Visconti

Have the old iPhone 12. The 14 worth an upgrade? Can someone just dumb it down for me.

Thanks!

TGarza

The 14 will provide better service to me since my carrier has started deploying 5G bands supported by the 14 but not the 12.

My concern is international prepaid esim support to setup IMS when we travel to Europe.

draver

Do you just need a ton of data, or a phone number or what? The common data esim services like Airalo, FlexiroamX, etc. are not too pricy and have pretty decent speeds for most of Europe.

TGarza

I have limited knowledge of esims in Europe since I have always purchased a physical sim paired with my domestic esim. I will take a look at the 2 providers you suggested. My data usage is usually less than 10GB for most trips.

draver

I have found it much easier to just buy a downloadable esim than hunt up a storefront and deal with language & currency barriers. Not to mention unscrupulous reps who might wish to prey upon tourists. You will pay a little more but time is money, especially while traveling. Airalo offers 10Gb for 39 European countries for 30 days @ $37. 5Gb is $20. For comparison, T-Mobile has 5Gb @$35 for 10 days, 15Gb-30 days for $50. Those plans include free worldwide calling but you need to be on T-Mobile for purchase. They also include 5Gb of data free per billing period for many of their postpaid plans.

Need

I can upgrade my 3 iPhone 12 (Pro Max) to iPhone 14 Pro Max for free (almost) with T-Mobile ($1000 trade in). I am still looking at it to see if I really want to do it. Will have to get new cases for them. The dynamic island is pretty cool but more gimmicky than anything else. The camera is probably a little better but don't think my mom, wife, and son will notice it much. The SOS satellite function seems cool and could be lifesaving, but so far in the last 20+ years since we got mobile phones, never really need to use it. The no simcard slot does not bother me at all. Battery life is a concern. Reviews so far says the battery life of iPhone 14 Pro Max is not that great. If anything at all, battery life is the #1 priority for the iPhones in the family. They seems to constantly run low on it thru the day.

And on top of that, I think next year iPhones would have USB-C for charging. Everything else in the house uses USB-C except for the iPhones. It would make sense if I use wait one more year to upgrade. iPhone 15 could have some significant break thru on top of USB-C charging.

JackMackey

Went from a 13 Mini to a 14 Pro (not Max) but it still seems too big sometimes. As I kept the 13 Mini with a physical SIM card, is there a way to temporarily transfer from the 14 Pro when I don’t want to carry the bigger one?

draver

As long as your 13 mini will accommodate esims, you should be able to move that line between the two iPhones. I have done it half a dozen times to load from a sim card to an esim on another device. It works easily and in just a few simple steps. You open the Cellular Menu, tap Add eSIM and the available lines appear to chose from. I'd try it a few times to be comfortable with the process before you leave the US. You can then visit a store if you screw it up and need the missing number assigned back to a sim card. It is fairly low risk in my opinion, but stuff happens, as they say.

GUWonder

Aren’t some eSIM providers/operators in other countries still reluctant to allow for eSIMs to be swapped freely back and forth repeatedly between devices?

I see nothing for me to gain by buying any eSIM-only iPhone 14 at this point, and so will likely hold out on upgrading to the 15 Pro unless someone tosses me a complimentary extra 14Pro w/1TB storage.

I have sort of the same opinion about the 14s as Steve Job’s daughter has about them, but dislike the eSIM-only option.

Can the non-US 14s have two eSIMS operating at the same time to make and receive calls if keeping off the physical SIM card line?

draver

I think esim only iPhones are going to be all that is available worldwide in another year or two. I'm not sure waiting for the i15 will accomplish your goal.

I do not know what policies foreign carriers might have about moving esims, but I have not heard anything about them restricting that process. My best guess is that current sim card & esim iPhone 14's from outside the US will function like the 13's do. That is, 2 esims can be active or 1 sim card & 1 esim concurrently.

As far as buying a 14, I like a new battery, warranty, and highest trade in value from my year old iPhone, so I upgrade every year for a few hundred bucks. The feature set varies from year to year, but this year the emergency satellite connectivity and dual band GPS are both nice.

Visconti

That's good enough for me! After this thread, I'm just gonna wait for the 15. Anyway, not sure I want to fly with a phone named 14, especially on F 444 or something like that.

TGarza

She didn’t view the 13 to 14 as enough of an improvement to upgrade. Since I have AT&T service, upgrading from the 12 to the 14 covers all current and planned 5G bands.

Chinese versions of the iPhone 14 have 2 physical sim slots.

DYKWIA

The battery life is worse on the 14 PM than the 13 PM (at least in my experience). However, I do have screen "always on", and it's still pretty very good (currently at 90% after about 9 hours ).

GUWonder

I’ve survived well without satellite connectivity on my iPhones; and dual band GPS utility is also such a corner case for me that I don’t see the point in my being on the upgrade cycle hamster wheel at this point. I’ll wait until the 15.

As the EU is doing with the charging ports/chargers for iPhones too, so I hope they do with mobile phone service bands. The designed obsolescence even under color of advancement is very much consumer-unfriendly in some ways.

draver

One of the points I made is, the longer you wait to upgrade, the less your old phone is worth when you switch. Your net cost when you upgrade doesn't seem to change much due to this factor. I just sold my iPhone 13 Pro Max on Craigslist for $800 in a few days. Apple would have given me $720 trade in towards the 14. I do not see keeping phones longer than a year as especially cost effective. The new battery and warranty helps me with my decision. I'd say the switch to USB C is a marginal advantage, I have many current devices that included those cables, many are unused. They all work, and I also have a few Lightning to USB adapters that work well. I should mention that I get a 10% VET discount from Apple, so my price is lowered by that amount every year, while the used phone resale value is market. My net price for my 14 Pro Max, 256Gb after discount and 13 PM sale was $279. I am also in a no sales tax state in case you wondered.