The latest release from Apple with the iPhone 12 adds yet another mobile device to the market that has topped the four-figure price point coming in at over $1,000 for the more premium model, but recent years have seen a changing in attitude as many hold on to their own phones for a longer period of time and avoid the huge cost of upgrading for the marginal gains that can be found. As device habits have changed however there are a growing number of uses for our devices, and each should be factored in when deciding whether or not an upgrade is the correct choice.
(Image from businessinsider.com)
Multimedia uses will typically top the list when choosing whether or not an upgrade is a viable choice for you – a primary use for many has been the growing number of streaming services as consuming TV and movies on our mobiles largely in part to display changes that give a bigger screen for example, but another big change lately has been within gaming as it has become the most popular gaming platform in the world – with certain genres such as mobile gambling finding a huge rise in recent years despite changes in regulation and the mandatory nature of initiatives such as Gamstop, with a growing demand however players find many at casinos not on gamstop to play without restriction, and if these areas are a big focus for you, the four figure price tag may not be worth it as you’ll see little benefit.
One thing that may convince you to change however for newer devices is with the introduction of 5G networking which could see capacity and speed dramatically increase compared to that of your existing 4G connection – but it may also be more worth to err on the side of caution, it will take some time for 5G to have a wider spread rollout and will focus largely in cities and large towns at first meaning you may not get the immediate benefit, by the time it is available to you, you may find devices have already dropped in price with other feature improvements the help justify the choice.
There are some nicer features that are starting to become more common to help encourage the change however, changes for display performance as 120Hz displays are more widespread than just flagship devices is a very nice offering for many, along with the big changes that have been seen in camera technology too that allows for 4K video and high resolution pictures that are an attractive feature in our time of social media. Ultimately the choice will come down to whether or not the price can be justified, but it is certainly a growing trend that many of us are holding on to our devices for longer as the potential upgrades year after year are becoming more negligible and the hardware inside the newer devices remains mostly unchanging offering little to no upgrade if the change is made and the software that runs on these devices performs similarly on an old device as it does a new device.
