My grandmother still uses an iPad 2nd gen. Mainly because she's 97 and has dementia, and we taught her how to use facetime a decade ago, and it's all she knows how to do on it. It works for her needs, although the battery is completely shot so remains plugged in and we've since fixed it to the wall in front of her living room chair so it doesn't go missing.
Not quite as old but my Mum's still using an iPhone 5s from around 2014 which she had from new. She's not into apps so again, works fine for her as she doesn't need to be able to install anything. Thankfully homekit is still working on this and she's able to use it to tell siri to open the garage when she gets home.
Obviously these are very much edge cases, you can't find many apps in the app store still working on these older models.
I myself only upgraded from an iPhone 7 this September when the 14 came out. I'd had the battery replaced by Apple last year as it was a free recall thing which did massively improve its performance but it did eventually become too much of a pain in the arse to keep using.
I've got an old iPhone 5 which I keep for use as an occasional wifi hotspot too.
I used an iPhone 4s from 2011 until end of 2018. Probably most remarkably, I never put a case or any kind of screen protector on it. The thing was still practically scratch free when I stopped using it. It’s still sitting in a drawer next to me.
Me. I used an iPhone 8 until just recently when I finally gave up on TouchID coming back to flagships and got an iPhone 14 Pro. It lasted fine through three battery replacements, and I expect my new phone to last me for at least 5-6 years as well.
I upgraded my phone with the Black Friday sales... it was an iPhone 7 that I had gotten in 2016.
Eight years would be a bit long, but 6 years certainly isn't (the reason for my upgrade was that the battery wouldn't hold a charge for a full day and the "get a new phone" vs "upgrade the battery" was one I went with the new phone).
I don't find that claim dubious at all. We have an Android phone which has been in continuous use for probably around 10 years (I don't know exactly how many years, but it came with Android 2.x); I don't see why it would be any harder for an Apple phone to live as long.
>>You can't even run WhatsApp on a 6S, which is just 7 years old
This is simply wrong.
My wife's still has her IPhone 6S and she absolutely loves it. We are able to take advantage of Apple free battery replacement program a couple of years ago. She doesn't see the need to upgrade to new phones as Whatsapp, Facebook, Insta and Google Maps etc. work just fine on her device.
I, on the other hand, have gone through several Android Flagship products in this period.
