Exactly this - my youngest is still using an iPhone 6s which is running the latest (iOS 15) version just fine, after only one battery update. We bought it in 2015.
Same here. While I am not a fan of Apple because of the recent privacy debacle, my iPhone 6S is still working from 2014. I just updated it to the latest iOS 15 last night too. Other than the battery, everything else works fine in it.
My mother has my old 2015 iPhone 6s. It runs latest iOS 15. Got a new battery at an apple store in under an hour mid last year. Looks like it just came out of the box.
I bought a 6s in 2015. I kept it until earlier this year, replaces the battery for $29, bought an Apple battery case and gave it to my son. It runs the latest OS and is still faster than most midrange Android phones coming out this year.
I'm still using an iPhone 11 Pro that I bought used, it's now almost 5 years old and still very, very usable. I did have the battery replaced about a year ago, but unless I break it/loose it, but I can see myself using it until Apple stops making OS updates for it. Even then, they seem decent at pushing out security fixes for old phones (I believe the 6s got a patch recently even though it's 2 versions behind the latest version).
That's still an 6 year old phone, do you consider this long or short? Generally Apple are extremely good at keeping their devices usable.
I used an iPhone 4 up until late last year, my dad is still using it. Now I upgraded to an iPhone 5s.
The annoying part is generally apps that require a higher OS, which is the app developers fault. But even then you don't always necessarily /need/ the absolute newest version of an app.
I'm still using the iPhone 6s that I bought in 2015, and it's practically as good as new. It's still using the original battery, which doesn't seem to hold charge for as long anymore, but even so, it's doing remarkably well.
My iPhone 6s is still working fine after 7th year birthday. It had under warranty battery + screen replacement at the end of 2nd Year, followed by a battery swap at 4th year. Around 2% pixels are dead, but the phone still works as expected. It has 4G, so data speed is also not an issue. No lag whatsoever. All my apps continue to work. I have come across only ONE generative-image app, which failed to install claiming need iOS 16+.
Now I am actively waiting for this hardware to FAIL so I can justify myself buying a latest model. :)
Apple product lifetimes are pretty good. iPhone 6s (2015, 8 years) still gets security updates, iPhone 8 (2017, 6 years) only now will stop getting new feature updates. The current trajectory seems to be supporting older models for even longer. If the device is not physically damaged beyond repair, you can just keep on using it.
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