nmenaker

That, i would not count on. If the LTE isn’t working well I doubt the 5G will be better

LIH Prem

Some interesting battery statistics on the new larger batteries.

https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/17/2...top-comparison

-David

LIH Prem

Is the VZW next-up the new phone every year plan? Is the phone carrier locked or not? If you buy it from Apple, it is completely unlocked. (they mention an exception for an AT&T installment plan, but that's not applicable here.)

The one time I bought my phone for full price up front at a t-mobile physical store, the phone was still locked, and I think I had to wait 6 months or so to get it unlocked. I've never done that again since then.

-David

anrkitec

I saw today that AT&T is offering $1000 for a 12 Pro 256 for existing customers. I haven't dug into the T&C to see if those of us who took the $800/30-month trade-in last year can get the 13 Pro and just start the clock on 30-months over. I doubt they will allow that but if they do it would be worth the extra $2/month [in addition to the additional $9/month from last year] just to get a battery that is one year newer.

gfunkdave

I don’t know what you mean by “next-up”.

Verizon phones are always locked but Auto Unlock after 60 days. (I don’t know why my iPad capitalized Auto Unlock but here we are.). If you buy a phone from Apple and link it to a carrier Apple will apply the carrier’s lock policy.

LIH Prem

that came from your post: "I just looked at upgrading via Verizon finance and while it's 0% APR I'd have to pay an extra $10/month for the next-up Unlimited plan." Isn't that an AT&T program name? Anyway, the question I was asking, does that program allow you to upgrade every year?

Not sure about that, it says on the Apple Store and App that if you buy a phone from Apple, it's unlocked, with that one exception for the AT&T installment plan.

-David

gfunkdave

Oh, I just meant that Verizon has several “unlimited” plans and you need one besides the base one to qualify for the deals.

If you buy a phone from Apple and select the option for no carrier, it’s unlocked.

LIH Prem

lol No ... I didn't make it up ... if you buy from Apple directly it's unlocked unless you select an AT&T installment plan.

josephstern

Great news about the dual eSIM on this - I hadn't seen that info elsewhere.

I'll keep my T-Mo and Google Fi in eSIM, and for those rare situations where I use a different SIM (it happens) I can use the physical SIM slot. Very handy.

But this makes me wonder why you couldn't have unlimited eSIMs in these. Is there a physical piece of hardware involved?

LordHamster

You can store unlimited eSim profiles today on any iPhone (and many android phones)... but you can only have one active at a time because the embedded sim is a hardware component addressed by the cellular radio. The new phones will have two of these components (not sure if virtual or physical) that you could in theory use at the same time in a DSDS capacity.

gfunkdave

I keep vacillating between upgrading and not. There's nothing wrong with my XS (aside from the battery being a little worn out). I just kind of want a new phone since I've had this one 3 years. But there's no compelling reason to get one.

ESpen36

So, just to confirm the process if buying a new, "no carrier" / "connect on my own later" iPhone, the way to activate it is simply to pop in the AT&T sim card from the old phone and then restore from iTunes or iCloud backup?

Is there any need to call AT&T to register the new IMEI after popping in the sim card, or is all of that done automatically on the back end?

TGarza

No need to speak with AT&T. I purchased a prepaid iPhone SE 2 for $199 and moved a post paid line to the phone. I inserted the SIM and used the iPhone scan to setup the phone. AT&T unlocked the phone 6 months after I submitted a request. iOS includes a feature to move from one iPhone to another by scanning the QR circle which will perform the backup, iOS upgrade and restore.

Jaimito Cartero

I prefer to use an iPad, 10.2” style. I have a 128gb, 6th generation, which I got new 2.5 years ago at Costco. The battery seems to be dying faster, especially once it hits 40%. Sometime it will die in less than an hour. It used to be good for 3-4 hours. I also seem to have to shutdown and restart at least once a day. Crashing while on FT, or reading Apple news is where the problems seem to happen. I use it 6-10 hours a day. Browsing, email, news and streaming. I have a 10xr, but just don’t use it much.

I’m thinking of upgrading to the new 9th generation, 256gb model. Faster processor, more memory, etc. Hoping it stops the crashing, as it’s pretty annoying. Maybe wait until Black Friday and see if Costco runs their standard $70 off sale.

GUWonder

I find the minor inconvenience of migrating primary phones to outweigh the benefit of “advances” between recent model iPhones, but the degraded battery life is a sort of motivating nuisance to “move up” given what Apple charges for battery replacement.

Are the 1TB iPhone buyers going to end up paying more for iCloud storage services over the longer term than they would if sticking to 128GB versions? I suspect so.