it’s great to have you back. Made my day man!
Same here 14 pro max. Works great still. No reason to refresh yet. But I always love getting new ones, it's like the ring of power pulling me to the great eye of the Apple store...
Same here. Have iPhone 14 Pro and see no reason to upgrade. Only issue is I should have go for Pro Max so maybe in next launch I will go for iPhone 17 Pro Max
Still rocking my Samsung Galaxy Note 10 from November 2019. Still kicking at full capacity. I'm (we're) actually at a point where mid range phones from non-premiun brands REALLY REALLY get the job done. Flagships from 4+ years ago have amazing cameras and features. Most of us don't really max out the utility on our phones. I wish we didn't run through devices so much so quickly, but i don't mind the robust second hand market.
Also… thank you for saying the quiet part out loud.. I love tech tubers but a lot of them have become entitled when it comes to demanding change every upgrade cycle
Lately I’m just not into the new and shiny anymore. I’ll get a battery change for my 14 pro max when it inevitably fails. When it’s time to upgrade I’ll buy used.
Finally!!! Welcome back Rene Ritchie! I’ve been taking Rene’s advice about waiting as long as you can for a while now… Generally, battery life drives my upgrade cycle.
Rene!! Dude, welcome back! I upgraded from my shattered 12 Pro to the 14 Pro last year and I’ll be hanging onto this phone for a while! Literally nothing about the 15 or 16 impresses me. Plus I’d need to “payoff” my 14 Pro just to upgrade and NOPE! My 14 Pro has everything I want/need in a smartphone along with the Dynamic Island which is honestly pretty cool! When the battery on this thing drops below 80%, I’m just going to replace it and keep the phone. I’m now in my mid 30s and have grown out of that ‘need the newest’ phase. My only gripe about the 14 series is the occasional thermal performance under load. It can get pretty warm. But it doesn’t happen much! Plus I have the 1TB version in the slick Deep Purple color! 😎
@ and I for one am grateful. Please can you say “poutine” again? I can’t find the video where you said it. It’s the best pronunciation I’ve heard of it.
Glad to see you’re back! I upgraded from a 13 to a 16 plus for the sole purpose of playing Death Stranding and it’s very much worth it for me. I am also enjoying the Dynamic Island that has been out a couple years which was not enough for an upgrade then but is nice to have now.
Rene is back!!! 🎉🎉🎉 I have been missing you man! I am super excited to see more of your content soon. I have been following your advice on buying the best I can afford and use it for the longest I can until it dies
I regret upgrading from the 13 pro max to the 16 pro. I thought I'd like the smaller one, but I dont.. and apple intelligence features are incredibly underwhelming.
Apple won't like to hear it, but... Having owned an iPhone X, I had to wait for the 15 Pro to justify an iPhone upgrade. The missus getting a new car and 40% loss of battery capacity on the X after 6 years gave me the nudge rather than feature/function improvements.
Well I bought the iPhone 16 after rocking the 12 Mini for 4 years and what a great upgrade it is. The battery holds 500% longer, the performance is better, the new buttons are nice, etc. if I had upgraded the last few years this jump wouldn’t feel like such a big one.
in the uk we have a thing on O2 contract called switch up which means you can just swap your phone after 3 months of having it for a brand new different one, you can do this unlimited, its quite handy for tech addicts like me!
iPhone 14 Pro has peaked for me. Its Stainless Steel chassis design, along with the Apple Watch Series 8 and MacBook Pro M2 having the matching Space Black finish is beyond satisfactory. In recent years, maximizing usage through building HomeKit has been extremely rewarding.
I have a 13PM. Got a deep scratch and replaced the screen. Soon as battery health hits 79% imma get that replaced on AppleCare. Finally learned to be fine with what I have.
Totally agree. Even as a full time iOS developer I dont bother to get the new one every year... there is simply no point to it even though Apple is doing their best to make us think there is..
Still have my 13 Mini. In fact I bought a second as a spare. But, have now adapted to a 16 Pro because of the camera. The Mini is getting harder to read.
A while back I upgraded from a 12PM to a 15PM because I ran out of storage. Other than not being out of storage, my moment-to-moment experience is...nearly identical. After more than a year, I feel no need to upgrade. I'm patiently waiting for the iPhone 20. Oh, and...welcome back.
I picked up a 15 Pro Max just before Christmas on a steep carrier discount and I’ve been pleasantly surprised how okay it is. I don’t think I would have noticed the upgrades the 16 got. 🤷♂️
Apple Upgrade Program: you never have to worry about battery health, you always have the latest/greatest, you're always under warranty, you don't have to deal with selling or trading in old hardware, and Apple makes it super simple and easy to get in the program and update.
While you were out, I moved to Android. iPhone has been the same since the X. No real reason to upgrade other than "My Phone is Slow" due to apple's "programmed obsolescence". iOS 17 was bad on my iPhone 12. iOS 18 was immediately noticeably worse on it. They offer 7 years of update, but cant manage to keep the phone decent for 4, and that's on purpose imo. I'm on S24 Ultra now. Fast. Cheaper. More Storage. It's a great phone and feels new to me.
So what you’re saying is don’t upgrade my 16 pro this year to the 17 pro? Got it. If I know this before, I could have saved so much money. Jokes aside. I upgraded to the 16 pro from the 12 pro and before that was the 7. I only upgraded each time because the battery wasn’t lasting at all. I try to hold on as long as possible. Seems like my cycle length is about 4 years. That means I’m not getting another iPhone till 20.
Gosh, I remember you. I supported you on Patreon then you disappeared. Glad to see you back and sharp as ever 👍🏼 As for Apple upgrades, I getting ann M4 Mac Mini (to replace an old intel iMac), the iPhone XS replacement can wait 😁
iPhone upgrade program is the best way to get an iPhone. Includes Apple care, you get a new phone every 12 months. I love having the newest phone. Not for a status symbol, simply because I love tech. I have a 16 Pro, if a new Air phone comes out "soon", I will likely buy it.
@ it’s not. It would be a downgrade from the pro phone I already have. So if it’s a status symbol, why the f*ck would I want the lesser phone ? Duuuuuuhhhhh.
I follow the fibonacci upgrade program so I get the rapid updates in the early stages (versions 1, 2, 3, 5, 8,) and the stability in later stages (13, 21, 34. ) bought the iPhone 13 and am now waiting for the iPhone 21. I think I might be alive for the iPhone 34. I'm 58 now so I am not sure I will live long enough to see the iPhone 34! I use the Fibonacci sequence for nearly all my tech purchases an it saves me money gets me stable benefits and avoids gimmicky upgrades that rarely propagate to late releases!
I use my phone with pretty much everything and it seems that some day even my id cards will be on device too. I went from 7 to 14 PM and the upgrade was very night and day. Next I’ll just want longer battery life, better cameras and a lighter device. Kind of regretting getting the bigger device now, can’t really use this device one handed…
Where I've been! ruclips.net/video/-zT6LesaZgs/видео.html
Nice to have you back on my feed Rene!
Are you back?
He remembered his password
He was gone the better part of a year. . .
Damn passkeys!
@@ReneRitchie 😂😂😂
He’s back back 🥲
Back again!
@@ReneRitchieglad to see it bro
I've said it for decades. Wait as long as you can. Buy as much as you can afford. Then stop looking. Because the next gen and price drop will only depress you.
Yup, cars and laptops too
That’s the way you do it. I just upgraded from an iPhone 7… No really, an iPhone 7.
As for upgrading to the most you can afford…
That was a three year old iPhone 13 for $200 USD. 🤣
Woah, Apple content from Rene. Old school.
Still the same OG but I been low-key!
@@ReneRitchieMf’s actin like they forgot about Rene
Please tell me I’m not dreaming?
I have missed this channel. Kept it on all notifications in the hope that videos like this would eventually come back and I feel so rewarded.
Rene, it’s great to have you back. Made my day man!
Been loving seeing you as the RUclips liaison but still really fun to see you talk about tech again!
Using my 14 pro max. Not a single new feature has caught my attention
I went from 14 Pro Max to 15 Pro Max because of the weight and size reduction. I’m glad I did. If yours works for you, it works!
Same here 14 pro max. Works great still. No reason to refresh yet. But I always love getting new ones, it's like the ring of power pulling me to the great eye of the Apple store...
Same here. Have iPhone 14 Pro and see no reason to upgrade. Only issue is I should have go for Pro Max so maybe in next launch I will go for iPhone 17 Pro Max
15pro, and don’t use any of the “ai” hype. The ai seems to be basically built in chapgpt, which you can get as an app, which I don’t have any use for.
Still rocking my Samsung Galaxy Note 10 from November 2019. Still kicking at full capacity. I'm (we're) actually at a point where mid range phones from non-premiun brands REALLY REALLY get the job done. Flagships from 4+ years ago have amazing cameras and features. Most of us don't really max out the utility on our phones. I wish we didn't run through devices so much so quickly, but i don't mind the robust second hand market.
Also… thank you for saying the quiet part out loud.. I love tech tubers but a lot of them have become entitled when it comes to demanding change every upgrade cycle
Anything we ourselves don't have to design, implement, or support is by definition trivial!
As the universe should be. Rene Ritchie talking about iPhones. Great to see you again, wise one.
I still think RUclips (Google) hiring Rene was at least partially to remove him from the non-sensationalized/honest Apple journalism pool.
This
Just glad that Rene wasn’t pulled into the hype AI war among OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, & DeepSeek.
My 12 mini was great until I got the iPhone 16. It continues to blow my mind what a difference that many iterative changes can make!
Thats how it should always be, not complaining about the lack of features between 1 yr iterations.
I upgraded from 12mini to 16 too. I missed the size of my mini, the mini is truly a one handed device compared to the 16.
Lately I’m just not into the new and shiny anymore. I’ll get a battery change for my 14 pro max when it inevitably fails. When it’s time to upgrade I’ll buy used.
I missed these elegant poetic and informative videos! glad you're back
I love you. Thank you and I have no words for how happy I am to watch this video. So happy you’re back!!!!!!!
I’m so glad you’re back you’re amazing at technology
Feels like a comfortable warm blanket seeing this content again. You love to see it.
Finally!!! Welcome back Rene Ritchie!
I’ve been taking Rene’s advice about waiting as long as you can for a while now… Generally, battery life drives my upgrade cycle.
Rene!! Dude, welcome back!
I upgraded from my shattered 12 Pro to the 14 Pro last year and I’ll be hanging onto this phone for a while! Literally nothing about the 15 or 16 impresses me. Plus I’d need to “payoff” my 14 Pro just to upgrade and NOPE! My 14 Pro has everything I want/need in a smartphone along with the Dynamic Island which is honestly pretty cool! When the battery on this thing drops below 80%, I’m just going to replace it and keep the phone. I’m now in my mid 30s and have grown out of that ‘need the newest’ phase. My only gripe about the 14 series is the occasional thermal performance under load. It can get pretty warm. But it doesn’t happen much! Plus I have the 1TB version in the slick Deep Purple color! 😎
iPhone 17 Air or iPhone 17 Slim 😉. Great advice Rene👍
Rene is back. Have missed you ❤❤❤❤😊
Just like that and I'm back!
@ and I for one am grateful. Please can you say “poutine” again? I can’t find the video where you said it. It’s the best pronunciation I’ve heard of it.
Welcome Back!
I like your practical advice/approach
Glad to see you’re back!
I upgraded from a 13 to a 16 plus for the sole purpose of playing Death Stranding and it’s very much worth it for me. I am also enjoying the Dynamic Island that has been out a couple years which was not enough for an upgrade then but is nice to have now.
My man, we’ve missed you. Thanks for coming back. I hope there’s way more to come.
Love Rene miss you posting a lot on RUclips always enjoyed listening to your take.
I’m glad you are back. Please stick with it!
Rene is back!!! 🎉🎉🎉
I have been missing you man! I am super excited to see more of your content soon. I have been following your advice on buying the best I can afford and use it for the longest I can until it dies
So glad to see you posting again Rene!
I’m pleased he’s back, I’ve missed his tech reviews and honesty…😊
How does it feel to be back my guy?
I now keep my iphones 3-4 years now
And don't start me with my iPad pro
Like turning me back into the old me!
@@ReneRitchieit's great to go back to the basics, but we keep our eyes in the future plans. 💯💯💯
welcome back... I'll be riding this 14 PM for a long time. I love upgrading and even more, love new tech, but this has been a great phone
Excited to have ya back Rene! 🙏
Glad to see you back, René. Miss your insights.
Welcome back Missed your super ball cadence tied to wisdom and wit ! It’s Rene’s world party on excellent !!
Had to do a double take in my feed! WELCOME BACK!!! Glad to see your takes again!
THANK YOU FOR COMING BACK! JUST THANK YOU FOR MAKING MY DAY!
I regret upgrading from the 13 pro max to the 16 pro. I thought I'd like the smaller one, but I dont.. and apple intelligence features are incredibly underwhelming.
return the silly thing
Bad idea bigger phone is better
Great to see you back Rene!
iPhone 12 Pro Max user and still have absolutely zero temptation to upgrade. Curious about the 17 slim.
I’m still rocking my 12 pro.i might wait for the 18.
Best advice I’ve ever needed to be reminded of! 👍🏾 You’ve been missed!⭐️💪🏽⭐️
Apple won't like to hear it, but... Having owned an iPhone X, I had to wait for the 15 Pro to justify an iPhone upgrade. The missus getting a new car and 40% loss of battery capacity on the X after 6 years gave me the nudge rather than feature/function improvements.
Well I bought the iPhone 16 after rocking the 12 Mini for 4 years and what a great upgrade it is. The battery holds 500% longer, the performance is better, the new buttons are nice, etc. if I had upgraded the last few years this jump wouldn’t feel like such a big one.
It’s great to see you making videos from your new studio in San Francisco!
in the uk we have a thing on O2 contract called switch up which means you can just swap your phone after 3 months of having it for a brand new different one, you can do this unlimited, its quite handy for tech addicts like me!
how much is the contract per month
Great to see you back!
I've missed you so much, Rene!!
Have missed your tech prose, welcome back!
welcome back Rene 🎉
Welcome back family 😊
Welcome back Rene 😊. Hope you will continue uploads 👍🏻
Happy to see you, Rene!!
iPhone 14 Pro has peaked for me. Its Stainless Steel chassis design, along with the Apple Watch Series 8 and MacBook Pro M2 having the matching Space Black finish is beyond satisfactory. In recent years, maximizing usage through building HomeKit has been extremely rewarding.
Rene, glad to see you back
Great to see you post again Rene. Hope you are well.
I have a 13PM. Got a deep scratch and replaced the screen. Soon as battery health hits 79% imma get that replaced on AppleCare. Finally learned to be fine with what I have.
Welcome back, man we have miss you
It’s always nice to see you talk and tech. 👍🏻
Totally agree. Even as a full time iOS developer I dont bother to get the new one every year... there is simply no point to it even though Apple is doing their best to make us think there is..
I really miss my 13 mini 😕 I love my 15 pro but dang I really miss my 13 mini
Still using my 13 mini.
Really wish mini phones would make a comeback. Because I’m not sure what I will do when this one is too old.
Same, I only get 5 hours of battery and the port is getting worn but love the size. Phones are far too big now.
The 13 mini is the perfect pocket size…not sure what I will do when it’s no longer supported.
Still have my 13 Mini. In fact I bought a second as a spare. But, have now adapted to a 16 Pro because of the camera. The Mini is getting harder to read.
A while back I upgraded from a 12PM to a 15PM because I ran out of storage. Other than not being out of storage, my moment-to-moment experience is...nearly identical. After more than a year, I feel no need to upgrade. I'm patiently waiting for the iPhone 20.
Oh, and...welcome back.
Welcome Back!
I like your practical advice/approach I
Welcome back Rene!!
glad to have you back!
Wow.. I hope you are really back.. 🤞 An incredible video as usual.
Great to see you again Rene👍🏾
I just loved the new one it has great cameras. I’ve started a skiing blog with it
Welcome back was wondering 💭 where you was? Happy new year all the best.
Missed your awesome hot takes 💫
There’s that Rene video we’ve all been waiting for!
I picked up a 15 Pro Max just before Christmas on a steep carrier discount and I’ve been pleasantly surprised how okay it is. I don’t think I would have noticed the upgrades the 16 got. 🤷♂️
Well %5 of my %69 brain didn't understood %83 of the first %13 of the video.
Apple Upgrade Program: you never have to worry about battery health, you always have the latest/greatest, you're always under warranty, you don't have to deal with selling or trading in old hardware, and Apple makes it super simple and easy to get in the program and update.
Someone once said, there will always be a better phone down the line. So if you want to get a new phone, get it now.
Glad to have you back! 😊
Love this so much! Can’t wait to watch more bro :)
Thanks for coming back to watch!
While you were out, I moved to Android.
iPhone has been the same since the X. No real reason to upgrade other than "My Phone is Slow" due to apple's "programmed obsolescence".
iOS 17 was bad on my iPhone 12. iOS 18 was immediately noticeably worse on it. They offer 7 years of update, but cant manage to keep the phone decent for 4, and that's on purpose imo.
I'm on S24 Ultra now. Fast. Cheaper. More Storage. It's a great phone and feels new to me.
So happy to have you back and making videos! Missed your common sense takes....
So what you’re saying is don’t upgrade my 16 pro this year to the 17 pro? Got it. If I know this before, I could have saved so much money.
Jokes aside. I upgraded to the 16 pro from the 12 pro and before that was the 7. I only upgraded each time because the battery wasn’t lasting at all. I try to hold on as long as possible. Seems like my cycle length is about 4 years. That means I’m not getting another iPhone till 20.
And he's back! 🔥
Sorry for the noise!
Welcome back, Rene! You've been missed!
Gosh, I remember you. I supported you on Patreon then you disappeared. Glad to see you back and sharp as ever 👍🏼 As for Apple upgrades, I getting ann M4 Mac Mini (to replace an old intel iMac), the iPhone XS replacement can wait 😁
Nice to see you again, Rene.
Great to see you back again!
Nice to have you back!
Glad to see you here on RUclips again. Its NOT the same when you're gone.
iPhone upgrade program is the best way to get an iPhone. Includes Apple care, you get a new phone every 12 months. I love having the newest phone. Not for a status symbol, simply because I love tech. I have a 16 Pro, if a new Air phone comes out "soon", I will likely buy it.
Don’t kid yourself. It’s a status symbol and you know it… there’s zero reason to upgrade yearly
@ it’s not. It would be a downgrade from the pro phone I already have. So if it’s a status symbol, why the f*ck would I want the lesser phone ?
Duuuuuuhhhhh.
@@mbvx7 “I love having the newest phone” tells you all you need to know…
I follow the fibonacci upgrade program so I get the rapid updates in the early stages (versions 1, 2, 3, 5, 8,) and the stability in later stages (13, 21, 34. ) bought the iPhone 13 and am now waiting for the iPhone 21. I think I might be alive for the iPhone 34. I'm 58 now so I am not sure I will live long enough to see the iPhone 34! I use the Fibonacci sequence for nearly all my tech purchases an it saves me money gets me stable benefits and avoids gimmicky upgrades that rarely propagate to late releases!
I’m keeping my 16 Pro Max and I’m looking to upgrade my S23 Ultra to the S25 Ultra this year
Multi-phone strat!
After USB-C on the 15 Pro Max, it’s gonna take something REALLY special to get me to upgrade soon.
Have missed your unique way with words!!
I replaced my iPhone XR last year for an iPhone 14Pro which I will probably keep till the iPhone 18 or later comes out. It perfectly does the job 🙌🏻
Man we so much missed your videos 🥲
GoSh!!!!! I've missed Rene Ritchie! the poetic superlatives, I like to call them ❤
Hi Rene, Glad you’re back!
Could you please share your thoughts about “Siri eavesdropping settlement” & Apple privacy..?
I use my phone with pretty much everything and it seems that some day even my id cards will be on device too.
I went from 7 to 14 PM and the upgrade was very night and day. Next I’ll just want longer battery life, better cameras and a lighter device. Kind of regretting getting the bigger device now, can’t really use this device one handed…
Welcome back Legend
Glad to see you on the TL.
Welcome back Rene!
Welcome back!!🎉