On the same day that Apple announced the new iPhone 11, Pro and Pro Max, I went to my local Apple Store to trade in my four-year-old iPhone 6s for last year’s iPhone XR. You may recall that I posted a video last October that I wasn’t pre-ordering the iPhone XR to upgrade my iPhone 6s. Sprint wasn’t offering any great deals. Not then, not now. My choices were pre-ordering the iPhone XR for $750 USD or keeping my iPhone 6s for another year. Fast forward a year later… Why did I trade in my iPhone 6s for the iPhone XR and not the newer iPhone 11?
There are three reasons why I traded in my iPhone 6s for the iPhone XR this year.
Apple Had A Better Deal
With Apple offering a $100 USD trade-in value for the iPhone 6s, and discounting the iPhone XR by $150 USD, I could get a brand new iPhone for $500 USD. Not only was that a $250 USD savings over last year’s price, $500 USD was a number that I felt comfortable paying for out of pocket. I could have gotten the iPhone 11 for $600 USD, but that extra $100 USD would have impacted other financial priorities for this month.
iPhone XR/11 Are The Same
While the iPhone 11 has slightly newer hardware specs for cameras, processor and wireless, it’s not that different from the iPhone XR. Because the iPhone 11 is the newer iPhone, it may have issues on release that Apple will have to fix in time. Since the iPhone XR has been out for nearly a year, every issue that it had upon release is already fixed in iOS. If you got the iPhone XR last year, there’s no reason to get the iPhone 11 this year. Unless you want one of the new colors that the iPhone 11 comes in.
If the iPhone 11 purple was in a very, very dark shade of purple, say, eggplant purple, I would have paid an extra $100 USD for that. I paid $200 extra for the black MacBook when it first came out in 2006. A great laptop that I used for eight years before Apple dropped support for 32-bit processors. The iPhone 11 purple was a washed-out pastel purple. I got the iPhone XR in Product (RED) since I’ve always wanted this color and it supports a good cause.
Needed A New iPhone Now
After having the iPhone 6s for four years, I wasn’t going to wait another 10 days to pay an extra $100 to test the iPhone 11 for Apple. Apple, if you want to sponsor my channel, follow me on Twitter and send me a DM. I have the iPhone XR for five days and I absolutely love the larger screen, faster performance and reliable Face ID. The only hiccup that I had was with the Apple Card not appearing in the Wallet on the iPhone XR. After I updated iOS to version 12.4.1, the Apple Card appeared in the Wallet and everything was fine.
If you still have an iPhone 6s after so many years, now is a good time to upgrade to the iPhone XR, or the iPhone 11 if you want to become an unpaid product tester for Apple.