How obsolete is an iPhone 5?

[ffutures]

 I've been thinking about replacing my old iPhone 4S, which has a failing battery and other problems, but really don't need anything really advanced to replace it. The most obvious choice would be an iPhone 5S; as small as the 4S, a bit faster, and affordable - you can get one unlocked for around £70. The cheapest 6 is over £100. The apps I use work well enough on the 4S though a couple are a bit slow, and I gather the 5 is a bit faster.

Any good reasons (other than ooooh! Shiny!) why a 5S isn't a good idea?

Before anyone asks, I don't want to look at alternatives to Apple at this point - some of the apps I like don't work on anything else.

Comments

[autopope]

I'm pretty sure the 5S has fallen off the iOS upgrade ladder after iOS 12.x; we're now on iOS 13 with iOS 14 dropping in a month or two, and the 5S will definitely not run iOS 14.

Apple did release a security update patch for iOS 12.4.8 last week, but that's the last major version of the OS that the iPhone 5S -- or 6 and 6 plus -- will run.

My real reservations about a 5S at this point would be (a) security updates going forward, and (b) the camera (it's, politely, crap by modern standards). Remember that £30 extra in going from a 5S to a 6 ought to buy you a year of extra updates, and a fresher battery. Oh, and a much faster/more responsive TouchID sensor.

My current fallback/burner phone is my old iPhone 7 plus (which itself is a 4 year old model at this point).

[history_monk]

Seconding Autopope: the 5S is limited to iOS 12, and is unlikely to get more security updates.

You may have trouble with apps, too. Your 4S is 32-bit; iOS 11 and later will not run 32-bit apps, at all. So you'll need 64-bit versions of your apps, which should be no problem if they're widely-used, but obscure ones may not have been updated.

If you do go for the 5S, do it before iOS 14 comes out, because the round of app updates that will happen for that may prompt app vendors to drop support for iOS 12.

[ffutures]

That's a good point - thanks!

[autopope]

A strong rec, if you find the 5/5S form factor appealing, is to look for an iPhone SE. Same size as the 5 (until the most recent/early 2020 version), but much faster guts at a more affordable price.

[ffutures]

Following on from history_monk's comment, is the SE 32-bit or 64-bit? Wikipedia does not seem to explain this very well.

[ffutures]

Never mind - 64-bit. Many thanks, it looks like that's the one I ought to look at.

Agreed, you need a phone that's supported

[murphys_lawyer]

We've just gone through an upgrade-me-down cycle here, Herself picked up a previously owned one at a very reasonable price and no. 1 daughter's got herself's old phone, which means the really old and unsupported one can go onto the COVID-19 burner phone stack for the tracing app and a "spare" number to give places demanding them...

Android not iOS, but the same principle applies.

Re: Agreed, you need a phone that's supported

[ffutures]

What I will probably do is bung the old one onto Freecycle, since that's where it came from, once I'm sure that the replacement is OK.