You’re in the market for a new smartphone, so you’re naturally going to choose the latest model, right? Not necessarily. While it’s appealing to own cutting-edge technology, there are some key reasons to consider a slightly older phone instead.
Slightly Older Phones Have Everything You Really Need
Brand-new phones may have cutting-edge features, but you’ll find all the elements you really want in a model that’s slightly older. Phones that are one or two years old are still stylish and have high-resolution displays. They’ll still run virtually any app available, and they’ll probably support the latest operating system.
Consider the extras that brand-new phones promise and decide whether you’ll really use these features. You’ve taken camera photos without fast auto-focus for years, so do you really need this perk? 4K recording might sound appealing, but if you’re just going to reduce the resolution to load clips online, does it matter if you’re capturing footage in ultra-high definition? You might take amazing photos with a 16-megapixel camera on a brand-new smartphone, but if you’re only posting them on Facebook, they’ll get so compressed that the extra megapixels won’t matter.
New features can be fun, but if you won’t really benefit from them there’s no point buying a phone that offers them.
You May Not Benefit From the Extra Speed
The newest smartphones are always the fastest. But that doesn’t mean that slightly older smartphones are slugs. There’s a real chance that you won’t benefit from the extra speed a new model offers.
Consider what you do with your phone to decide whether the extra speed will make a difference to you. Sending a text message will take just as long on the latest phone as it did on the previous model. And let’s not forget that smartphones were intended for making voice calls. If the old flip phones could handle voice calls, then a slightly older phone can connect you to loved ones just as quickly.
Does it really matter to you whether a game app opens a second faster? The gameplay of popular apps like Candy Crush and Solitaire doesn’t suffer on a slightly dated smartphone, either. Unless you’re playing a graphics-intensive game like Asphalt 8 or N.O.V.A. 3, you don’t need a phone with a high-end processing unit.
Remember that if you’re buying a new phone that’s more recent than the one you currently own, you’re going to get a speed upgrade anyway. And if your original smartphone could handle the apps you use, a phone that’s slightly older than the latest model will have no trouble.
Slightly Older Phones Are Tried and Tested
Getting a new smartphone is actually a bit of a gamble. While smartphone manufacturers rigorously test their products before releasing them to market, there are sometimes hardware and software flaws that aren’t apparent until the device is in the hands of the public.
In contrast, any problems with smartphones that aren’t as new have probably already been discovered. In many cases, the manufacturers will have released fixes to resolve the problems. If this isn’t possible, you can probably find information about the problem online and how other users have handled it.
Slightly Older Phones Are Usually Cheaper
For many of us, price is the real decision maker. Tech firms typically discount their slightly older smartphones to make them more appealing to consumers as new products enter the market.
For example, T-Mobile is currently charging $649.99 for the 16GB Apple iPhone 6s. Click here to read more about this phone and its features. iPhone 7 Buzz suggests that the Apple iPhone 7 will cost between $800 and $900 when it hits stores in the United States around September. However, with CNET reporting that Apple won’t release a 16GB version of its iPhone 7, the actual price may be closer to the upper end of the scale.
Next time you’re ready to invest in a smartphone, remember that the latest model isn’t your only option. While it’s easy to get dazzled by these brand-new devices, there are plenty of benefits to choosing a slightly older phone instead.
