I broke my one rule. I wasn’t supposed to upgrade any of my three main gadgets this year. But I got a new glass rectangle from Apple. I went from the iPhone 12 mini all the way up to the…12 Pro. Yes, I bought another 12-series; it’s four years old. No, I didn’t swing the pendulum from the mini to the Pro Max like I thought I would.
Buying Used
I purchased my phone from Amazon Renewed. This is the sixth refurbished iPhone I’ve bought this way. And like four of the previous five times, this experience was ideal. Note the one weird instance just last month when I had to return an iPhone 13 mini because it was made for a foreign region with feature restrictions. (The return was easy and I got a full refund.)
I chose a “Renewed - Excellent” condition phone and got exactly that. My iPhone 12 Pro is indeed excellent — it’s almost like new. The stainless steel band is almost impeccable (save for one small scuff I didn’t notice at first) and came with a polished mirror shine. The back glass is perfect. The front glass is 99% pristine (there’s a tiny micro-scratch you must look for to find and can’t see or feel in normal usage). The camera lens covers: perfect. All buttons and mute switch: might as well be new. Even the Lightning charge port was free of pocket lint. It’s in impressive shape, especially for a four-year old phone.
Most importantly, the very first thing I checked was the model number reference. It’s an American market iPhone. Fist-pump! And the battery health is at a relatively decent 84%.
The only real strike against this particular refurb order is that instead of the listed 2-day Prime shipping, it got delayed an additional two days. It arrived at the revised time once I was notified about the delay. No big deal. But it was a bit frustrating since, you know, I pay for Prime and expected the initial two-day shipping time as originally listed. Stuff happens though.
Going Pro
The iPhone 12 Pro is a flagship Apple phone. Sure, it’s a four-year old flagship, but it’s still a flagship. And this being my first ever Pro iPhone, it feels every bit of premium one would imagine. I’m struck by how nice and solid it is, even compared to the 12 mini I upgraded from. The matte glass on back contrasted by the crystal-clear glass camera housing and mirrored stainless steel band is superb. Bling!
Despite being “used” or “pre-owned,” it’s in super clean shape and is fully-functional. The NFC chip, the speakers (which are surprisingly louder and clearer than the 12 mini), and the cameras all work perfectly.
Staying Old
So the iPhone I bought is used, pro, and also old. How or why did I choose it among other options? Is it wise — a good investment — to buy four-year-old used tech for hundreds of dollars? I wrestled with that question while also juggling my wants versus needs. I had the cash to buy a newer and flashier iPhone, which would have been objectively better and given me more features I liked.
That said, I simply couldn’t shake my thrifty budget; something inside me wouldn’t let that go. I had to spend less, staying under a certain threshold. It felt wrong to compromise on price for fancy features that I don’t really need. I could have at least justified spending more to get an iPhone with better battery life. Yet I still couldn’t do it because, honestly, the meager battery health I had with my 12 mini was fine; I managed. In other words, it was enough.
With that, after considering other used iPhones at different price points and feature-sets, I realized a plain fact. All the iPhones from the 12-series and up are all basically the same. And they’re all great. And they do all the Apple ecosystem things one would need to fully-function within the walled-garden designed in California (ignoring the newly released Apple Intelligence).
The 12 Pro, while not using a newer A-series chip, at least has 6GB RAM instead of the 4GB my 12 mini had. It should have two or three more years of official support. So I chose a great phone at a good price within my budget. An excellent renewed 2020 iPhone 12 Pro with 256GB storage for $400. Not half-bad.
Summary
Here’s the real kicker. Part of my drive to upgrade now was killing three birds with one stone. For that $400, I upgraded not only my iPhone but also two of my sons’ iPhones. That’s three iPhone upgrades for $400.
I got the 12 Pro. My 16-year old got my 12 mini (which he paid for with $100 of his cash from his job, letting me use just $300 of mine), and my 12-year old got my 16-year old’s iPhone SE2 (it’s his first phone that, for now, is only a pocket-iPad for Duolingo and iMessaging family members).
But wait, there’s a huge plot twist to this story.
This 12 Pro phone stuff occurred in late October, a week before my birthday. And while the refurb deal and the phone itself turned out great, I wish I had waited to buy until November. Why? Because the thing I thought surely would not happen…it happened! And it broke my brain. And you bet I’ll blog about it in the near future once I can wrap my head around it.
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