How could I not listen to the latest episode of the Wirecutter podcast? I’ll say that their heart is in the right place, but as with other tech reviews they seem to simplify things too much, and risk sounding uninformed or giving slightly misguided advice. In any case, having done almost no research myself, I wholly agree with the iPhone 17 being their top pick in the 2025 lineup (but more on that in a future post, because I’ve done some research), for very similar reasons to theirs.
But then of course it’s the words that sometimes rub me the wrong way:
BRENDA: The iPhone Air I think is a design-first phone. Definitely if you want something lighter, but I think as the first-gen model, it’s very much for tech enthusiasts at this point. Someone who wants to try something new and really doesn’t care that they’re losing out on an extra camera or a bigger battery. They just want to have this new shiny thing. It’s just a cool phone. I really can’t think of another reason. You have to know that if you’re buying this phone, you’re going to attract attention.
I see we’re using design to mean “all flash and no substance”. Cool, good job educating the public.
CHRISTINE: iPhones have gotten really, really expensive. Whenever I look at the price and I’m thinking about upgrading, I’m like, “Nope.” What is the cost of these phones?
Okay, true, these aren’t cheapo phones, and once you add Apple Care (there’s no reason not to add it), a charger (if you don’t have one), and a case (if you have jelly fingers), plus tax where applicable, the final cost of an iPhone over its lifetime is fairly substantial. But this is where the expert should have stepped in with some numbers other than the prices of the current phones. Not a whole dissertation on 18 years of iPhone pricing, but definitely a couple of data points to show that:
- Even the manufacturer-suggested retail price of the original iPhone ($499), when adjusted for inflation, corresponded to $760 in 2024 (assuming the data from Android Authority is correct), which isn’t much cheaper than today’s iPhone 17 or last year’s iPhone 16 (but see what you get for that price, 18 years later)
- What Android Authority doesn’t say is that the listed price for the first several years of iPhone models is usually the carrier-subsidized price, not the full price, which will easily fool people into thinking that an entry-level, 16GB iPhone 6 in 2014 really cost $199, while in fact it cost $649. So the inflation-adjusted price in 2024 would have been a whopping $975 (again, assuming the numbers in that article are correct). Mashable in 2021 had a whole infographic with the real prices—although, for some reason, they also fall for the fallacy of older models being “a lot less expensive than the current models. Ah, the good ol’ days” 🤷♂️
So, yeah, Wirecutter is doing its listeners a disservice by not mentioning that the cost of a new entry-level iPhone, in today’s dollars, may have actually gone down, while its intrinsic value (capabilities, durability, etc.) has skyrocketed.
Then there are some questionable assessments:
BRENDA: […] I will say if you have an older model, maybe the iPhone 13 at this point and it’s just really struggling, then it’s worth looking into what your trade-in options are or looking into upgrading. But there are multiple ways that you can keep your current phone running smoothly without immediately jumping to an upgrade.
Brenda should have tried an iPhone 13 before saying “maybe”. I have an iPhone 12 Pro that’s not really struggling at all. Maybe it doesn’t feel like it did in 2020, but regardless of all the shit that Apple gets about planned obsolescence, if even someone like me hasn’t found a good reason to upgrade his iPhone in five years, older models may still be usable without too much struggle. But yes, absolutely, milking some remaining value out of an older model is always a good idea.
About those “multiple ways” to keep an old iPhone running smoothly, it turns out it’s really only one: upgrading to iOS 26. And okay, everyone will have their own opinion on aesthetics, but I wish they all read some commentary before saying stuff like this:
BRENDA: […] I think one of the biggest changes is the liquid glass interface. The best way to describe it is it’s like this transparent glass-like look to your phone. It’s nice. It’s a nice change, it feels more fluid.
I’ve linked and written enough already about this, so I’ll just 🤦♂️ But here’s the potentially bad advice:
BRENDA: You should always update for better performance, enhanced security, protection against vulnerabilities. And I mean, the new features are fun too. You don’t want to be that person who’s like, why isn’t this loading? Or why isn’t this working? And it’s like, well, which iOS are you on?
First of all, iOS 18 is not going anywhere yet. Apple provides security support for the two most recent major releases of iOS, and occasionally still fixes vulnerabilities on older versions too. This is to say there’s no need to jump on iOS 26 immediately. Second, the initial release of a new major version often does not make the device feel faster or more performant, and it takes at least a patch release or two for older devices to catch up and feel snappier. Of course I’ve been running iOS 26 betas since July, but I wouldn’t want to inflict that on anyone else. Some of the new features are fun, some are so useful that they occasionally make me forget that Liquid Glass is an abomination, but I’ll give my friends and family a few weeks before I start nagging them to upgrade.