How many more years can I continue to use my iphone 7 plus?

[columbusohio]

Good afternoon my dear friends,

I was just playing with my iphone 7 plus, and I love it so much that I really do not want to drop another 1k on a new iphone. I only use my 7 plus on basic tasks such as youtube watching, mobile banking and IM chatting. Right now the speed is perfectly acceptable so as the battery life. I also have an iphone 6 plus and the speed is not acceptable to me anymore, just to give a comparison. 

If the main goal is to save as much money as long as I can without jeopardizing the user experience to the 6 plus level in Semtember 2019, how many years maximum can I use my iphone 7 plus to watch youtube and chat discord until the speed of the 7 plus will be deteriorating to the level of iphone 6 plus in 2019? Can I use it for 4-5 more years for my iphone 7 plus to watch youtube at current reaction speeds?

[aisle9]

Until Apple decides it's time for you to upgrade and gimps the 7.

[emosun]

my phone is 6 years old and watches youtube just fine , so I'd recommend android i suppose

[erlandssonjt]

I would say the same thing, until apple drops the 7 plus iOS updates, when? Not in a while I think. But the good parts is that battery replacement is really affordable on the iPhone 7 Plus witch would be the first problem you encounter. 

[DrMacintosh]

The iPhone 7 will likely see another 2 years of iOS updates. You should essentially only replace an iPhone once they can no longer receive iOS updates. 

[DrMacintosh]

36 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

Until Apple decides it's time for you to upgrade and gimps the 7.

What’s the last iPhone that was seriously gimped by an iOS update? The iPhone 4s? 

 

The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus are from 2015 and are still extremely fast phones and can run iOS 13 perfectly. Is 4 years of feature updates and performance improvements considered “gimping” these days?

[columbusohio]

2 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

What’s the last iPhone that was seriously gimped by an iOS update? The iPhone 4s? 

 

The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus are from 2015 and are still extremely fast phones and can run iOS 13 perfectly. Is 4 years of feature updates and performance improvements considered “gimping” these days?

Excellent point, Not the 6s plus is terribly slow, but everytime you load any app, there would be a painful duration of loading time until the youtube app becomes usable. The pausation duration is so long comparing to the iphone 7 plus it essentially is randered unable to switch back to after using iphone 7 plus. As of now I have not felt any of that leg on the 6 plus on my current 7 plus, but I concur with the 5-6 ios support replacement schedule. 

[Zodiark1593]

If you're looking to save money, trust me, don't look at anything newer, or reviews, or even play with demo devices/friend's devices. Pretty much, the phone in your hand is the only phone that matters. Only consider doing any of the above when you feel your current device doesn't fulfill your needs.

 

As for maximum useful life (as in, before speed impacts basic usage), who knows. The A10 was a pretty substantial bump from the A9 (in more than just performance), and you have 3 GB of RAM in your model. Considering the current XR also has 3 GB, I doubt RAM will be the limiting factor for some time.

[BakaPetra]

16 hours ago, huilun02 said:

Battery dies (they all eventually die. But this affects endurance and not actual performance.

The iPhones downlock themself when the battery's condition is bad.

[Commodus]

1 hour ago, huilun02 said:

IIRC the downclock can be disabled by the user?

Yes, it can -- that fracas over CPU throttling ultimately led Apple to implement a choice.  You can decide if you value speed or stability.

[BakaPetra]

7 hours ago, huilun02 said:

IIRC the downclock can be disabled by the user?

I did not know that, the last iPhone I used was the 6S with iOS 9