My iPhone 5 battery is struggling and I just cracked the glass (small chip out of the side and crack in the screen) so I'm thinking about making a change.

Just to keep life simple, I'd like to stay with an iPhone and with AT&T. Looking for the most cost effective way to move from our old 5s to at least an 8.

Options:
> Wait and see if prices go down as we get closer to Christmas
> Just walk into Best Buy or an AT&T store and bite the bullet.
> Go with the Apple plan where you can upgrade every year. (Not sure I fully understand this option - anyone have it figured out??)

My wife and I have a few apps we use but it's mostly phone, check email, text and photos.

Hate to open a big debate but should we switch to an android phone - are they cheaper??? My impression is that group texts (gotta include other family members on most of the texts) are easier on iPhones. Is that true?

oh, I've already called AT&T and talked with the retention department. T-mobile is running a special = buy one iPhone 8 and get one free. AT&T has a buy one and get one free if you open a new line. Well we don't need a new line. (That additional line costs at least $480 over the mandatory 30 month period.)

I usually upgrade every 12-18 months, but I just buy the phone instead of the Apple or carrier annual upgrade plan.

With the upgrade plan, you pay half the phone cost and trade it in. I buy it outright, and when I upgrade I sell it myself, usually get about 70% back

Example, got the iPhone 7 for $625. Once I pay $315 off I can trade it in and not owe the other $315, start payments over with the next phone. Or I can pay off the remaining $315 and then sell it for $425-$450.

My wife's 5S has been struggling. She looked at the price of the 8 and the X and ended up buying a used 7 128gb for a little over $400.

quote:

She looked at the price of the 8 and the X and ended up buying a used 7 128gb for a little over $400.

My wife's is too....
Where did she find it? Craigslist?

Price won't go down anytime soon on the 8 or X.

ATT offers what is basically a no interest loan on purchasing new phones and spreads the payment out over 12 or 20 months.

I'd buy a refurbished 7 in your situation.

I briefly went Android and immediately went back to Apple almost solely because I missed iMessage. Most of my friends and nearly all my coworkers are Apple. iMessage is VASTLY superior to the Android messaging apps, especially when it comes to sending photos or videos.

quote:

Originally posted by SR:
> Go with the Apple plan where you can upgrade every year. (Not sure I fully understand this option - anyone have it figured out??)

The Apple plan allows you to upgrade every year BUT you're signing a new contract every time you upgrade AND turning in your existing phone. If you wait two years you keep the old phone, because you've actually paid it off, and either keep it and your service or start a new contract on a new phone.

quote:

Originally posted by SR:
oh, I've already called AT&T and talked with the retention department. T-mobile is running a special = buy one iPhone 8 and get one free. AT&T has a buy one and get one free if you open a new line. Well we don't need a new line. (That additional line costs at least $480 over the mandatory 30 month period.)

T-Mobile's coverage is terrible!!! Sure it is cheap but I don't get very good reception in a lot of buildings.

I'll be making my way back to Sprint most likely when I pay off these phones in a couple months.

Chellim1, she found it on EBay.

I doubt iPhone 8 or X will go down in price until XI comes out or gets near. Two years?

T Mobile, and I'd assume the other major carriers are still selling new iPhone 7s. $650 for the 128GB model which you can purchase over 24 months no interest. $122 down and $22 month. Or iPhone 8 base mode 64gb for $700 or pay over 24 months at 0 down and $29 month.

The 8 looked pretty nice when I handled it in the Apple store.

Go with whichever carrier gives the best coverage in your area and offers plans that fit your needs. In my neck of the woods, T-Mobile is great. On a recent trip to Galveston, we never lost coverage the entire 5 hour drive even in some pretty rural areas. But I get it that it might not be the same in all states or cities.

I have had the 8 for a couple months. I like it and it is very comparable with the 6S. No need to jump to the x unless it is comparable in price.

5SE.

I got the 64 mb version of the 6SE and it does everything I need it to do. About the only significant improvement in the 8 is the Camera. As for the 7, pretty close to the older SE but a bit larger and available with 128 mb of memory instead of 64 mb max. In your place I would advise you get the Iphone 7.

BTW, I have about 120 CD's loaded on my SE and all that music only consumes about 20 mb of memory. Found out that if you reboot the Iphone with Imusic running when you restart the Iphone Imusic will go into a shuffle play mode for the entire songlist loaded on the phone. Makes for many many hours of very interesting listening when you have a mix of Pop, Country, Jazz, Rock, and Classical all playing at random. Today on the way to work I was treated to Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto #1 followed by by Deep Purple's "Lazy" off the Machine Head album. BTW, if you have a Bluetooth radio in your car you can set it up to play the music you have loaded on our phone automatically as soon as you start the car.

PS, the cameras in these phones have gotten rather good for wide vista pics and it's really easy to pile up a huge array of pics on your phone without ever thinking about a backup. The Iphone actually makes in rather simple to copy all your pictures to a laptop or home computer just by using the USB cable and doing a drag and drop for all the image files to a folder on your computer. Tip here is to make sure you back up your pics at regular intervals. As for your Contact list, notes, and reminders, these are low memory usage items so just use the free Icloud service to back these up automatically because your contact list would have to number many thousands to even start to make a dent in the 5mb that is available at no cost. BTW, if you haven't set up an Icloud Account for your Iphone 5 do that before you get the new phone. Because copying all of your contacts, notes, etc. will take several hours at a phone store. If you have everything in the cloud as soon as your phone is activated it will start downloading from the cloud in the background over a few hours as you do other things.

PSS; yeah I'm a fan of Apple Products. Bought Apple stock in 2001 after the Ipod became such a hit and since then I've see a 7 for 1 split and an increase in the stock value a bit over 20X.