February 8, 2024
Improve Your iPhone with Tips and Tricks, so you may not have to upgrade. Based on your model, we tell you in this article whether you should upgrade.
Here are upgrades you can do to your existing phone.
Battery
Check first on your battery health, go to Settings, tap Battery then Battery Health if it has extensive wear it will indicate a new Battery is advisable. Replacement – go to the Apple Support Page and select Start A Battery Replacement to find out where it can be done locally. You can do it yourself but unless you have experience of iPhone hardware, it’s not advisable.
Replace Cracked Screen
A lot of businesses offer low-cost iPhone screen repair or screen replacement.
But be careful because you could end up voiding your warranty from Apple and losing all the support and benefits it offers. If you are near an Apple store best to get them to do the replacement.
Whilst the standard warranty won’t cover the repair, the advantage of having Apple fix your phone is that Apple stores can replace iPhone screens without having to send your phone out for service, so you’ll get your phone back in no time.
Clean your phone
A good cleaning can help your iPhone look and performance. The speakers can collect dirt and grit, so clean either with a soft brush dipped in rubbing alcohol (not water) or compressed air held a foot away.
If your iPhone won’t charge or only when it’s plugged into a specific charging port, cleaning the charging/lightning port may resolve the issue using compressed air, a mini vac, toothpick (careful not to damage the pins). or even a Post-it Note (cute the note into strips narrower than the port and use the sticky side to remove loose debris).
Before you have any repairs done to your phone, back up to the iCloud – Settings > (your name) > iCloud > iCloud Backup and turn on iCloud backup.
Upgrade iCloud Storage
iCloud storage lets you store big files in the cloud and keep just what you need on your phone.
You can upgrade your storage to iCloud+ which you pay for and can do via Settings-iCloud-Manage Storage (or iCloud Storage).
The benefits include:
iCloud Private Relay: This is a VPN-style feature that routes all of your web browsing traffic through an Apple server and a third-party server. By adding two additional steps between you and the websites you’re visiting, Apple can partially anonymize your traffic, protect user privacy, and prevent tracking and data gathering. A VPN hides your actual IP address making you more difficult to track
Hide My Email: This feature generates disposable, anonymous email addresses that you can use to sign up for services and accounts without providing your actual, personally identifiable, trackable email address. It’s another way that Apple is helping users stop themselves from being tracked and monitored. Apple delivers the anonymized emails to your actual email address without sharing your information.
Should I Upgrade my iPhone
Most advise that if you have an iPhone 12 or older, then it’s worth upgrading, especially as you may not get the same support. Newer iPhones typically receive software updates for a longer period.
The very latest iPhone is the 15 model and has a significant upgrade to almost every aspect. The 15 offers a bigger and brighter screen that includes the Dynamic Island – a status and alert box that never leaves the home screen, grows to fit what it shows and only disappears for full screen activities.
The 15’s performance—especially on the Pro models—is much faster, making it better for games and other processor-intensive tasks. Much has been made of the titanium casing which makes it lighter.
The camera system is night-and-day better (48-megapixel images vs. the 12 Pro’s 12-megapixel photos, plus much-improved night photography) and you can change pictures to portrait mode after a picture is taken, and there’s more storage to hold those photos.
If you have an iPhone 13 or 14 then you need to decide whether it’s worth it based on how you use the phone. Main difference from the 13 is the camera which delivers higher resolution images, better night photography and more zoom options. If that’s not important, what you will get is slightly better battery life, brighter screen outdoors and a bit lighter. iPhone 14 upgrade is harder to justify – few nice options with the camera, a slightly faster processor and marginally lighter.
Hope that all helps and if you have the latest iPhone, tell us what you like most or if you have any tips.
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