I have owned ten iPhones. The first was the iPhone 4 in 2010. The current one is the iPhone 16 Pro in 2026. In between, I have owned or used: 4S, 5, 6, 6S, 8, X, 11, 13, 15, and the current 16 Pro. I have skipped: 5C, SE (all generations), XR, 12, 14.
Ten years of one product line is enough to develop opinions. This is what I have learned about iPhones, about the people who buy them, and about the specific things that matter when you are deciding whether to upgrade.
The upgrade pattern
I upgrade every two to three years. The pattern is consistent enough that I can predict it. The new iPhone comes out in September. I evaluate whether the changes matter for my use case. If they do, I upgrade. If they do not, I wait.
The years I upgraded:
- 2010: iPhone 4 (first iPhone)
- 2012: iPhone 5
- 2014: iPhone 6
- 2016: iPhone 6S
- 2018: iPhone 8 (then X in November)
- 2020: iPhone 11
- 2022: iPhone 13
- 2024: iPhone 15
- 2026: iPhone 16 Pro (current)
The years I skipped:
- 2013: iPhone 5S (incremental)
- 2015: iPhone 6S (held onto 6 for an extra year)
- 2017: iPhone 7 and 8 (held onto 6S, then got 8 in 2018)
- 2019: iPhone 11 (held onto X for an extra year)
- 2021: iPhone 12 (held onto 11 for an extra year)
- 2023: iPhone 14 (held onto 13 for an extra year)
- 2025: iPhone 15 (held onto 14 for an extra year)
The pattern is that I upgrade when there is a meaningful change in form factor or capability, and skip when the upgrade is incremental.
The iPhones that mattered
A few iPhones in the last decade were genuinely transformative. The rest were refinements.
iPhone 4 (2010). The first iPhone that felt like a finished product. The glass back, the stainless steel frame, the retina display. The design language Apple returned to with the iPhone 12. The phone I miss most, aesthetically. The phone that was also the first to have the "antennagate" controversy. The phone that taught me that Apple was not infallible.
iPhone 5 (2012). The first iPhone with a taller screen (4 inches, from 3.5). Felt radical at the time. Now feels impossibly small. The aluminum back was the high point of Apple industrial design for a generation.
iPhone 6 (2014). The first iPhone with a "big" screen (4.7 inches). The first iPhone that felt like a media consumption device. The "bendgate" controversy was overblown. The phone that sold more than any previous iPhone.
iPhone X (2017). The first iPhone with Face ID, no home button, and an OLED display. The design language that persisted through the iPhone 13. The phone that established the current form factor. The most consequential iPhone since the original.
iPhone 11 Pro (2019). The first iPhone with a triple camera system and the matte glass back. The camera system was the most significant improvement in years. The phone that established the camera-focused iteration cycle of subsequent models.
iPhone 13 Pro (2021). The first iPhone with ProMotion (120Hz display) and the macro camera. The phone that made the Pro line feel meaningfully different from the standard line. The phone I would still recommend to most people today.
iPhone 16 Pro (2026). The first iPhone with the Apple Intelligence system on a sustained basis. The most significant software change in years. The phone I am still evaluating.
A row of iPhones from different generations lined up side by side, illustrating the decade of design evolution
What changed and what did not
The iPhone in 2026 is dramatically more capable than the iPhone in 2010. The screen is bigger, the camera is better, the processor is faster, the storage is larger. The list of capabilities that did not exist in 2010 and exist now is long: Face ID, wireless charging, water resistance, 5G, computational photography, ProMotion displays, Apple Intelligence.
The list of capabilities that did not change meaningfully in ten years is shorter but interesting:
The phone still makes phone calls. The quality has improved, but the function is the same. The "phone" part of the smartphone has not been the focus of innovation in a decade.
The battery still lasts a day. The battery life has improved, but the fundamental pattern — charge every night, last the day — has not changed. The battery technology has not had the breakthrough that some expected.
The home screen is still a grid of icons. iOS 26 added more customization, but the basic layout has been the same since 2007. The home screen is one of the most stable interfaces in consumer technology.
The user has to manage storage. Cloud storage has improved, but the user still has to delete photos, the to clear caches, and occasionally say yes to the "storage almost full" notification. This has been true for ten years.
The thing I miss about the iPhone 4
The iPhone 4 is the phone I have the most affection for, even though it is the oldest iPhone I have owned. The reasons are mostly physical.
The iPhone 4 was the last iPhone that fit in a hand comfortably. The flat sides, the small screen, the weight that felt substantial without being heavy. The phone felt like an object. The current iPhones feel like screens.
The camera, by the standards of 2026, was terrible. By the standards of 2010, it was the best camera in any phone. The photos have a quality I cannot reproduce with current iPhones — slightly soft, slightly warm, slightly analog. The computational photography in current iPhones produces technically superior photos that look more like what the scene actually was. The iPhone 4 photos look more like what the scene felt like.
The phone was also repairable. The battery could be replaced. The screen could be replaced. The back could be replaced. The current iPhones are designed to be replaced, not repaired. The 2026 iPhone is, in environmental terms, less durable than the 2010 iPhone.
What actually matters when deciding to upgrade
After ten years of iPhone ownership, the variables that actually determine whether to upgrade are not what the keynote emphasizes.
The camera. The camera is the variable that has improved most consistently across iPhone generations. If photography is important, the upgrade is justified. The improvements from generation to generation are small, but the improvements across two or three generations are significant.
The battery. The battery degrades over time. After two to three years, the battery life is meaningfully worse than when the phone was new. The upgrade is sometimes a battery replacement, sometimes a new phone. If the phone is otherwise working well, the battery replacement is the better choice.
The form factor. The form factor is the variable that has changed least. The iPhone 12 through iPhone 16 Pro are essentially the same shape, with minor variations. The form factor is not a reason to upgrade.
The software. The software is the variable that changes most independently of the hardware. The iPhone 13 will get iOS 26 with most of the same features as the iPhone 16 Pro. Some features (Apple Intelligence, ProMotion) are hardware-gated. Most are not.
The price. The price has crept up across generations. The iPhone 16 Pro starts at €1,299. The iPhone 4 started at €599 (adjusted for inflation, around €750 in 2026 dollars). The price increase has been steeper than the inflation rate. The upgrade is a more expensive decision than it was.
The surprising thing about the iPhone
The most surprising thing about ten years of iPhone ownership is how little the day-to-day experience has changed.
The iPhone in 2010 was a phone, a music player, a camera, a web browser, and a messaging device. The iPhone in 2026 is the same list with additions — the additions being video calling, mobile payments, navigation, ride-sharing, food delivery, and various app categories that did not exist in 2010. The additions are real. The core functions are unchanged.
The phone in 2010 made me feel like I had a powerful new tool. The phone in 2026 makes me feel like I have a familiar tool that does more things. The novelty is gone. The utility is high.
This is true of most consumer technology. The first iteration is transformative. The subsequent iterations are incremental. The cumulative effect of the increments is significant. The user experience of each individual increment is small.
The iPhone 4 to the iPhone 16 Pro is sixteen years of small increments. The total change is enormous. The change between any two consecutive models is small. The upgrade decision is, in most cases, a decision about whether the small increment is worth the price.
What I would tell someone considering an upgrade
A few pieces of advice, based on ten years of being the person who upgrades every two to three years.
Wait until your current phone is actively frustrating you. The time to upgrade is when the phone you have is no longer doing what you need. The time to not upgrade is when the phone you have is fine but the new one is exciting.
The Pro models are worth the premium if you use the camera. The Pro models have meaningfully better cameras than the standard models. If photography is important, the Pro is the right choice. If photography is not important, the standard model is the right choice.
The base storage is no longer enough. The base storage on the iPhone 16 Pro is 128 GB. For most people, 256 GB is the minimum. The upgrade is worth the €100.
Skip the first generation of a new form factor. The first generation of a new form factor (iPhone X, iPhone 12 with the new design) usually has issues that get fixed in the second generation. The second generation is usually the better buy.
Trade in the old one. Apple's trade-in program reduces the price of the new phone. The trade-in value decreases over time. The trade-in is most valuable if done within two years of the purchase.
Do not buy the most expensive case. The case is to protect the phone. The case does not need to be expensive. Apple cases are overpriced. Third-party cases from reputable brands (Spigen, OtterBox, Casetify) are better and cheaper.
The honest summary
Ten iPhones in ten years is too many. I am aware of this. I am also unlikely to change the pattern, because the iPhone is the device I use most, and the incremental improvements are worth the cost to me.
The advice I would give is to upgrade every three to four years rather than every two to three. The incremental improvements between consecutive iPhones are smaller than the marketing suggests. The cumulative improvement across three to four years is larger.
The phone you have is probably better than you think. The phone on the market is probably not as much better as the marketing suggests. The truth is in the middle.
I am typing this on an iPhone 16 Pro. The next upgrade will be the iPhone 18 or 19, in 2028 or 2029. The pattern will continue. The phones will get better. The difference will be smaller.